Naum 3

¹ Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery; the prey does not depart.

² The sound of a whip, and the sound of rattling of wheels, and galloping horses, and of bounding chariots.

³ The horseman lifts up both the gleaming sword and the glittering spear, and many are slain, and there is a mass of dead bodies, and no end of corpses; they stumble over their dead bodies,

⁴ because of the many harlotries of the seductive harlot, the mistress of sorceries who sells nations by her harlotries, and families by her sorceries.

⁵ Behold, I am against you, declares Jehovah of Hosts, and I will uncover your skirts over your face, and I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.

⁶ And I will cast detestable filth on you and will disgrace you. And I will set you as a spectacle.

⁷ And it shall be that all those who look upon you shall flee from you and shall say, Nineveh is laid waste; who shall weep for her? From where shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸ Are you better than populous No that dwelt among the rivers, waters surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the sea?

⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and without end; Put and Lubim were your helpers.

¹⁰ Yet she was carried away; she went into captivity. Also her young ones were dashed to pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honored ones, and all her great ones were bound in chains.

¹¹ You also shall be drunken; you shall be hidden; you also shall seek refuge from the enemy.

¹² All your fortresses are fig trees with the firstfruits; if they are shaken, then they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.

¹³ Behold, your people in your midst are women; the gates of your land shall surely be opened to your enemies; the fire shall devour your bars.

¹⁴ Draw your water for the siege. Strengthen your fortifications. Go into the clay and tread in the mortar. Make the mold strong.

¹⁵ Fire will devour you there. The sword shall cut you off. It will eat you up like the caterpillar. Make yourself as many as the caterpillar; multiply yourself like the locusts.

¹⁶ You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens; the caterpillar shall strip off and fly away.

¹⁷ Your princes are like the locusts, and your officials are a swarm of locusts that camp in the hedges in the cold day. When the sun rises and they flee, the place where they are is not known.

¹⁸ Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and no one gathers them.

¹⁹ There is no healing for your fracture; your wound is severe. All who hear the report of you shall clap their hands over you, for on whom has your wickedness not passed continually?