Woe to Nineveh

¹Woe to the bloody city![#Hab 2:12]

It is full of lies

and plunder.

The prey never departs.

²The noise of the whip

and the noise of the rattling of the wheels,

galloping horses,

and rushing chariots!

³Horsemen charging

with flashing sword

and glittering spear.

Multitude of slain,

great number of corpses,

dead bodies without end—

they stumble on the corpses —

⁴because of the countless harlotries of the seductive harlot,

the mistress of sorceries,

who sells nations through her harlotries

and families through her sorceries.

⁵I am against you, says the Lord of Hosts;[#Na 2:13]

I will lift your skirts over your face,

and I will show the nations your nakedness,

and the kingdoms your shame.

⁶I will throw filth on you,

and make you vile,

and make you a spectacle.

⁷All who look at you will flee from you, and say,

“Nineveh is devastated! Who will lament for her?”

Where shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸Are you better than Thebes[#Eze 30:14–16; Am 6:2]

that sat by the Nile,

with water around her,

whose rampart was the sea,

and whose wall was the water?

⁹Cush and Egypt were her strength, and it was without limit;

Put and Libya were her helpers.

¹⁰Yet she went into exile,

she went into captivity;

her young children were dashed to pieces

at the head of every street;

they cast lots for her honorable men,

and all her great men were bound in chains.

¹¹You also will be drunk;[#Isa 49:26]

you will go into hiding;

you will seek refuge from the enemy.

¹²All your fortresses are like fig trees

with first-ripe figs:

If they are shaken,

they fall into the mouth of the eater.

¹³Your 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![#2Ch 32:3–4]

Strengthen your forts!

Go into the clay and

tread the mortar!

Take hold of the brick mold!

¹⁵There the fire will devour you,[#Na 2:13]

the sword will cut you off;

it will eat you up like the locust.

Multiply yourselves—like the locust!

Multiply—like the grasshopper!

¹⁶You have multiplied your merchants

more than the stars of heaven.

The locust plunders

and flies away.

¹⁷Your leaders are like grasshoppers,[#Jer 51:27; Rev 9:7]

your commanders like swarms of locusts,

which camp in the hedges on a cold day;

when the sun rises they fly away,

and the place where they are is not known.

¹⁸Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria;[#Ps 76:5–6]

Your nobles lie in the dust.

Your people are scattered on the mountains,

and no one gathers them.

¹⁹There is no healing of your injury,

your wound is grievous.

All who hear news about you

clap their hands over you,

for upon whom has not your wickedness

continually passed?