Nahum 3

3 ¹ Woe to the city of bloodshed, all full of lies and plunder—the prey never departs! ² The crack of the whip, the rumble of wheels, galloping horses, and bounding chariots! ³ Charging horsemen, flashing swords, glittering spears—a multitude of slain, a heap of corpses, bodies without end; they stumble over the dead. ⁴ All because of the rampant prostitution of this seductive prostitute, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations through her prostitution and peoples through her sorceries.

⁵ "Look, I am against you," declares the Father of heaven's armies, "and I will lift your skirts over your face; I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. ⁶ I will pelt you with filth, treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle. ⁷ And all who see you will flee from you and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste; who will grieve for her?' Where can I find comforters for you?

⁸ Are you better than Thebes, that sat by the Nile with water all around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the waters? ^a a v8 Thebes — the great capital of upper Egypt — was itself destroyed by Assyria; Nahum holds up its fall as a warning that Nineveh is no safer. ⁹ Cush was her strength, and Egypt without limit; Put and the Libyans were among her allies. ¹⁰ Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. They cast lots for her honored men, and all her great men were bound in chains. ¹¹ You too will be drunk; you will go into hiding; you too will seek refuge from the enemy. ¹² All your fortresses are like fig trees with the first-ripe figs—when shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. ¹³ Look, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are flung wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars. ^b b v13 Calling troops women was an ancient taunt meaning they had lost all their fighting courage.

¹⁴ Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses; go into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! ¹⁵ There the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down; it will consume you like the young locust. Multiply yourselves like the young locust; multiply like the swarming locust! ¹⁶ You multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The young locust strips the land and flies away. ¹⁷ Your guards are like locusts, and your officials like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day—when the sun rises, they fly off, and no one knows where they are.

¹⁸ Your shepherds are asleep, king of Assyria; your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered across the mountains, with no one to gather them. ¹⁹ There is no relief for your injury; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news of you clap their hands over you—for who has not felt your endless cruelty pass over them again and again?