1
The scatterer has come up before your face. Guard the fortress. Watch the road. Strengthen the loins. Make your power exceedingly strong.
2
For Yahuah is restoring the majesty of Yaaqov like the majesty of Yisra’el, though plunderers have plundered them and ruined their vine branches.
3
The shields of his mighty men are reddened. The men of valor are clothed in scarlet. The chariots flash with fire in the day of his preparation, and the spears are shaken.
4
The chariots rage through the streets. They rush through the squares. Their appearance is like torches. Like lightning they run.
5
He remembers his mighty ones. They stumble in their march. They hasten to her wall, and the covering is prepared.
6
The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace melts away.
7
And it is established: she is uncovered and carried away. And her maidservants moan like doves, beating upon their hearts.
8
And Nineveh has been like a pool of waters from her days, but now they flee. “Stand! Stand!” But none turns back.
9
Plunder silver. Plunder gold. There is no end to the treasure, the abundance of every precious vessel.
10
Emptiness, desolation, and devastation. The heart melts, the knees tremble, anguish is in every loin, and all their faces gather paleness.
11
Where is the den of the lions, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, the lioness, and the lion cub walked, with none making them afraid?
12
The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled for his lionesses. He filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
13
“See, I am against you,” declares Yahuah of Hosts. “And I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. And I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.”