Dual Panel1Woe betide the blood-stained city, steeped in deceit, full of pillage, never empty of prey!
2The crack of the whip, the rattle of wheels, the stamping of horses, swaying chariots,
3rearing chargers, the gleam of swords, the flash of spears! Myriads of slain, heaps of corpses, bodies innumerable, and men stumbling over them --
4all for the persistent harlotry of a harlot, the alluring mistress of sorcery, who by her harlotry and sorceries beguiled nations and peoples.
5I am against you, says the LORD of Hosts, I shall tear off your skirts to your disgrace and expose your naked body to every nation, your shame to every kingdom.
6I shall pelt you with loathsome filth; I shall hold you in contempt and make a spectacle of you.
7Then all who see you will shrink from you and say, “Nineveh is laid waste!” Who will console her? Where shall I look for anyone to comfort you?
8Will you fare better than No-amon, situated by the streams of the Nile and encompassed by water, whose rampart was the Nile, whose wall was water?
9Cush and Egypt were a source of endless strength to her, Put and the Libyans were her allies.
10Even she became an exile and went into captivity, even her infants were dashed to the ground at every street corner, her nobles were shared out by lot, all her great men were thrown into chains.
11You also will drink the cup of wrath until you are overcome; you also will flee for refuge from the enemy.
12All your fortifications are like the first ripe figs: shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13Your troops behave like women. The gates of your country stand open to the enemy; fire has consumed the barred gates.
14Draw yourselves water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications; go down into the clay, trample the mortar, repair the brickwork of the fort.
15Even there the fire will consume you, and the sword will cut you off. Make yourselves as many as the locusts, make yourselves as many as the hoppers.
16You have spies as numerous as the stars in the sky, like hoppers which raid and then fly away.
17Your agents are like locusts, your commanders like the hoppers which lie dormant in the walls on a cold day; but when the sun rises, they make off, no one knows where.
18Your rulers slumber, king of Assyria, your leaders are asleep; your people are scattered over the mountains, with no one to round them up.
19Your wounds cannot be relieved, your injury is mortal; all who hear of your fate clap their hands in joy. Who has not suffered your relentless cruelty?