3:1 Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed! ¹ 

She is full of lies; ² 

she is filled with plunder; ³ 

she has hoarded her spoil! ⁴ 

3:2 The chariot drivers will crack their whips; ⁵ 

the chariot wheels will shake the ground; ⁶ 

the chariot horses ⁷  will gallop; ⁸ 

the war chariots ⁹  will bolt forward! ¹⁰ 

3:3 The charioteers ¹¹  will charge ahead; ¹² 

their swords ¹³  will flash ¹⁴ 

and their spears ¹⁵  will glimmer! ¹⁶ 

There will be many people slain; ¹⁷ 

there will be piles of the dead,

and countless casualties ¹⁸  –

so many that people ¹⁹  will stumble over the corpses.

3:4 “Because ²⁰  you have acted like a wanton prostitute ²¹  –

a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, ²² 

who ²³  enslaves ²⁴  nations by her harlotry, ²⁵ 

and entices peoples by her sorcery ²⁶  –

3:5 I am against you,” declares the Lord who commands armies. ²⁷ 

“I will strip off your clothes! ²⁸ 

I will show your nakedness to the nations

and your shame to the kingdoms;

3:6 I will pelt you with filth; ²⁹ 

I will treat you with contempt;

I will make you a public spectacle.

3:7 Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust;

they will say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated!

Who will lament for her?’

There will be no one to comfort you!” ³⁰ 

3:8 You are no more secure ³¹  than Thebes ³²  –

she was located on the banks of the Nile;

the waters surrounded her,

her ³³  rampart ³⁴  was the sea,

the water ³⁵  was her wall.

3:9 Cush ³⁶  and Egypt had limitless strength; ³⁷ 

Put and the Libyans ³⁸  were among ³⁹  her ⁴⁰  allies. ⁴¹ 

3:10 Yet she went into captivity as an exile; ⁴² 

even her infants were smashed to pieces ⁴³  at the head of every street.

They cast lots ⁴⁴  for her nobility; ⁴⁵ 

all her dignitaries were bound with chains.

3:11 You too will act like drunkards; ⁴⁶ 

you will go into hiding; ⁴⁷ 

you too will seek refuge from the enemy.

3:12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees ⁴⁸  with first-ripe fruit: ⁴⁹ 

If they are shaken, ⁵⁰  their figs ⁵¹  will fall ⁵²  into the mouth of the eater! ⁵³ 

3:13 Your warriors will be like women in your midst;

the gates of your land will be wide open ⁵⁴  to your enemies;

fire will consume ⁵⁵  the bars of your gates. ⁵⁶ 

3:14 Draw yourselves water for a siege! ⁵⁷ 

Strengthen your fortifications!

Trample the mud ⁵⁸  and tread the clay!

Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! ⁵⁹ 

3:15 There the fire will consume ⁶⁰  you;

the sword will cut you down;

it will devour ⁶¹  you like the young locust would.

Multiply yourself ⁶²  like the young locust;

multiply yourself like the flying locust!

3:16 Increase ⁶³  your merchants more than the stars of heaven!

They are like ⁶⁴  the young locust which sheds ⁶⁵  its skin and flies away.

3:17 Your courtiers ⁶⁶  are like locusts,

your officials ⁶⁷  are like a swarm of locusts!

They encamp in the walls on a cold day,

yet when the sun rises, they ⁶⁸  fly away; ⁶⁹ 

and no one knows where they ⁷⁰  are. ⁷¹ 

3:18 Your shepherds ⁷²  are sleeping, O king of Assyria!

Your officers ⁷³  are slumbering! ⁷⁴ 

Your people are scattered like sheep ⁷⁵  on the mountains

and there is no one to regather them!

3:19 Your destruction is like an incurable wound; ⁷⁶ 

your demise is like a fatal injury! ⁷⁷ 

All who hear what has happened to you ⁷⁸  will clap their hands for joy, ⁷⁹ 

for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty! ⁸⁰