3:1 Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed! 1
She is full of lies; 2
she is filled with plunder; 3
she has hoarded her spoil! 4
3:2 The chariot drivers will crack their whips; 5
the chariot wheels will shake the ground; 6
the chariot horses 7 will gallop; 8
the war chariots 9 will bolt forward! 10
3:3 The charioteers 11 will charge ahead; 12
their swords 13 will flash 14
and their spears 15 will glimmer! 16
There will be many people slain; 17
there will be piles of the dead,
and countless casualties 18 –
so many that people 19 will stumble over the corpses.
3:4 “Because 20 you have acted like a wanton prostitute 21 –
a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, 22
who 23 enslaves 24 nations by her harlotry, 25
and entices peoples by her sorcery 26 –
3:5 I am against you,” declares the Lord who commands armies. 27
“I will strip off your clothes! 28
I will show your nakedness to the nations
and your shame to the kingdoms;
3:6 I will pelt you with filth; 29
I will treat you with contempt;
I will make you a public spectacle.
3:7 Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust;
they will say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated!
Who will lament for her?’
There will be no one to comfort you!” 30
3:8 You are no more secure 31 than Thebes 32 –
she was located on the banks of the Nile;
the waters surrounded her,
her 33 rampart 34 was the sea,
the water 35 was her wall.
3:9 Cush 36 and Egypt had limitless strength; 37
Put and the Libyans 38 were among 39 her 40 allies. 41
3:10 Yet she went into captivity as an exile; 42
even her infants were smashed to pieces 43 at the head of every street.
They cast lots 44 for her nobility; 45
all her dignitaries were bound with chains.
3:11 You too will act like drunkards; 46
you will go into hiding; 47
you too will seek refuge from the enemy.
3:12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees 48 with first-ripe fruit: 49
If they are shaken, 50 their figs 51 will fall 52 into the mouth of the eater! 53