Nahum 3

¹ Woe to the city soaked in blood, full of lies, stuffed with booty, whose plunderings know no end!

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

³ charging cavalry, flash of swords, gleam of spears… a mass of wounded, hosts of dead, countless corpses; they stumble over the dead.

⁴ So much for all the whore’s debauchery, for that wonderful beauty, for that cunning witch who enslaved nations by her debauchery and tribes by her spells.

⁵ I am here! Look to yourself! It is Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks. I mean to lift your skirts as high as your face and show your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.

⁶ I am going to pelt you with filth, shame you, make you a public show.

⁷ And all who look on you will turn their backs on you and say, ‘Nineveh is a ruin’. Could anyone pity her? Where can I find anyone to comfort her?

⁸ Are you mightier than No-amon[* ]who had her throne beside the river, who had the sea for outer wall, the waters for rampart?

⁹ Her strength was Ethiopia, Egypt too; she had no boundaries. Men of Put and the Libyans were her auxiliaries.

¹⁰ And yet she was forced into exile, she went into captivity; her little ones, too, were dashed to pieces at every crossroad; lots were drawn for her nobles, all her great men were loaded with chains.

¹¹ You too will be encircled, you will be overwhelmed; you too will have to search for a refuge from the enemy.

¹² Your fortresses are all fig trees laden with early-ripening figs: shake, and they fall into any mouth that wants to eat them.

¹³ Look at your people: your inhabitants are women. The gates of your country stand wide open to the foe; fire has burnt up your locking beams.

¹⁴ Draw water for the siege, strengthen your bulwarks, tread the mud, tread down the clay, set your hand to the brick mould.

¹⁵ There the fire will burn you up, the sword will cut you down.

¹⁸ Are your shepherds asleep, then, king of Assyria? Your picked troops slumber, your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to rally them.

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