1Woe to the city of blood! It is full of lies and robbery. It never stops taking its prey.
2The sound of a whip, and the sound of rattling wheels, and prancing horses, and bouncing chariots.
3The horseman lifts up the shining sword and the flashing spear. There are crowds of the slain, and heaps of dead bodies. There is no end to the corpses; people stumble over them.
4All this because of the many prostitutions of the beautiful prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft. She sells nations by her prostitution, and families by her witchcraft.
5"Look, I am against you," says the LORD of hosts. "I will pull your skirts up over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame."
6"I will throw disgusting filth on you, and make you vile, and put you on show for all to stare at."
7Then all who look at you will run away from you and say, "Nineveh is laid waste. Who will weep for her? Where shall I look for anyone to comfort you?"
8Are you better than No, that crowded city that sat among the rivers, with water all around her? The sea was her defence, and the sea was her wall.
9Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it had no limit. Put and Lubim were your helpers.
10Yet she was carried away; she went into captivity. Her little children were smashed to pieces at the top of every street. They threw lots for her honoured men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
11You too will be made drunk. You will go into hiding. You too will look for a safe place from the enemy.
12All your strongholds will be like fig trees with early figs. If they are shaken, the figs fall straight into the mouth of the eater.
13Look, the people among you are women. The gates of your land are thrown wide open to your enemies. The fire has burned up your gate bars.
14Draw water for the siege. Make your strongholds strong. Go into the clay and tread the mortar; make the brick kiln strong.
15There the fire will burn you up. The sword will cut you off. It will eat you up like the young locust. Make yourselves as many as the young locust, as many as the locusts.
16You have made your merchants more than the stars of heaven. The young locust strips the land, then flies away.
17Your crowned princes are like locusts, and your captains like swarms of grasshoppers. They settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun rises they fly away, and no one knows where they are.
18Your shepherds are asleep, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down in the dust. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and no one gathers them.
19There is no cure for your injury; your wound is deadly. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall. For who has not felt your endless cruelty?