New Living Translation NLT
Wycliffe WYC
1 What sorrow awaits Nineveh, the city of murder and lies! She is crammed with wealth and is never without victims.
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Woe to the city of bloods, all of leasing, full of rending; raven shall not go away from thee. (Woe to the city of bloodshed, or to the murderous city, all of lies, full of tearing apart; all the spoils, or the prey, shall never be taken away from thee.)
2 Hear the crack of whips, the rumble of wheels! Horses’ hooves pound, and chariots clatter wildly.
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Voice of scourge, and voice of rush of wheel, and of horse making noise, and of [a] four-horsed cart burning, (The sound of the scourge, and the sound of the rush of wheels, and of horses making noise, and of charging carts with four horses,)
3 See the flashing swords and glittering spears as the charioteers charge past! There are countless casualties, heaps of bodies— so many bodies that people stumble over them.
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and of knight going up, and of shining sword, and glistening spear, and of [the] slain multitude, and of grievous falling, neither there is end of carrions. And they shall fall together in their bodies, (and of horsemen going up, or mounting, and of shining swords, and of glistening spears, and of the slain multitude, and of grievous falling, and there is no end of corpses. Yea, they shall altogether fall, or shall stumble, over all the bodies,)
4 All this because Nineveh, the beautiful and faithless city, mistress of deadly charms, enticed the nations with her beauty. She taught them all her magic, enchanting people everywhere.
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for the multitude of [the] fornications of the whore fair and pleasant, and having witchcrafts; which sold folks in her fornications, and families in her enchantments, either sorceries. (for the multitude of the fornications of Nineveh the whore, who is beautiful and pleasing, and useth witchcrafts; she who duped nations by her fornications, and families by her enchantments, or her sorceries.)
5 “I am your enemy!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “And now I will lift your skirts and show all the earth your nakedness and shame.
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Lo! I to thee, saith the Lord God of hosts; and I shall show thy shameful things in thy face; and I shall show to folks thy nakedness, and to realms thine evil fame, either shame. (Lo! I am against thee, saith the Lord God of hosts; and I shall show thy shameful, or thy private, parts in public; yea, I shall show thy nakedness to the nations, and thy shame to every kingdom.)
6 I will cover you with filth and show the world how vile you really are.
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And I shall cast out on thee thine abominations, and I shall punish thee with despites, and I shall put thee into ensample. (And I shall cast out upon thee thy abominations, and I shall punish thee with despising, and I shall make thee into an example.)
7 All who see you will shrink back and say, ‘Nineveh lies in ruins. Where are the mourners?’ Does anyone regret your destruction?”
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And it shall be, each man that shall see thee, shall leap away from thee, and shall say, Nineveh is destroyed. Who shall move head on thee? whereof shall I seek to thee a comforter? (And it shall be, that all who shall see thee, shall leap away from thee, and shall say, Nineveh is destroyed. Who shall shake their head in pity over thee? And now where shall I find a comforter for thee?)
8 Are you any better than the city of Thebes, situated on the Nile River, surrounded by water? She was protected by the river on all sides, walled in by water.
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Whether thou art better than Alexandria of peoples, that dwelleth in floods? Waters be in compass thereof, whose riches is the sea, waters be [the] walls thereof. (Art thou any better than Thebes, or No, of the peoples of Egypt, which is set by the river? Water is all around it, and its protection cometh from the sea, yea, the waters be its walls.)
9 Ethiopia and the land of Egypt gave unlimited assistance. The nations of Put and Libya were among her allies.
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Ethiopia is [the] strength thereof, and Egypt, and there is none end; Africa and Libya were in help thereof. (Ethiopia and Egypt were its strength, and there was no end to it's power; Africa and Libya were its helpers.)
10 Yet Thebes fell, and her people were led away as captives. Her babies were dashed to death against the stones of the streets. Soldiers threw dice to get Egyptian officers as servants. All their leaders were bound in chains.
