1. Woe to the bloody city! It is a lie, and full of plunder; the prey is not withdrawn.
2. The sound of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of a wheel, and of a galloping horse, and of a bounding chariot.
3. The horseman lifts up both the bright sword and the lightning of the spear. And many are slain, and there are a mass of dead bodies, and no end of corpses; they stumble on their dead bodies,
4. because of the many harlotries of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of sorceries who sells nations by her harlotries, and families by her sorceries.
5. Behold, I am against you, says Jehovah of Hosts; and I will uncover your skirts upon your face. And I will cause the nations to see your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
6. And I will cast filth upon you, and will dishonor you, and will set you as a gazing-stock.
7. And it shall be that all those who look upon you shall flee from you, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will weep for her? From where shall I seek comforters for you?
8. Are you better than No Amon, that dwelt among the Nile branches, waters all around her, whose rampart was the sea, the waters her wall?
9. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, yea, without end. Put and Lubim were among your helpers.
10. Yet she went into exile; she went into captivity, and her young children also were dashed to pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
11. You also shall be drunken; you shall be hidden, you also shall seek strength because of the enemy.
12. All your strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first fruits; if they are shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.
13. Behold, your people in your midst are women. The gates of your land shall surely be opened to your enemies; the fire shall devour your bars.
14. Draw waters for the siege; fortify your strongholds; go into the clay, and tread the mortar; make the brick mold strong.
15. There fire shall devour you; the sword shall cut you off, it shall eat you up like the locust. Make yourself as many as the larvae, multiply yourself like the locusts.
16. You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven; the locust larvae shall strip off and fly away.
17. Your rulers are like the locusts, and your officials are a swarm of locusts that camp in the hedges in the cold day; the sun rises, and they flee, and the place where they are is not known.
18. Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria. Your nobles are at rest; your people are scattered upon the mountains, and no one is gathering.
19. There is no healing of your fracture; your wound is grievous; all who hear the news of you shall clap the hands over you; for upon whom has your wickedness not passed continually?