The Siege of Nineveh

1 An enemy who will scatter you, Nineveh, has advanced against you! Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Prepare yourselves for battle! Muster your mighty strength!

2 For the Lord is about to restore the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though their enemies have plundered them and have destroyed their fields.

3 The shields of his warriors are dyed red; the mighty soldiers are dressed in scarlet garments. The chariots are in flashing metal fittings on the day of battle; the soldiers brandish their spears. 4 The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush back and forth in the broad plazas; they look like lightning bolts, they dash here and there like flashes of lightning. 5 The commander orders his officers; they stumble as they advance; they rush to the city wall, and they set up the covered siege tower. 6 The sluice gates are opened; the royal palace is deluged and dissolves.⁠a 7 Nineveh is taken into exile and is led away; her slave girls moan like doves while they beat their breasts. 8 Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, but now her people are running away; she cries out: “Stop! Stop!”—but no one turns back. 9 Her conquerors cry out: “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure—riches of every kind of precious thing.

10 Destruction, devastation, and desolation! Hearts faint, knees tremble; every stomach churns, all their faces have turned pale!⁠b 11 Where now is the den of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion cub once prowled and no one disturbed them?⁠c 12 The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

13 “I am against you!” declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “I will burn your chariots with fire; the sword will devour your young lions. You will no longer prey upon the land; the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”