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The Attack on Nineveh

One who scatters has come up against you;[a]
    guard the rampart,
Watch the road, brace yourselves,
    marshal all your strength!
[b]The Lord will restore the vine of Jacob,
    the honor of Israel,
Because ravagers have ravaged them
    and ruined their branches.
The shields of his warriors are crimsoned,
    the soldiers clad in scarlet;
Like fire are the trappings of the chariots
    on the day he prepares for war;
    the cavalry is agitated!
The chariots dash madly through the streets
    and wheel in the squares,
Looking like torches,
    bolting like lightning.
His picked troops are called,
    ranks break at their charge;
To the wall they rush,
    their screen[c] is set up.
The river gates[d] are opened,
    the palace is washed away.
The mistress is led forth captive,
    and her maidservants[e] led away,
Moaning like doves,
    beating their breasts.
Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters escape;
“Stop! Stop!”
    but none turns back.(A)
10 “Plunder the silver, plunder the gold!”
    There is no end to the treasure,
    to wealth in every precious thing!

11 Emptiness, desolation, waste;
    melting hearts and trembling knees,
Churning in every stomach,
    every face turning pale!(B)
12 Where is the lionesses’ den,
    the young lions’ cave,
Where the lion[f] went in and out,
    and the cub, with no one to disturb them?(C)
13 The lion tore apart enough for his cubs,
    and strangled for his lionesses;
He filled his lairs with prey,
    and his dens with torn flesh.
14 I now come against you—
    oracle of the Lord of hosts—
I will consume your chariots in smoke,
    and the sword will devour your young lions;
Your preying on the land I will bring to an end,
    the cry of your lionesses will be heard no more.

Chapter 3

Ah! The bloody city,
    all lies,
Full of plunder,
    whose looting never stops!(D)
The crack of the whip,
    the rumbling of wheels;
Horses galloping,
    chariots bounding,
Cavalry charging,
    the flash of the sword,
    the gleam of the spear;
A multitude of slain,
    a mass of corpses,
Endless bodies
    to stumble upon!
For the many debaucheries of the prostitute,
    a charming mistress of witchcraft,
Who enslaved nations with her prostitution,
    and peoples by her witchcraft:(E)
[g]I now come against you—
    oracle of the Lord of hosts—
    and I will lift your skirt above your face;
I will show your nakedness to the nations,
    to the kingdoms your shame!(F)
I will cast filth upon you,
    disgrace you and make you a spectacle;
Until everyone who sees you
    runs from you saying,
“Nineveh is destroyed;
    who can pity her?
Where can I find
    any to console you?”

Nineveh’s Inescapable Fate

Are you better than No-amon[h](G)
    that was set among the Nile’s canals,
Surrounded by waters,
    with the river for her rampart
    and water for her wall?
Ethiopia was her strength,
    and Egypt without end;
Put[i] and the Libyans
    were her allies.
10 Yet even she became an exile,
    and went into captivity;
Even her little ones were dashed to pieces
    at the corner of every street;
For her nobles they cast lots,
    and all her great ones were put into chains.
11 You, too, will drink of this;
    you will be overcome;(H)
You, too, will seek
    a refuge from the foe.
12 But all your fortresses are fig trees,
    bearing early figs;[j]
When shaken, they fall
    into the devourer’s mouth.
13 Indeed your troops
    are women in your midst;
To your foes are open wide
    the gates of your land,
    fire has consumed their bars.

14 Draw water for the siege,[k]
    strengthen your fortresses;
Go down into the mud
    and tread the clay,
    take hold of the brick mold!
15 There the fire will consume you,
    the sword will cut you down;
    it will consume you like the grasshoppers.

Multiply like the grasshoppers,
    multiply like the locusts!(I)
16 You have made your traders[l] more numerous
    than the stars of the heavens;
    like grasshoppers that shed their skins and fly away.
17 Your sentries are like locusts,
    and your scribes like locust swarms
Gathered on the rubble fences
    on a cold day!
Yet when the sun rises, they vanish,
    and no one knows where they have gone.

18 Your shepherds slumber,
    O king of Assyria,
    your nobles have gone to rest;
Your people are scattered upon the mountains,
    with none to gather them.
19 There is no healing for your hurt,
    your wound is fatal.
All who hear this news of you
    clap their hands over you;
For who has not suffered
    under your endless malice?

Footnotes

  1. 2:2 One who scatters has come up against you: the enemy is about to crush Nineveh, dispersing and deporting its people (v. 8; 3:18).
  2. 2:3 This verse does not fit its context well; it may have been the conclusion for the preceding section and have once followed v. 1, or it may be a later scribal addition.
  3. 2:6 Their screen: that is, a mantelet, a movable military shelter protecting the besiegers.
  4. 2:7 River gates: a network of canals brought water into Nineveh from the Tigris and Khosr Rivers on which the city was located.
  5. 2:8 Mistress…and her maidservants: either the queen of Nineveh with the ladies of her court, or the city of Nineveh itself, pictured as a noblewoman (3:4).
  6. 2:12 The lion: the king of Assyria.
  7. 3:5–6 The punishment for adulterous women.
  8. 3:8 No-amon: “No” was the Egyptian name of the capital of Upper Egypt, called Thebes by the Greeks; its patron deity was Amon. This great city was destroyed by the Assyrians in 663 B.C.
  9. 3:9 Put: a North African people often associated with Egypt and Ethiopia (Jer 46:8–9).
  10. 3:12 Early figs: the refugees from Nineveh who escape to presumably secure fortresses.
  11. 3:14 An ironic exhortation to prepare the city for a futile defense. Go down…brick mold: make bricks for the city walls.
  12. 3:16 Traders: agents of the economic exploitation that sustained and enriched the Assyrian empire.