Nahum 3
1 A curse is on the town of blood; it is full of deceit and violent acts; and there is no end to the taking of life.
Woe to the bloody city! Full of lies and plunder, without end is the spoil.
2 The noise of the whip, and the noise of thundering wheels; horses rushing and war-carriages jumping,
Hear the crack of the whip, hear the rattle of wheels. Galloping horses, jolting chariots.
3 Horsemen driving forward, and the shining sword and the bright spear: and a great number of wounded, and masses of dead bodies; they are falling over the bodies of the dead:
Horsemen charging, swords flashing, spears glittering, a multitude of slain, a heap of bodies, no end to the corpses over which people stumble!
4 Because of all the false ways of the loose woman, expert in attraction and wise in secret arts, who takes nations in the net of her false ways, and families through her secret arts.
“Because you acted like a whore, bewitching the nations, enticing the peoples,
5 See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will have your skirts pulled over your face, and let the nations see you unclothed, and the kingdoms your shame.
I am against you, Nineveh” the Lord of hosts declares. “I will strip your clothes and show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will make you completely disgusting and full of shame, and will put you up to be looked at by all.
“I will fling loathsome filth at you, and make you an object of contempt, a spectacle,
7 And it will come about that all who see you will go in flight from you and say, Nineveh is made waste: who will be weeping for her? where am I to get comforters for her?
so that everyone who sees you will flee from you and say: ‘Nineveh is laid waste, who will mourn for her?’
8 Are you better than No-amon, seated on the Nile streams, with waters all round her; whose wall was the sea and her earthwork the waters?
“Are you any better than Thebes, which stood on the banks of the Nile, with waters around as a rampart, whose wall was the sea of waters?
9 Ethiopia was her strength and Egyptians without number; Put and Lubim were her helpers.
Her strength was Ethiopia and Egypt. The Libyans were her helpers, and Put with its countless people.
10 But even she has been taken away, she has gone away as a prisoner: even her young children are smashed to bits at the top of all the streets: the fate of her honoured men is put to the decision of chance, and all her great men are put in chains.
Yet she was exiled and made captive. On all corners of the streets her infants were dashed to pieces. Lots were cast for her nobles, all her great ones were bound in chains.
11 And you will be overcome with wine, you will become feeble; you will be looking for a safe place from those who are fighting against you.
“You too, Nineveh, will be drunk with fear; you too will seek a place of escape from the foe.
12 All your walled places will be like fig-trees and your people like the first figs, falling at a shake into the mouth which is open for them.
All your fortresses are fig trees with the first ripe figs; if shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater!
13 See, the people who are in you are women; the doorways of your land are wide open to your attackers: the locks of your doors have been burned away in the fire.
Your troops are weak as women before your foes; the gates of your land are wide open; your defenses burned down.
14 Get water for the time when you are shut in, make strong your towns: go into the potter's earth, stamping it down with your feet, make strong the brickworks.
“Draw water for the siege, strengthen your forts. Go to the clay pits and tread the clay; take up the brick moulds.
15 There the fire will make you waste; you will be cut off by the sword: make yourself as great in number as the worms, as great in number as the locusts.
There the fire will consume you, the sword will cut you down. Multiply like the locust or a swarm of grasshoppers.
16 Let your traders be increased more than the stars of heaven:
Increase the numbers of your merchants until they are more than the stars of heaven,
17 Your crowned ones are like the locusts, and your scribes like the clouds of insects which take cover in the walls on a cold day, but when the sun comes up they go in flight, and are seen no longer in their place.
until your watchmen are locusts, and your scribes like grasshoppers, which swarm in the hedges on a cold day; but when the sun rises they fly away, no one knows where.
18 Sorrow! how are the keepers of your flock sleeping, O king of Assyria! your strong men are at rest; your people are wandering on the mountains, and there is no one to get them together.
“King of Assyria: your princes slumber, your nobles sleep! Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them!
19 Your pain may not be made better; you are wounded to death: all those hearing the news about you will be waving their hands in joy over you: for who has not undergone the weight of your evil-doing again and again?
There is no healing for your hurt, your wound is incurable. All who hear of your fate clap their hands in joy, for who has escaped your limitless cruelty?”
