Nahum 3

¹ Disaster to the city of blood, packed throughout with lies, stuffed with booty, where plundering has noend!

² The crack of the whip! The rumble of wheels! Gal oping horse, jolting chariot,

³ charging cavalry, flashing swords, gleaming spears, a mass of wounded, hosts of dead, countlesscorpses; they stumble over corpses-

⁴ because of the countless whorings of the harlot, the graceful beauty, the cunning witch, who enslavednations by her harlotries and tribes by her spells.

⁵ Look, I am against you!- declares Yahweh Sabaoth- I shal lift your skirts as high as your face and showyour nakedness to the nations, your shame to the kingdoms.

⁶ I shal pelt you with filth, I shal shame you and put you in the pil ory.

⁷ Then al who look at you wil shrink from you and say, 'Nineveh has been ruined!' Who wil mourn forher? Where would I find people to comfort you?

⁸ Are you better off than No-Amon situated among rivers, her defences the seas, her rampart the waters?

⁹ In Ethiopia and Egypt lay her strength, and it was boundless; Put and the Libyans served in her army.

¹⁰ But she too went into exile, into captivity; her little ones too were dashed to pieces at every crossroad;lots were drawn for her nobles, al her great men were put in chains.

¹¹ You too wil become drunk, you wil go into hiding; you too will have to search for a refuge from theenemy.

¹² Your fortifications are all fig trees, with early ripening figs: as soon as they are shaken, they fall intothe mouth of the eater.

¹³ Look at your people: you are a nation of women! The gates of your country gape open to yourenemies; fire has devoured their bars!

¹⁴ Draw yourselves water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications! Into the mud with you, puddle theclay, repair the brick-kiln!

¹⁵ There the fire wil burn you up, the sword wil cut you down. Make yourselves as numerous as locusts,make yourselves as numerous as the hoppers,

¹⁶ let your commercial agents outnumber the stars of heaven,

¹⁷ your garrisons, like locusts, and your marshals, like swarms of hoppers! They settle on the wal s whenthe day is cold. The sun appears, the locusts spread their wings, they fly away,away they fly, no one knowswhere. Alas,

¹⁸ your shepherds are asleep, king of Assyria, your bravest men slumber; your people are scattered onthe mountains with no one to gather them.

¹⁹ There is no remedy for your wound, your injury is past healing. All who hear the news of you clap theirhands at your downfal . For who has not felt your unrelenting cruelty?