1. Woe to the bloody city,all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey!
2. The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3. Horsemen charging,flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain,heaps of corpses,dead bodies without end—they stumble over the bodies!
4. And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms,who betrays nations with her whorings,and peoples with her charms.
5. Behold, I am against you,declares the Lord of hosts,and will lift up your skirts over your face;and I will make nations look at your nakednessand kingdoms at your shame.
6. I will throw filth at youand treat you with contemptand make you a spectacle.
7. And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,“Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8. Are you better than Thebesthat sat by the Nile,with water around her,her rampart a sea,and water her wall?
9. Cush was her strength;Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10. Yet she became an exile;she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in piecesat the head of every street;for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains.
11. You also will be drunken;you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12. All your fortresses are like fig treeswith first-ripe figs—if shaken they fallinto the mouth of the eater.