New American Bible, Revised Edition

Nahum 3:8-17 New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE)

8. Are you better than No-amon that was set among the Nile’s canals,Surrounded by waters,with the river for her rampartand water for her wall?

9. Ethiopia was her strength,and Egypt without end;Put and the Libyanswere her allies.

10. Yet even she became an exile,and went into captivity;Even her little ones were dashed to piecesat the corner of every street;For her nobles they cast lots,and all her great ones were put into chains.

11. You, too, will drink of this;you will be overcome;You, too, will seeka refuge from the foe.

12. But all your fortresses are fig trees,bearing early figs;When shaken, they fallinto the devourer’s mouth.

13. Indeed your troopsare women in your midst;To your foes are open widethe gates of your land,fire has consumed their bars.

14. Draw water for the siege,strengthen your fortresses;Go down into the mudand tread the clay,take hold of the brick mold!

15. There the fire will consume you,the sword will cut you down;it will consume you like the grasshoppers.Multiply like the grasshoppers,multiply like the locusts!

16. You have made your traders more numerousthan the stars of the heavens;like grasshoppers that shed their skins and fly away.

17. Your sentries are like locusts,and your scribes like locust swarmsGathered on the rubble fenceson a cold day!Yet when the sun rises, they vanish,and no one knows where they have gone.