Nahum3

¹Woe to the bloody city , all full of lies and plunder — no end to the prey !

²The crack of the whip , and rumble of the wheel , galloping horse and bounding chariot !

³Horsemen charging , flashing sword and glittering spear , hosts of slain , heaps of corpses , dead bodies without end — they stumble over the bodies !

⁴And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute , graceful and of deadly charms , who betrays nations with her whorings , and peoples with her charms .

⁵Behold , I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts , and will lift up your skirts over your face ; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame .

⁶I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle .

⁷And all who look at you will shrink from you and say , Wasted is Nineveh ; who will grieve for her? Where shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile , with water around her, her rampart a sea , and water her wall ?

⁹Cush was her strength ; Egypt too, and that without limit ; Put and the Libyans were her helpers .

¹⁰Yet she became an exile ; she went into captivity ; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street ; for her honored men lots were cast , and all her great men were bound in chains .

¹¹You also will be drunken ; you will go into hiding ; you will seek a refuge from the enemy .

¹²All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs — if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater .

¹³Behold , your troops are women in your midst . The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies ; fire has devoured your bars .

¹⁴Draw water for the siege ; strengthen your forts ; go into the clay ; tread the mortar ; take hold of the brick mold !

¹⁵There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust . Multiply yourselves like the locust ; multiply like the grasshopper !

¹⁶You your merchants more than the stars of the heavens . The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

¹⁷Your princes are like grasshoppers , your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold — when the sun rises , they fly away ; no one knows where they are .

¹⁸Your shepherds are asleep , O king of Assyria ; your nobles slumber . Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.

¹⁹There is no easing your hurt ; your wound is grievous . All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil ?