His way is in whirlwind and storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
⁴ He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,
    and he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither,
    and the bloom of Lebanon fades.
⁵ The mountains quake before him,
    and the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
    the world and all who live in it.

⁶ Who can stand before his indignation?
    Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
    and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.
⁷ The Lord is good,
    a stronghold in a day of trouble;
he protects those who take refuge in him,
⁸     even in a rushing flood.
He will make a full end of his adversaries,^[a]
    and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
⁹ Why do you plot against the Lord?
    He will make an end;
    no adversary will rise up twice.
¹⁰ Like thorns they are entangled,
    like drunkards they are drunk;
    they are consumed like dry straw.
¹¹ From you one has gone out
    who plots evil against the Lord,
    one who counsels wickedness.

¹⁴ The Lord has commanded concerning you:
    “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
    the carved image and the cast image.
I will make your grave, for you are worthless.”

^15 [c] Look! On the mountains the feet of one
    who brings good tidings,
    who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, O Judah,
    fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the wicked invade you;
    they are utterly cut off.

² (For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob,
    as well as the majesty of Israel,
though ravagers have ravaged them
    and ruined their branches.)

³ The shields of his warriors are red;
    his soldiers are clothed in crimson.
The metal on the chariots flashes
    on the day when he musters them;
    the chargers^[e] prance.
⁴ The chariots race madly through the streets,
    they rush to and fro through the squares;
their appearance is like torches,
    they dart like lightning.
⁵ He calls his officers;
    they stumble as they come forward;
they hasten to the wall,
    and the mantelet^[f] is set up.
⁶ The river gates are opened,
    the palace trembles.
⁷ It is decreed^[g] that the city^[h] be exiled,
    its slave women led away,
moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.
⁸ Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters^[i] run away.
“Halt! Halt!”—
    but no one turns back.
⁹ “Plunder the silver,
    plunder the gold!
There is no end of treasure!
    An abundance of every precious thing!”

¹⁰ Devastation, desolation, and destruction!
    Hearts faint and knees tremble,
all loins quake,
    all faces grow pale!
¹¹ What became of the lions’ den,
    the cave^[j] of the young lions,
where the lion goes,
    and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them?
¹² The lion has torn enough for his whelps
    and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he has filled his caves with prey
    and his dens with torn flesh.

⁸ Are you better than Thebes^[m]
    that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
    her rampart a sea,
    water her wall?
⁹ Ethiopia^[n] was her strength,
    Egypt too, and that without limit;
    Put and the Libyans were her^[o] helpers.

¹⁰ Yet she became an exile,
    she went into captivity;
even her infants were dashed in pieces
    at the head of every street;
lots were cast for her nobles,
    all her dignitaries were bound in fetters.
¹¹ You also will be drunken,
    you will go into hiding;^[p]
you will seek
    a refuge from the enemy.
¹² All your fortresses are like fig trees
    with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
    into the mouth of the eater.
¹³ Look at your troops:
    they are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
    are wide open to your foes;
    fire has devoured the bars of your gates.

¹⁴ Draw water for the siege,
    strengthen your forts;
trample the clay,
    tread the mortar,
    take hold of the brick mold!
¹⁵ There the fire will devour you,
    the sword will cut you off.
    It will devour you like the locust.

Multiply yourselves like the locust,
    multiply like the grasshopper!
¹⁶ You increased your merchants
    more than the stars of the heavens.
    The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
¹⁷ Your guards are like grasshoppers,
    your scribes like swarms^[q] of locusts
settling on the fences
    on a cold day—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
    no one knows where they have gone.

¹⁸ Your shepherds are asleep,
    O king of Assyria;
    your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
    with no one to gather them.
¹⁹ There is no assuaging your hurt,
    your wound is mortal.
All who hear the news about you
    clap their hands over you.
For who has ever escaped
    your endless cruelty?