3:1 Woe to the city that has shed much blood! She is a deceiver, She is filled with plunder, She has hoarded her spoils of war.
3:2 The crack of the whip! The rumbling of the chariot wheel! The galloping of the horse! The racing of the chariot!
3:3 Chariots charge! Swords flash! Spears glitter! Many corpses are piled high! There is no end to the slain! They stumble over their dead!
3:4 “Because of the many idolatries of the prostitute, the beautiful charm of a mistress of witchcraft, she who enslaves nations by her harlotries, and peoples by her sorceries,
3:5 “Look! I am against you!” declaresYahweh. “I will strip up your skirts over your face; I will let nations look at your nakedness and your shame.
3:6 “I will throw filth upon you, I will treat you with contempt, I will make you a spectacle.
3:7 “And it will be that everyone who sees you will flee from you, And they will say, ‘Nineveh is destroyed!’ Who will mourn for her? From whence shall I seek comforters for you?”
3:8 Are you better than Thebes? She who sits at the Nile, surrounded by her waters, her rampart was the sea and water was her wall.
3:9 Cush was her strength, Egypt without end; Put and Libya were among your allies.
3:10 Yet she went into captivity as an exile; her children were dashed to pieces at the head of the streets; they cast lots for all of her nobles; all of her dignitaries were bound with chains.
3:11 You also will behave like a drunkard; You also will hide yourself; You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
3:12 All of your fortifications are like fig trees with ripe firstfruits— if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater.
3:13 Look! Your troops are like women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire will consume the bars of your gates.
3:14 Draw water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go to the mud pit! Trample the clay! Grasp the brick mold!
3:15 There fire will consume you; the sword will cut you off. It will consume you like the locust. Multiply yourself like the locust! Multiply yourself like the grasshopper!
3:16 You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven; like the locust they will shed their skin and fly away.
3:17 Your officials are like locusts; your commanders are like a swarm of locusts. They encamp on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they fly away— no one knows where they have gone.
3:18 Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria! Your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains; no one can gather them.
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