Nahum 3

1Woe to the city of bloodshed! Lies and robbery fill it completely; the prey does not depart.

2The crack of the whip, the crash of the wheels, galloping horses, and leaping chariots.

3Horsemen charge with flaming swords and flashing spears amid crowds of slain and massive heaps of carcasses, bodies without end; they stumble upon their corpses.

4Because of the abundance of prostitutions from the charming prostitute, the mistress of sorceries who sells nations through her prostitutions and families through her sorceries.

5Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts, and I will pull up your skirts over your face, and I will expose your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.

6I will hurl detestable filth upon you, disgrace you, and set you as a spectacle.

7All who see you will flee from you and say, "Nineveh is devastated—who will lament her? Where shall I find comforters for you?"

8Are you better than No-Amon, that dwelt among the rivers, waters surrounding her, whose bulwark was the sea, her wall from the sea?

9Cush and Egypt were her strength without end; Put and the Libyans were your helpers.

10Even she went into exile, into captivity; her infants too were dashed at the head of every street, they cast lots upon her nobles, and all her great men were bound in fetters.

11You too will be drunk; you will be hidden. You too will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.

12All your fortresses will be like fig trees with first-ripe figs: if shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

13See, your people among you are women; the gates of your land stand wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.

14Draw waters for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay and trample the mortar. Strengthen the brickkiln.

15There the fire will consume you, the sword will cut you off, devouring you like the cankerworm. Multiply like the cankerworm; multiply like the locust.

16You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven. The locust strips and flies away.

17Your princes are like locusts, and your captains like swarms of great grasshoppers that camp along the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they flee, and the place where they are is not known.

18Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria; your nobles dwell, your people have spread out on the mountains, and no one gathers them.

19There is no healing for your affliction; disease is your plague. All who hear your report clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not your evil passed continually?