Chapter 3

¹ O city of blood, wholly false, full of unrighteousness; the prey shall not be ¹handled. 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 ²mounting 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-favoured, skilled in sorcery, that sells the nations by her fornication, and peoples by her sorceries.

⁵ Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord God Almighty, and I will uncover thy skirts in thy presence, and I will shew the nations thy shame, and the kingdoms thy disgrace. ⁶ And I will cast abominable filth upon thee according to thine unclean ways, and will make thee a public example. ⁷ And it shall be that every one that sees thee shall go down from thee, and shall say, Wretched Nineve! who shall lament for her? whence shall I seek comfort for her?

⁸ Prepare thee 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 thou shalt be drunken, and shalt be ³overlooked; and thou shalt seek for thyself ⁴strength because of thine enemies. ¹² All thy strong-holds are as fig-trees ⁵having watchers: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater. ¹³ Behold, thy people within thee are as women: the gates of thy land shall surely be opened to thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.

¹⁴ Draw thee water ⁶for a siege, and well secure thy strong-holds: enter into the clay, and ⁷be thou trodden in the chaff, make the fortifications stronger than brick. ¹⁵ There the fire shall devour thee; the sword shall utterly destroy thee, it shall devour thee as the locust, and thou shalt be pressed down as a palmerworm. ¹⁶ Thou hast multiplied thy merchandise beyond the stars of heaven: the palmerworm has attacked it, and has flown away. ¹⁷ Thy 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 Thy shepherds have slumbered, the Assyrian king has laid low thy mighty men: thy people departed to the mountains, and there was none to ⁸receive them.

¹⁹ There is no healing for thy bruise; thy wound has rankled: all that hear the report of thee shall clap their hands against thee; for upon whom has not thy wickedness passed continually?

1106