Nineveh has done many bad things

3 Terrible things will happen to you, Nineveh. Your people are murderers and they love to tell lies. The city is full of valuable things that they have taken from other people. ² Listen to the loud noises of the whips, the chariots, the wheels and the feet of the horses. The chariots are moving fast towards Nineveh. ³ See the bright swords and spears in the hands of the horses' riders. There are dead bodies that are lying in the streets. It is like mountains of dead bodies everywhere. There are so many dead bodies that men fall over the bodies. ⁴ This is because Nineveh has sold herself to the enemies of God. She is like a beautiful prostitute. She uses her body and her bad magic to make all the people in other countries her slaves.

⁵ This is why I am against you, says the Lord Almighty. I will make you like a woman whose skirt is up over her face. I will show the countries that you are like that woman. You will be like a woman who is not wearing any clothes. ⁶ I will throw dirt at you. I will do with you like you were nothing. And I will make everyone ashamed of you. ⁷ When people see you, they will run away. And they will say, ‘They have destroyed Nineveh. Nobody will be sad.’ There will be nobody to help you.

⁸ Remember the city of Thebes that was near the River Nile. It had water all round it. The river kept it safe, like a wall. Nineveh is not better than Thebes was. ⁹ The countries of Ethiopia and Egypt were strong friends. And Put and Libya were strong friends too.

¹⁰ But the enemies of Thebes took its people away and they made them slaves. They cut their babies to pieces in every street. They played games with the great men from Thebes and they put them in iron chains. ¹¹ You will be like a man who has drunk too much alcohol. And you will try to hide. You will try to get help from your enemy. ¹² All your strong places are like fig trees. They will fall very easily when the enemies shake them. And your valuable things will be like figs that fall into people's mouths. ¹³ Look at your soldiers, they are all like women! Your enemies have burned your gates and they have pushed them wide open.

¹⁴ Take as much water as you can for the attack. Make your walls strong. Do repairs to your buildings. ¹⁵ The fire will burn you. The sword will cut you and it will kill you like grasshoppers. Grow in number like the grasshoppers and locusts.

¹⁶ You welcomed traders into your city until there were more than all the stars in the sky. But they are like locusts. They take everything from the land and then they fly away. ¹⁷ Your army and officers are so many that they are like locusts. Locusts stay on the walls on a cold day. But when the sun comes out, they fly away. And then nobody knows where they go.

¹⁸ King of Assyria, the people who keep your people safe are asleep. Also, your powerful men are lying down to rest. Your people have run away to the mountains with nobody to get them together.

¹⁹ You have received a bad wound and nobody can make it better. People have heard about what happened to you. All of them are very happy and they clap their hands. That is because you have done cruel things to all of them.