Nahum 3:1-19
3 Woe to the city of bloodshed.*+ She is all full of deception [and] of robbery. Prey does not depart!
2 There is the sound of [the] whip+ and the sound of the rattling of [the] wheel, and the dashing horse and the leaping chariot.+
3 The mounted horseman, and the flame of [the] sword, and the lightning of [the] spear,+ and the multitude of slain ones, and the heavy mass of carcasses; and there is no end to the dead bodies. They keep stumbling among their dead bodies;
4 owing to the abundance of the acts of prostitution of the prostitute,+ attractive with charm, a mistress of sorceries, she who is ensnaring nations by her acts of prostitution and families by her sorceries.+
5 “Look! I am against you,”*+ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies,* “and I will put the covering of your skirts over your face, and I will cause nations to see your nakedness,+ and kingdoms your dishonor.
6 And I will throw disgusting things upon you,+ and I will make you despicable; and I will set you as a spectacle.+
7 And it must occur that everyone seeing you will flee away from you+ and will certainly say, ‘Ninʹe·veh has been despoiled! Who will sympathize with her?’ From where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than No-aʹmon,+ that was sitting by the Nile canals?+ Waters were all around her, whose wealth was [the] sea, whose wall was from [the] sea.
9 E·thi·oʹpi·a* was her full might, also Egypt;+ and that without limit. Put and the Libʹy·ans* themselves proved to be of assistance to you.*+
10 She, too, was meant for exile; she went into captivity.+ Her own children also came to be dashed to pieces at the head of all the streets;+ and over her glorified men they cast lots,+ and her great ones have all been bound with fetters.+
11 “You yourself will also become drunk;+ you will become something hidden.+ You yourself also will seek a stronghold from [the] enemy.+
12 All your fortified places are as fig trees with the first ripe fruits, which, if they get wiggled, will certainly fall into the mouth of an eater.+
13 “Look! Your people are women in the midst of you.+ To your enemies the gates of your land must without fail be opened. Fire will certainly devour your bars.+
14 Water for a siege draw out for yourself.+ Strengthen your fortified places.+ Get into the mire, and trample down in the clay; grab hold of [the] brick mold.
15 Even there fire will devour you. A sword will cut you off.+ It will devour you like the locust+ species.* Make yourself heavy in numbers like the locust species; make yourself heavy in numbers like the locust.*
16 You have multiplied your tradesmen more than the stars of the heavens.+
“As for the locust species,* it actually strips off its skin; then it flies away.
17 Your guardsmen are like the locust,* and your recruiting officers like the locust swarm.* They are camping in the stone pens in a cold day. The sun itself has but to shine forth, and away they certainly flee; and their place is really unknown where they are.+
18 “Your shepherds have become drowsy,+ O king of As·syrʹi·a; your majestic ones stay in their residences.+ Your people have been scattered upon the mountains, and there is no one collecting [them] together.+
19 There is no relief for your catastrophe. Your stroke has become unhealable.+ All those hearing the report about you will certainly clap their hands at you;+ because upon whom was it that your badness did not pass over constantly?”+
Footnotes
^ Lit., “bloods.”
^ “You,” fem. sing., referring to Nineveh.
^ “Jehovah of armies,” MTVg; LXX, “Jehovah God the Almighty.”
^ “Ethiopia,” LXXVg; MTSy, “Cush.”
^ “And the Libyans.” Heb., weLu·vimʹ.
^ “You,” MTVg; LXX, “her.”
^ Or, “like the locust crowd.” Heb., ka·ʼar·behʹ, the migratory, or desert, locust in the fully developed, winged stage.
^ “The locust species.” Or, “the creeping, unwinged locust.”
^ “Locust swarm.” Heb., go·vaiʹ, used collectively; so called because of their swarming.
