Nahum 3

CHAPTER 3

Woe to Nineveh

^1aWoe to the city of ¹bloodshed, completely full of deception and pillage;

Her prey never departs.

²The ^asound of the whip,

And the sound of the rumbling of the wheel,

Galloping horses,

And ¹bounding chariots!

³Horsemen charging,

And swords flaming, and ^aspears flashing,

^bMany slain, a mass of corpses,

And ^cthere is no end to dead bodies—

They stumble over ¹the dead bodies!

⁴All because of the ^amany harlotries of the harlot,

The charming one, the ^bmistress of sorceries,

Who ^csells nations by her harlotries

And families by her sorceries.

⁵“Behold, ^aI am against you,” declares Yahweh of hosts;

“And I will ^buncover your skirts over your face

And ^cshow to the nations your nakedness

And to the kingdoms your disgrace.

⁶“I will ^athrow detestable filth on you

And ^bdisplay you as a wicked fool

And set you up as a ^cspectacle.

⁷“And it will be that all who see you

Will flee from you and say,

‘Nineveh is devastated!

^aWho will console her?’

Where will I seek comforters for you?”

⁸Are you better than ^1aNo-amon,

Which sits along the ^bwaters of the Nile,

With water surrounding her,

Whose rampart was ²the sea,

Whose wall consisted of ³the sea?

^91aEthiopia was her might,

And Egypt too, without end.

^bPut and ^cLubim were among ²her helpers.

¹⁰Yet she ^abecame an exile;

She went into captivity;

Also her ^binfants were dashed to pieces

^cAt the head of every street;

They ^dcast lots for her honorable men,

And all her great men were bound with fetters.

¹¹You too will become ^adrunk;

You will be ^bhidden.

You too will search for a strong defense from the enemy.

¹²All your fortifications are ^afig trees with ^1bripe fruit—

When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth.

¹³Behold, your people are ^awomen in your midst!

The gates of your land are ^bopened wide to your enemies;

Fire consumes your gate bars.

^14aDraw for yourself water for the siege!

^bStrengthen your fortifications!

Go into the clay and tread the mortar!

¹Take hold of the brick mold!

¹⁵There, ^afire will consume you;

The sword will cut you down;

It will ^bconsume you as the locust does.

Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,

Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.

¹⁶You have increased your ^atraders more than the stars of heaven—

The creeping locust ¹strips and flies away.

¹⁷Your ^1aguardsmen are like the swarming locust.

Your ^bmarshals are like a locust-swarm

Encamping in the stone walls on a cold day.

The sun rises, and they flee,

And the place where they are is not known.

¹⁸Your shepherds are ^asleeping, O ^bking of Assyria;

Your ^cmighty ones are ¹lying down.

Your people are ^dscattered on the mountains,

And there is no one to regather them.

¹⁹There is ^ano relief for your breakdown,

Your ^bwound is incurable.

All who hear the report about you

Will ^cclap their hands over you,

For on whom has not your evil passed continually?