[1] \1:15\See on the mountains the feet of him who comes with good news,
giving word of peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah, give effect to your oaths:
for the good-for-nothing man will never again go through you; he is
completely cut off. [2] \2:1\A crusher has come up before your face: keep a
good look-out, let the way be watched, make yourself strong, let your power
be greatly increased. [3] \2:2\For the Lord will make good the vine of
Jacob, as well as the vine of Israel: for the wasters have made them waste
and sent destruction on the branches of their vine. [4] \2:3\The
body-covers of his fighting men have been made red, the men of war are
clothed in bright red: the war-carriages are like flames of fire in the day
when he gets ready, the horses are shaking. [5] \2:4\The war-carriages are
rushing through the streets, pushing against one another in the wide ways,
looking like burning lights, running like thunder-flames. [6] \2:5\He takes
the record of his great men: they go falling on their way; they go quickly
to the wall, the cover is made ready. [7] \2:6\The river doorways are
forced open, and the king's house is flowing away. [8] \2:7\And the queen
is uncovered, she is taken away and her servant-girls are weeping like the
sound of doves, hammering on their breasts. [9] \2:8\But Nineveh is like a
pool of water whose waters are flowing away; Keep your place, they say; but
no one is turning back. [10] \2:9\Take silver, take gold; for there is no
end to the store; take for yourselves a weight of things to be desired.
[11] \2:10\Everything has been taken from her, all is gone, she has nothing
more: the heart is turned to water, the knees are shaking, all are twisted
in pain, and colour has gone from all faces. [12] \2:11\Where is the lions'
hole, the place where the young lions got their food, where the lion and
the she-lion were walking with their young, without cause for fear? [13]
\2:12\Food enough for his young and for his she-lions was pulled down by
the lion; his hole was full of flesh and his resting-place stored with
meat. [14] \2:13\See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will
have your war-carriages burned in the smoke, and your young lions will be
food for the sword: you will no longer get your food by force on the earth,
and the voice of your she-lions will be stopped for ever.
