[1] Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey
doesn`t depart. [2] The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of
wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots, [3] the horseman mounting,
and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and
a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on
their bodies, [4] because of the multitude of the prostitution of the
alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through
her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft. [5] "Behold, I am
against you," says Yahweh of Hosts, "and I will lift your skirts over your
face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
[6] I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set
you a spectacle. [7] It will happen that all those who look at you will
flee from you, and say, `Nineveh is laid waste Who will mourn for her?`
Where will I seek comforters for you?" [8] Are you better than No-amon, who
was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart
was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? [9] Cush and Egypt were her
boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers. [10] Yet was she
carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed
in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her
honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. [11] You also
will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold
because of the enemy. [12] All your fortresses will be like fig-trees with
the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the
eater. [13] Behold, your people in the midst of you are women. The gates of
your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your
bars. [14] Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into
the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong. [15] There the
fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like
the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust. [16]
You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The
grasshopper strips, and flees away. [17] Your guards are like the locusts,
and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on
a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is
not known where they are. [18] Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria.
Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there
is no one to gather them. [19] There is no healing your wound, for your
injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you;
for who hasn`t felt your endless cruelty?
