Nahum 3 — Legacy Standard Bible

Woe to Nineveh

3^aWoe to the city of ¹bloodshed, completely full of deception and pillage;Her prey never departs.²The ^asound of the whip,And the sound of the rumbling of the wheel,Galloping horses,And ¹bounding chariots!³Horsemen charging,And swords flaming, and ^aspears flashing,^bMany slain, a mass of corpses,And ^cthere is no end to dead bodies—They stumble over ¹the dead bodies!⁴All because of the ^amany harlotries of the harlot,The charming one, the ^bmistress of sorceries,Who ^csells nations by her harlotriesAnd families by her sorceries.⁵“Behold, ^aI am against you,” declares Yahweh of hosts;“And I will ^buncover your skirts over your faceAnd ^cshow to the nations your nakednessAnd to the kingdoms your disgrace.⁶“I will ^athrow detestable filth on youAnd ^bdisplay you as a wicked foolAnd set you up as a ^cspectacle.⁷“And it will be that all who see youWill flee from you and say,‘Nineveh is devastated!^aWho will console her?’Where will I seek comforters for you?”⁸Are you better than ¹^,^aNo-amon,Which sits along the ^bwaters of the Nile,With water surrounding her,Whose rampart was ²the sea,Whose wall consisted of ³the sea?⁹¹^,^aEthiopia was her might,And Egypt too, without end.^bPut and ^cLubim were among ²her helpers.¹⁰Yet she ^abecame an exile;She went into captivity;Also her ^binfants were dashed to pieces^cAt the head of every street;They ^dcast lots for her honorable men,And all her great men were bound with fetters.¹¹You too will become ^adrunk;You will be ^bhidden.You too will search for a strong defense from the enemy.¹²All your fortifications are ^afig trees with ¹^,^bripe fruit—When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth.¹³Behold, your people are ^awomen in your midst!The gates of your land are ^bopened wide to your enemies;Fire consumes your gate bars.¹⁴^aDraw for yourself water for the siege!^bStrengthen your fortifications!Go into the clay and tread the mortar!¹Take hold of the brick mold!¹⁵There, ^afire will consume you;The sword will cut you down;It will ^bconsume you as the locust does.Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.¹⁶You have increased your ^atraders more than the stars of heaven—The creeping locust ¹strips and flies away.¹⁷Your ¹^,^aguardsmen are like the swarming locust.Your ^bmarshals are like a locust-swarmEncamping in the stone walls on a cold day.The sun rises, and they flee,And the place where they are is not known.¹⁸Your shepherds are ^asleeping, O ^bking of Assyria;Your ^cmighty ones are ¹lying down.Your people are ^dscattered on the mountains,And there is no one to regather them.¹⁹There is ^ano relief for your breakdown,Your ^bwound is incurable.All who hear the report about youWill ^cclap their hands over you,For on whom has not your evil passed continually?