Nineveh’s Downfall
totally deceitful,
full of plunder,
never without prey.3:1 Nah 2:9
2The crack of the whip
and rumble of the wheel,
galloping horse
3Charging horseman,
flashing sword,
shining spear;
heaps of slain,
dead bodies without end3:3 Nah 2:9 —
they stumble over their dead.
4Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute,
the attractive mistress of sorcery,
who treats nations and clans like merchandise
by her prostitution and sorcery,3:4 2Kg 9:22; Pr 7:10–23; Ezk 16:15; 23:1–21; Rv 17:3–6
This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
I will lift your skirts over your face
and display your nakedness to nations,
6I will throw filth on you
I will make a spectacle of you.
“Nineveh is devastated;
who will show sympathy to her?”
Where can I find anyone to comfort you?
that sat along the Nile
with water surrounding her,
whose rampart was the sea,
the river3:8 LXX, Syr, Vg read water3:8 Lit sea from sea her wall?
9Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength;
Put and Libya were among her3:9 Lit your allies.
10Yet she became an exile;
she went into captivity.
at the head of every street.
They cast lots for her dignitaries,3:10 Ob 11
and all her nobles were bound in chains.
11You3:11 = Nineveh also will become drunk;
you will hide.3:11 Or will be overcome
You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
12All your fortresses are fig trees
with figs that ripened first;
when shaken, they fall —
right into the mouth of the eater!
13Look, your troops are like women among you;
your land’s city gates
are wide open to your enemies.
Fire will devour the bars of your gates.
14Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your fortresses.
Step into the clay and tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick-mold!
15The fire will devour you there;
the sword will cut you down.
It will devour you like the young locust.3:15 Jl 1:4
Multiply yourselves like the young locust;
multiply like the swarming locust!
more numerous than the stars of the sky.
The young locust strips3:16 Or sheds its skin the land
and flies away.
17Your court officials are like the swarming locust,
and your scribes like clouds of locusts,
which settle on the walls on a cold day;
when the sun rises, they take off,
and no one knows where they are.
your officers sleep.
Your people are scattered across the mountains3:18 Ezk 34:6
with no one to gather them together.3:18 1Kg 22:17
19There is no remedy for your injury;
All who hear the news about you
for who has not experienced
your constant cruelty?
Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard
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