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But and it in transmigration, or passing over, is led into captivity; the little children thereof be hurtled down in the head of all ways. And on the noble men thereof they cast lot, and all great men thereof be set together in gyves, either fetters. (But they were carried away into exile, and they were led off into captivity; its little children were hurtled down in the corners of all the streets. And they cast lots on its noble men, and all of its great men were placed in bonds, or in chains.)
11 And you, Nineveh, will also stagger like a drunkard. You will hide for fear of the attacking enemy.
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And thou therefore shalt be drunken, and shalt be despised, and thou shalt seek help (because) of the enemy.
12 All your fortresses will fall. They will be devoured like the ripe figs that fall into the mouths of those who shake the trees.
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All thy strongholds be as a fig tree, with his figs unripe (All thy fortresses be like fig trees, with their ripe figs); if they shall be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Your troops will be as weak and helpless as women. The gates of your land will be opened wide to the enemy and set on fire and burned.
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Lo! thy people be women in the middle of thee; the gates of thy land shall be showed to opening to thine enemies; fire shall devour thine hinges. (Lo! thy soldiers in thy midst be like women; the gates of thy land be wide open to thy enemies; and fire shall devour thy hinges.)
14 Get ready for the siege! Store up water! Strengthen the defenses! Go into the pits to trample clay, and pack it into molds, making bricks to repair the walls.
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Draw up to thee water for asieging, build thy strongholds; enter in[to] fen, and tread, thou undergoing hold a tilestone. (Draw up for thyselves water for the siege, and build up thy fortresses; enter into the clay, and tread it, and form some bricks.)
15 But the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down. The enemy will consume you like locusts, devouring everything they see. There will be no escape, even if you multiply like swarming locusts.
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There fire shall eat thee, thou shalt perish by sword, it shall devour thee, as bruchus doeth; be thou gathered together as a bruchus, be thou multiplied as a locust. (But even so, the fire shall still eat thee, and thou shalt perish by the sword, yea, it shall devour thee, like the bruchus doeth; be thou gathered together like the bruchuses, be thou multiplied like the locusts.)
16 Your merchants have multiplied until they outnumber the stars. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and fly away.
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Thou madest thy merchants more than be stars of heaven; a bruchus is spread abroad, and fly away. (Thou haddest more merchants, or more traders, than there be stars in the heavens; but now all of them be gone, like a bruchus that spreadeth its wings, and flieth away.)
17 Your guards and officials are also like swarming locusts that crowd together in the hedges on a cold day. But like locusts that fly away when the sun comes up, all of them will fly away and disappear.
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Thy keepers be as locusts, and thy little children be as locusts of locusts, which sit together in hedges in the day of cold; (then) the sun is risen, and they fled away, and the place of them is not known, where they were. (Thy lords be like the locusts, and thy chiefs be like the grasshoppers, which sit together in hedges on a cold day; then when the sun is risen, they flee away/they fly away, and the place where they have gone is not known.)
18 Your shepherds are asleep, O Assyrian king; your princes lie dead in the dust. Your people are scattered across the mountains with no one to gather them together.
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Thy shepherds nap, thou king (of) Assur, thy princes shall be buried; thy people oft was hid in hills, and there is not that shall gather. (Thy shepherds nap, O king of Assyria, yea, thy princes, or thy leaders, now be buried; thy people be hid in the hills, and there is no one who shall gather them together, and lead them home.)
19 There is no healing for your wound; your injury is fatal. All who hear of your destruction will clap their hands for joy. Where can anyone be found who has not suffered from your continual cruelty?
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Thy sorrow is not privy, thy wound is worst; all men that heard thine hearing pressed together hand on thee, for on whom passed not thy malice evermore? (Thy sorrow shall never be assuaged, thy wound is the very worst it could be; all those who heard of thy news, or of thy fate, clapped their hands for joy over thee, for upon whom did not fall thy unceasing malice?)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.