Nahum, 3

1. Disaster to the city of blood, packed throughout with lies, stuffed with booty, where plundering has no end!

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

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

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.

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

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:

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

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.

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

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.

6. I shall pelt you with filth, I shall shame you and put you in the pillory.

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

7. Then all who look at you will shrink from you and say, 'Nineveh has been ruined!' Who will mourn for her? Where would I find people to comfort you?

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?

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

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?

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

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

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, all her great men were put in chains.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

16. let your commercial agents outnumber the stars of heaven,

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

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

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].

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

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].

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?

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?