Woe to Nineveh

¹Woe to the bloody city,

all full of lies and plunder—

no end to the prey!

²The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,

galloping horse and bounding chariot!

³Horsemen charging,

flashing sword and glittering spear,

hosts of slain,

heaps of corpses,

dead bodies without end—

they stumble over the bodies!

⁴And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,

graceful and of deadly charms,

who betrays nations with her whorings,

and peoples with her charms.

⁵Behold, I am against you,

declares the Lord of hosts,

and will lift up your skirts over your face;

and I will make nations look at your nakedness

and kingdoms at your shame.

⁶I will throw filth at you

and treat you with contempt

and make you a spectacle.

⁷And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,

“Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?”

Where shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸Are you better than Thebes1

that sat by the Nile,

with water around her,

her rampart a sea,

and water her wall?

⁹Cush was her strength;

Egypt too, and that without limit;

Put and the Libyans were her2 helpers.

¹⁰Yet she became an exile;

she went into captivity;

her infants were dashed in pieces

at the head of every street;

for her honored men lots were cast,

and all her great men were bound in chains.

¹¹You also will be drunken;

you will go into hiding;

you will seek a refuge from the enemy.

¹²All your fortresses are like fig trees

with first-ripe figs—

if shaken they fall

into the mouth of the eater.

¹³Behold, your troops

are women in your midst.

The gates of your land

are wide open to your enemies;

fire has devoured your bars.

¹⁴Draw water for the siege;

strengthen your forts;

go into the clay;

tread the mortar;

take hold of the brick mold!

¹⁵There will the fire devour you;

the sword will cut you off.

It will devour you like the locust.

Multiply yourselves like the locust;

multiply like the grasshopper!

¹⁶You increased your merchants

more than the stars of the heavens.

The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

¹⁷Your princes are like grasshoppers,

your scribes3 like clouds of locusts

settling on the fences

in a day of cold—

when the sun rises, they fly away;

no one knows where they are.

¹⁸Your shepherds are asleep,

O king of Assyria;

your nobles slumber.

Your people are scattered on the mountains

with none to gather them.

¹⁹There is no easing your hurt;

your wound is grievous.

All who hear the news about you

clap their hands over you.

For upon whom has not come

your unceasing evil?