¹ Woe to the bloodstained city,
    festering with lies,
full of booty,
    never ceasing in its plunder.
² Endless are the crack of the whip
    and the rumbling of wheels,
galloping horses
    and jolting chariots,
³ charging cavalry,
    flashing swords,
shimmering spears,
    endless piles of the slain,
heaps of corpses,
    endless bodies to stumble over.
⁴ Because of the persistent debaucheries of the harlot,
    with her alluring facade as a mistress of sorcery,
who enslaved nations by her harlotries
    and peoples by her witchcraft.
⁵ “I am against you,”
    says the Lord of hosts.
“I will lift up your skirts over your face
    and exhibit your nakedness to the nations,
    your shame to the kingdoms.
⁶ I will pelt you with filth,
    and treat you with contempt,
    and make a spectacle of you.
⁷ Then all those who see you
    will shrink from you and say,
‘Nineveh is destroyed.’
    Who will console her?
    Where can anyone be found to comfort you?”

^8 [c]Are you better than No-amon,
    a city situated among streams
    and surrounded by water,
with the seas serving as her rampart
    and water as her wall?
⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,
    and that strength was boundless;
    Put and the Lybians were her allies.
¹⁰ Nevertheless, even she became an exile
    and went into captivity.
Even her infants were dashed to pieces
    at every street corner.
Lots were cast for her nobles,
    and all her leaders were put in chains.
¹¹ You, too, will become drunk
    and go into hiding.
You, too, will flee,
    seeking a refuge from the enemy.

¹² All your fortresses are fig trees
    that bear early fruit.
As soon as they are shaken,
    they fall into the mouth of the eater.
¹³ Look at your troops.
    You are a nation of women.
The gates of your country
    lie open to your enemies;
    fire has consumed the bars of your gates.
¹⁴ Draw yourselves water for the siege!
    Strengthen your fortifications!
Trample the clay,
    tread the mortar,
    repair the brickwork!
¹⁵ Then the fire will consume you
    and the sword will cut you off.
Multiply yourselves like the locusts,
    make yourselves as numerous as the grasshoppers.

¹⁶ You have increased the number of your merchants
    until they now outnumber the stars of the heavens,
but like the locusts, they strip the land
    and then fly away.
¹⁷ Your guards are like locusts,
    and your scribes are like swarms of grasshoppers
that settle in the walls
    on a cold day.
However, when the sun rises, they fly away,
    and no one knows where they have gone.

¹⁸ Alas, your shepherds are asleep,
    O king of Assyria;
    your neighbors lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
    with no one to gather them.
¹⁹ There is no way to relieve your wound;
    your injury is mortal.
All who hear this news about your fate
    clap their hands over your downfall.
For who has not suffered
    as a result of your relentless cruelty?