Nahum 3

1Woe to the city of bloodshed, all of it full of lies, full of plunder; prey never departs.

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

3Horsemen charging, and the flashing sword and the gleaming spear, and a multitude of slain, and heaps of corpses; and there is no end to the bodies— they stumble over the bodies.

4because of the many prostitutions of the prostitute, charming in grace, mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her prostitutions and clans by her sorceries.

5Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts, and I will uncover your skirts over your face, and I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.

6And I will throw filth upon you, and treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle.

7And it will happen that all who see you will shrink from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated; who will grieve for her? Where can I seek comforters for you?’

8Are you better than No-amon, who sat among the Nile channels, with waters all around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was from the sea?

9Cush was her strength, and Egypt without end; Put and the Libyans were among your helpers.

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

11You too will become drunk; you will be hidden. You too will seek a refuge from the enemy.

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

13Look, your troops are women in your midst; the gates of your land stand wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed your bars.

14Draw water for yourself for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold.

15There the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you off; it will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourself like the locust; multiply yourself like the swarming locust.

16You multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the heavens; the locust strips bare and flies away.

17Your guards are like locusts, and your scribes like swarms of locusts, settling on the walls on a cold day. The sun rises, and they fly away; no one knows where they are.

18Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.

19There is no healing for your fracture; your wound is grievous. All who hear the report about you clap their hands over you, for over whom has your evil not continually passed?