1O city of blood, wholly false, full of unrighteousness; the prey shall not be handled.
2The noise of whips, and the noise of the rumbling of wheels, and of the pursuing horse, and of the bounding chariot,
3and of the mounting rider, and of the glittering sword, and of the gleaming arms, and of a multitude of slain, and of heavy falling: and there was no end to her nations, but they shall be weak in their bodies
4because of the abundance of fornication: she is a fair harlot, and well-favoured, skilled in sorcery, that sells the nations by her fornication, and peoples by her sorceries.
5Behold, I am against you, says the Lord God Almighty, and I will uncover your skirts in your presence, and I will show the nations your shame, and the kingdoms your disgrace.
6And I will cast abominable filth upon you according to your unclean ways, and will make you a public example.
7And it shall be that every one that sees you shall go down from you, and shall say, Wretched Nineve! who shall lament for her? whence shall I seek comfort for her?
8Prepare you a portion, tune the chord, prepare a portion for Ammon: she that dwells among the rivers, water is round about her, whose dominion is the sea, and whose walls are water.
9And Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt; and there was no limit of the flight of her enemies ; and the Libyans became her helpers.
10Yet she shall go as a prisoner into captivity, and they shall dash her infants against the ground at the top of all her ways: and they shall cast lots upon all her glorious possessions , and all her nobles shall be bound in chains.
11And you shall be drunken, and shall be overlooked; and you shall seek for yourself strength because of your enemies.
12All your strongholds are as fig-trees having watchers: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.
13Behold, your people within you are as women: the gates of your land shall surely be opened to your enemies: the fire shall devour your bars.
14Draw you water for a siege, and well secure your strongholds: enter into the clay, and be you trodden in the chaff, make the fortifications stronger than brick.
15There the fire shall devour you; the sword shall utterly destroy you, it shall devour you as the locust, and you shall be pressed down as a palmerworm.
16You have multiplied your merchandise beyond the stars of heaven: the palmerworm has attacked it , and has flown away.
17Your mixed multitude has suddenly departed as the grasshopper, as the locust perched on a hedge in a frosty day; the sun arises, and it flies off, and knows not its place: woe to them!
18Your shepherds have slumbered, the Assyrian king has laid low your mighty men: your people departed to the mountains, and there was none to receive them .
19There is no healing for your bruise; your wound has rankled: all that hear the report of you shall clap their hands against you; for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?