Nahum, 3

1. Woe to the bloody city! it [is] all full of lies [and] robbery; the prey departeth not;

1. Woe to the bloody city, city of lies and booty, O city of unending plunder!

2. The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.

2. But what! Crack of whips, rumble of wheels and clatter of hoofs!

3. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and [there is] a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and [there is] none end of [their] corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

3. See the frenzied chargers, the flashing swords and glittering spears, the heaps of the wounded, the dead and dying - we trip over corpses!

4. Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

4. The harlot is paying for her harlotries, her deadly charms, her sorceries. She traded nations with her prostitutions and caught peoples by her spells.

5. Behold, I [am] against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.

5. "I am against you," Yahweh Sabaoth says. "I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your disgrace.

6. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

6. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make of you a shameful show,

7. And it shall come to pass, [that] all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

7. so that all who look on you will turn their backs in disgust and say: Nineveh - a city of lust - is in ruins. Who will mourn for her? Where can we find one to comfort her?

8. Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, [that had] the waters round about it, whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea?

8. Are you any better than Thebes by the Nile, surrounded by water, her rampart the river, and the water her wall?

9. Ethiopia and Egypt [were] her strength, and [it was] infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.

9. Ethiopia and Egypt were her stay, Put and Libya were her allies,

10. Yet [was] she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

10. yet she was carried away and held captive among the exiles. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every road; lots were cast for her nobles, her great men bound in chains.

11. Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.

11. You, too, shall drink of this: you will also hide from your enemies.

12. All thy strong holds [shall be like] fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

12. Your fortresses are like fig trees laden with early-ripening fruits which fall, when shaken, into the waiting mouths.

13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee [are] women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.

13. Look at your braves - they are like women! Your gates are wide open, the bars consumed by fire, and the enemies freely enter.

14. Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.

14. Brace yourselves for the siege: draw water, strengthen the bulwark, tread the clay and the mortar and repair the brickwork.

15. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.

15. There the fire will devour you and the sword will cut you down though you were numerous as locusts, beyond count like grasshoppers.

16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.

16. You had multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the sky;

17. Thy crowned [are] as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, [but] when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they [are].

17. like grasshoppers were your officials and your soldiers like swarms of locusts which settle on the walls on a cold day. But the sun appears, they fly away and they are gone, no one knows where.

18. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell [in the dust]: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth [them].

18. O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber, your nobles lie down fast asleep, while over the mountains your people scatter, and there is no one to gather them up.

19. [There is] no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

19. Nothing can heal your wounds; your injury is fatal. All clap their hands when they hear about your fall. for who has not suffered constantly the plague of your cruelty?