| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1 You are being attacked by advancing forces! Guard your rampart! Watch your roads! Prepare yourselves! Marshall your defenses! | 1The watchmen of Nineveh shout: "An enemy who will scatter you is marching out to attack you!" "Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Prepare yourselves for battle! Muster your mighty strength!" |
| 2For the LORD will restore the glory of Jacob, just as he will restore the glory of Israel, although plunderers have devastated them, vandalizing their vine branches. | 2For the LORD will restore the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though their enemies have plundered them and have destroyed their fields. |
| 3The shields deployed by Israel's elite forces are scarlet, their valiant men are clothed in crimson. When they are prepared, the polished armament on their chariots will shine, and lances will be brandished about ferociously. | 3The shields of his warriors are dyed red; the mighty soldiers are dressed in scarlet garments. The metal fittings of the chariots shine like fire on the day of battle; the soldiers brandish their spears. |
| 4Their chariots storm through the streets, jostling each other along broad avenues. They look like torches, as they dart around like lightning. | 4The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush back and forth in the broad plazas; they look like lightning bolts, they dash here and there like flashes of lightning. |
| 5He will remember to summon his finest troops. They will stumble on their way, hurrying over to Nineveh's wall. Their defensive shield is in place. | 5The commander orders his officers; they stumble as they advance; they rush to the city wall and they set up the covered siege tower. |
| 6The river gates will be opened, and the palace will collapse. | 6The sluice gates are opened; the royal palace is deluged and dissolves. |
| 7It has been determined: The woman is unveiled and sent away, her servant girls mourn. Beating their breasts, they whimper like doves. | 7Nineveh is taken into exile and is led away; her slave girls moan like doves while they beat their breasts. |
| 8Nineveh is a reservoir whose water is draining away. "Wait! Wait!" they cry, yet not even one person looks back. | 8Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, but now her people are running away; she cries out: "Stop! Stop!"--but no one turns back. |
| 9Take the silver! Take the gold! There is no end to the treasure— fabulous riches of every imagination. | 9Her conquerors cry out: "Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!" There is no end to the treasure; riches of every kind of precious thing. |
| 10Nineveh is devastated, deserted, and desolate. Her heart melts, her knees knock. Every stomach is upset, every face grows pale. | 10Destruction, devastation, and desolation! Their hearts faint, their knees tremble, each stomach churns, each face turns pale! |
| 11Where is this lion's den? Where is the place where the young lions fed, where the lion and its mate walked with their young, the place where they feared nothing? | 11Where now is the den of the lions, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion cub once prowled and no one disturbed them? |
| 12This lion renders its prey to pieces to feed its whelps, and strangles enough prey for its mate, filling its lairs with prey and its dens with rendered flesh. | 12The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed and strangled prey to provide food for his lionesses; he filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh. |
| 13"I am against you," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "and I will send your chariots up in smoke. A sword will devour your young lions, I will eliminate your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard." | 13"I am against you!" declares the LORD who commands armies: "I will burn your chariots with fire; the sword will devour your young lions; you will no longer prey upon the land; the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard." |
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