Nahum 3

¹²Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

¹Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled!

²She heeded no voice; she accepted no correction. She does not trust in the Lord; she has not drawn near to her God.

⁶Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.

⁷For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.

²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

²“As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations

³and tell her that this is what the Lord God says: ‘O city who brings her own doom by shedding blood within her walls and making idols to defile herself,

¹²The lion mauled enough for its cubs and strangled prey for the lioness. It filled its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.

³at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions, the rumbling of chariots, and the clatter of their wheels. The fathers will not turn back for their sons; their hands will hang limp.

³The shields of his mighty men are red; the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariots flash like fire on the day they are prepared, and the spears of cypress have been brandished.

⁴The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.

²²Then the hooves of horses thundered—the mad galloping of his stallions.

²²He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.

²³A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance.

⁵For every trampling boot of battle and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁴On the mountains of Israel you will fall—you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to every kind of ravenous bird and wild beast.

¹¹Sun and moon stood still in their places at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.

³Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

²⁴So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

⁴The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.

⁹These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

¹²So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

¹³You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.

²And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.

³All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

¹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.

²The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

²³The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”

²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.

²⁶You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger.

²⁶So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.

²²And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.

²⁹They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity

¹³“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of Hosts. “I will reduce your chariots to cinders, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

²Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.

³Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”

³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.

⁹“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

⁵My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.

⁶I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.

³¹then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.

¹⁴The Lord has issued a command concerning you, O Nineveh: “There will be no descendants to carry on your name. I will cut off the carved image and cast idol from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.”

³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to ridicule and persecution; at other times you were partners with those who were so treated.

¹⁹These pairs have befallen you: devastation and destruction, famine and sword. Who will grieve for you? Who can comfort you?

⁵Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

¹³What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?

⁹“We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches to the clouds.”

³⁴At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!”

²Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to the great Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?

¹⁴I will lay waste Pathros, set fire to Zoan, and execute judgment on Thebes.

¹⁵I will pour out My wrath on Pelusium, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the crowds of Thebes.

²“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: ‘Who can be compared to your greatness?

³Look at Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches that shaded the forest. It towered on high; its top was among the clouds.

⁵The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.

⁶The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.

²⁵The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I am about to punish Amon god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt with her gods and kings, and those who trust in Pharaoh.

²⁶I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives—of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited as in days of old, declares the Lord.

⁵Cush, Put, and Lud, and all the various peoples, as well as Libya and the men of the covenant land, will fall with Egypt by the sword.

¹⁰Men of Persia, Lydia, and Put served as warriors in your army. They hung their shields and helmets on your walls; they gave you splendor.

⁶The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

⁵Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

⁵Persia, Cush, and Put will accompany them, all with shields and helmets,

⁹Advance, O horses! Race furiously, O chariots! Let the warriors come forth—Cush and Put carrying their shields, men of Lydia drawing the bow.

⁴so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.

³They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

¹⁶Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.

³⁰At that time ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’

²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

¹⁰Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty.

¹⁰For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.

⁵Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

¹³and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.

⁴The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.

¹⁰They scoff at kings and make rulers an object of scorn. They laugh at every fortress and build up siege ramps to seize it.

³⁰The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.

³⁷A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the Lord of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.

⁶The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.

¹This is what the Lord says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:

²“I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

¹⁶For He has broken down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

¹One who scatters advances against you, O Nineveh. Guard the fortress! Watch the road! Brace yourselves! Summon all your strength!

³he consulted with his leaders and mighty men about stopping up the waters of the springs outside the city, and they helped him carry it out.

⁴Many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said.

³“Deploy your shields, small and large; advance for battle!

⁴Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears; put on armor!

⁹Advance, O horses! Race furiously, O chariots! Let the warriors come forth—Cush and Put carrying their shields, men of Lydia drawing the bow.

⁹Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war; rouse the mighty men; let all the men of war advance and attack!

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’

¹¹Is not Hezekiah misleading you to give you over to death by famine and thirst when he says, ‘The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria?’

⁴What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.

¹³Look at your troops—they are like your women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire consumes their bars.

¹³“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of Hosts. “I will reduce your chariots to cinders, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

²⁵I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.

¹³And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.

¹³So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and throughout that day and night the Lord sent an east wind across the land. By morning the east wind had brought the locusts.

¹⁴The locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt. Never before had there been so many locusts, and never again will there be.

⁵And the Lord took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”

¹⁷I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.

²²As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister before Me.”

²³You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven and brought them to the land You had told their fathers to enter and possess.

²⁷“Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.

⁷And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads; and their faces were like the faces of men.

¹⁷So Micaiah declared: “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These people have no master; let each one return home in peace.’”

⁵The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

⁶At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and rider lie stunned.

¹⁸Therefore this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria.

⁵⁷I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁴Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.

¹“Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.

⁹For her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah; it has approached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem itself.

¹⁵All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

²³It claps its hands at him and hisses him out of his place.

¹⁸Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands.

¹¹Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.

²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.