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^[b] 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^[c] is set up.
⁶ The river gates are opened,
    the palace trembles.
⁷ It is decreed^[d] that the city^[e] be exiled,
    its slave women led away,
moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.
⁸ Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters^[f] 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^[g] 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^[b]
    that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
    her rampart a sea,
    water her wall?
⁹ Ethiopia^[c] was her strength,
    Egypt too, and that without limit;
    Put and the Libyans were her^[d] 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;^[e]
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^[f] 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?