The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers.

Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.

For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

The Lord has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off.

The Destruction of Nineveh

The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.

The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.

The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.

He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up.

its mistress is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.

Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.

The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies!

Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame.

I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.

And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you?

Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?

Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers.

Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains.

You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.