1How terrible it will be for Nineveh! It is a city of murderers! It is full of liars! It is filled with stolen goods! The killing never stops!2Whips crack! Wheels clack! Horses charge! Chariots rumble!3Horsemen attack! Swords flash! Spears gleam! Many people die. Dead bodies pile up. They can’t even be counted. People trip over them.4All of that was caused by the evil desires of the prostitute Nineveh. That woman who practised evil magic was very beautiful. She used her sinful charms to make slaves out of the nations. She worshipped evil powers in order to trap others.5‘Nineveh, I am against you,’ announces the LORD who rules over all. ‘I will pull your skirts up over your face. I will show the nations your naked body. Kingdoms will make fun of your shame.6I will throw garbage at you. I will look down on you. I will make an example out of you.7All those who see you will run away from you. They will say, “Nineveh is destroyed. Who will mourn over it?” Where can I find someone to comfort your people?’8Nineveh, are you better than Thebes on the River Nile? There was water all around that city. The river helped to keep it safe. The waters were like a wall around it.9Cush and Egypt gave it all the strength it needed. Put and Libya also helped it.10But Thebes was captured anyway. Its people were taken away as prisoners. Its babies were smashed to pieces at every street corner. The Assyrian soldiers cast lots for all its nobles. They put them in chains and made slaves out of them.11People of Nineveh, you too will get drunk. You will try to hide from your enemies. You will look for a place of safety.12All your forts are like fig-trees that have their first ripe fruit on them. When the trees are shaken, the figs fall into the mouths of those who eat them.13Look at your troops. All of them are weak. The gates of your forts are wide open to your enemies. Fire has destroyed the bars that lock your gates.14Prepare for the attack by storing up water! Make your walls as strong as you can! Make some bricks out of clay! Mix the mud to hold them together! Use them to repair the walls!15In spite of all your hard work, fire will burn you up inside your city. Your enemies will cut you down with their swords. They will destroy you just as a swarm of locusts eats up crops. Multiply like grasshoppers! Increase your numbers like locusts!16You have more traders than the number of stars in the sky. But like locusts they strip the land. Then they fly away.17Your guards are like grasshoppers. Your officials are like swarms of locusts. They settle in the walls on a cold day. But when the sun appears, they fly away. And no one knows where they go.18King of Assyria, your leaders are asleep. Your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains. No one is left to gather them together.19Nothing can heal your wounds. You will die of them. All those who hear the news about you clap their hands. That’s because you have fallen from power. Is there anyone who has not suffered because of how badly you treated them?
Nahum 3
English Standard Version
Woe to Nineveh
1Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey! (Eze 24:9; Na 2:12; Hab 2:12)2The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! (Jud 5:22; Joe 2:5; Na 2:4)3Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! (2Ki 19:35; Hab 3:11)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. (Isa 47:9; Isa 47:12; Re 17:2; Re 18:3)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. (Isa 3:17; Isa 47:3; Jer 13:22; Jer 13:26; Na 2:13; Hab 2:16)6I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. (Na 1:14; Mal 2:9; 1Co 4:9; Heb 10:33)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? (Isa 51:19; Jer 15:5; Jer 51:9; La 1:2; La 1:9; La 1:16; La 1:21; Na 1:1; Zep 2:13; Re 18:10)8Are you better than Thebes[1] that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? (Jer 46:25; Eze 29:3; Am 6:2)9Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her[2] helpers. (Ge 10:6; 2Ch 12:3; Da 11:43)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. (Ps 149:8; Isa 13:16; Isa 20:4; Joe 3:3; Ob 1:11)11You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy. (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 4:5; Jer 25:17; Jer 25:27; Ob 1:16)12All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. (Re 6:13)13Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars. (Isa 19:16; Jer 51:30)14Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! (Isa 22:11; Na 3:11)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! (Joe 1:4; Joe 1:6; Joe 2:3)16You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. (Eze 27:23; Na 3:15)17Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes[3] 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. (Isa 10:8; Jer 51:27; Na 3:15)18Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. (1Ki 22:17; Ps 76:5; Na 2:5)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? (Isa 37:18; Jer 10:19; La 2:15; Mic 1:9; Zep 2:15)