Nahum 3
1 Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.
O city of blood, wholly false, full of unrighteousness; the prey shall not be handled.
2 The crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!
The noise of whips, and the noise of the rumbling of wheels, and of the pursuing horse, and of the bounding chariot,
3 Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over their dead—
and of the mounting rider, and of the glittering sword, and of the gleaming arms, and of a multitude of slain, and of heavy falling: and there was no end to her nations, but they shall be weak in their bodies
4 because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.
because of the abundance of fornication: [she is] a fair harlot, and well-favoured, skilled in sorcery, that sells the nations by her fornication, and peoples by her sorceries.
5 “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.
Behold, I am against you, says the Lord God Almighty, and I will uncover your skirts in your presence, and I will show the nations your shame, and the kingdoms your disgrace.
6 I will pelt you with filth and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.
And I will cast abominable filth upon you according to your unclean ways, and will make you a public example.
7 Then all who see you will recoil from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated; who will grieve for her?’ Where can I find comforters for you?”
And it shall be [that] every one that sees you shall go down from you, and shall say, Wretched Nineve! who shall lament for her? whence shall I seek comfort for her?
8 Are you better than Thebes, stationed by the Nile with water around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the water?
Prepare you a portion, tune the chord, prepare a portion for Ammon: she that dwells amongst the rivers, water is round about her, whose dominion is the sea, and whose walls are water.
9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were her allies.
And Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt; and there was no limit of the flight [of her enemies]; and the Libyans became her helpers.
10 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.
Yet she shall go as a prisoner into captivity, and they shall dash her infants against the ground at the top of all her ways: and they shall cast lots upon all her glorious [possessions], and all her nobles shall be bound in chains.
11 You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.
And you shall be drunken, and shall be overlooked; and you shall seek for yourself strength because of [your] enemies.
12 All your fortresses are fig trees with the first ripe figs; when shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater!
All your strongholds are as fig-trees having watchers: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Look at your troops— they are like your women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire consumes their bars.
Behold, your people within you are as women: the gates of your land shall surely be opened to your enemies: the fire shall devour your bars.
14 Draw your water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Work the clay and tread the mortar; repair the brick kiln!
Draw you water for a siege, and well secure your strongholds: enter into the clay, and be you trodden in the chaff, make [the fortifications] stronger than brick.
15 There the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down and consume you like a young locust. Make yourself many like the young locust; make yourself many like the swarming locust!
There the fire shall devour you; the sword shall utterly destroy you, it shall devour you as the locust, and you shall be pressed down as a palmerworm.
16 You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away.
You have multiplied your merchandise beyond the stars of heaven: the palmerworm has attacked [it], and has flown away.
17 Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where.
Your mixed [multitude] has suddenly departed as the grasshopper, as the locust perched on a hedge in a frosty day; the sun arises, and it flies off, and knows not its place: woe to them!
18 O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
Your shepherds have slumbered, the Assyrian king has laid low your mighty men: your people departed to the mountains, and there was none to receive [them].
19 There is no healing for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news of you applaud your downfall, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?
There is no healing for your bruise; your wound has rankled: all that hear the report of you shall clap their hands against you; for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?
