CHAPTER 3

1  O city of blood, wholly false, full of unrighteousness; the prey shall not be handled.

2  The noise of whips, and the noise of the rumbling of wheels, and of the pursuing horse, and of the bounding chariot,

3  and 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

4  because of the abundance of fornication: she is a fair harlot, and well-favored, skilled in sorcery, that sells the nations by her fornication, and peoples by her sorceries.

5  Behold, 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.

6  And I will cast abominable filth upon you according to your unclean ways, and will make you a public spectacle.

7  And it shall be that every one that sees you shall go down from you, and shall say, Wretched Nineveh! Who shall lament for her? Where shall I seek comfort for her?

8  Prepare 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.

9  And Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt; and there was no limit of the flight of her enemies; and the Libyans became her helpers.

10  Yet 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.

11  And you will be drunk, and shall be overlooked; and you will seek strength for yourself because of your enemies.

12  All your strongholds are as fig trees having watchers: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.

13  Behold, 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.

14  Draw your water for a siege, and well secure your strongholds: enter into the clay, and thus be trodden in the chaff, make the fortifications stronger than brick.

15  There 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.

16  You have multiplied your merchandise beyond the stars of heaven: the palmerworm has attacked it, and has flown away.

17  Your 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!

18  Your 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.

19  There 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?