Nahum 3
3
1Woe to the bloody city,
all full of lies and booty—
no end to the plunder!
2The crack of whip, and rumble of wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4And all for the countless harlotries of the harlot,
graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her harlotries,
and peoples with her charms.
5Behold, I am against you,
says the Lord of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will let nations look on your nakedness
and kingdoms on your shame.
6I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt,
and make you a gazingstock.
7And all who look on you will shrink from you and say,
Wasted is Nineveh; who will bemoan her?
whence shall I seek comforters for her?#3.7 Gk: Heb you
8Are you better than Thebes#3.8 Heb No-amon
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9Ethiopia was her strength,
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her#3.9 Gk: Heb your helpers.
10Yet she was carried away,
she went into captivity;
her little ones 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.
11You also will be drunken,
you will be dazed;
you will seek
a refuge from the enemy.
12All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13Behold, your troops
are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured your bars.
14Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay,
tread the mortar,
take hold of the brick mold!
15There will the fire devour you,
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust,
multiply like the grasshopper!
16You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17Your princes are like grasshoppers,
your scribes#3.17 Or marshals like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19There is no assuaging your hurt,
your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news of you
clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
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Nahum 3: RSV
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America