The Destruction of Nineveh

¹The scatterer has come up against you.

Man the ramparts;

watch the road;

dress for battle;1

collect all your strength.

²For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob

as the majesty of Israel,

for plunderers have plundered them

and ruined their branches.

³The shield of his mighty men is red;

his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.

The chariots come with flashing metal

on the day he musters them;

the cypress spears are brandished.

⁴The chariots race madly through the streets;

they rush to and fro through the squares;

they gleam like torches;

they dart like lightning.

⁵He remembers his officers;

they stumble as they go,

they hasten to the wall;

the siege tower2 is set up.

⁶The river gates are opened;

the palace melts away;

⁷its mistress3 is stripped;4 she is carried off,

her slave girls lamenting,

moaning like doves

and beating their breasts.

⁸Nineveh is like a pool

whose waters run away.5

“Halt! Halt!” they cry,

but none turns back.

⁹Plunder the silver,

plunder the gold!

There is no end of the treasure

or of the wealth of all precious things.

¹⁰Desolate! Desolation and ruin!

Hearts melt and knees tremble;

anguish is in all loins;

all faces grow pale!

¹¹Where is the lions' den,

the feeding place of the young lions,

where the lion and lioness went,

where his cubs were, with none to disturb?

¹²The lion tore enough for his cubs

and strangled prey for his lionesses;

he filled his caves with prey

and his dens with torn flesh.

¹³Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your6 chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.