Nahum 3

Chapter 3

Nineveh’s Complete Ruin

^1aWoe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage;

Her prey never departs.

²The ^anoise of the whip,

The noise of the rattling of the wheel,

Galloping horses

And ¹bounding chariots!

³Horsemen charging,

Swords flashing, ^aspears gleaming,

^bMany slain, a mass of corpses,

And ^1ccountless dead bodies—

They stumble over ²the 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 the Lord of hosts;

“And I will ^1blift up your skirts over your face,

And ^cshow to the nations your nakedness

And to the kingdoms your disgrace.

⁶“I will ^athrow ¹filth on you

And ^bmake you vile,

And set you up as a ^cspectacle.

⁷“And it will come about that all who see you

Will ¹shrink from you and say,

‘Nineveh is devastated!

^aWho will grieve for her?’

Where will I seek comforters for you?”

⁸Are you better than ^1aNo-amon,

Which was situated by the ^bwaters of the Nile,

With water surrounding her,

Whose rampart was ²the sea,

Whose wall consisted of the sea?

^9aEthiopia was her might,

And Egypt too, without limits.

^bPut and ^cLubim were among ¹her helpers.

¹⁰Yet she ^abecame an exile,

She went into captivity;

Also her ^bsmall children 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 refuge 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!

Take 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 hordes of grasshoppers

Settling 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 ^cnobles are lying 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 ¹about you

Will ^cclap their hands over you,

For on whom has not your evil passed continually?