| NET Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed! She is full of lies; she is filled with plunder; she has hoarded her spoil! | 1Woe to this city, contaminated with shed blood, all full of lies and robberies— it is never without victims! |
| 2The chariot drivers will crack their whips; the chariot wheels will shake the ground; the chariot horses will gallop; the war chariots will bolt forward! | 2The crack of whips and the clamor of wheels! The galloping horses and the bounding chariots! |
| 3The charioteers will charge ahead; their swords will flash and their spears will glimmer! There will be many people slain; there will be piles of the dead, and countless casualties--so many that people will stumble over the corpses. | 3The cavalry attacks— the flashing sword and the glittering spear! Many are the slain— so many casualties!— No end to bodies, and the soldiers trip over the corpses. |
| 4"Because you have acted like a wanton prostitute--a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, who enslaves nations by her harlotry, and entices peoples by her sorcery-- | 4Innumerable are the harlotries of this well-favored whore, this mistress of witchcraft, who enslaves nations through her fornication and families through her sorcery. |
| 5I am against you," declares the LORD who commands armies. "I will strip off your clothes! I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms; | 5"Look, I am against you," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "so I will pull up your dress over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations, and your disgrace to the kingdoms. |
| 6I will pelt you with filth; I will treat you with contempt; I will make you a public spectacle. | 6I will hurl abominable filth upon you, making you look foolish, and making an example of you. |
| 7Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust; they will say, 'Nineveh has been devastated! Who will lament for her?' There will be no one to comfort you!" | 7It will be that everyone who looks at you will run away, saying, 'Nineveh has been violently overthrown! Who will mourn for her? Where will I find anyone to comfort you?'" |
| 8You are no more secure than Thebes--she was located on the banks of the Nile; the waters surrounded her, her rampart was the sea, the water was her wall. | 8"Are you any better than Thebes, which sits by the upper Nile, surrounded by water? The sea was her defense, the waters her wall of protection. |
| 9Cush and Egypt had limitless strength; Put and the Libyans were among her allies. | 9Sudan was her source of strength, along with Egypt— there were no limits. Put and the Libyans were her allies. |
| 10Yet she went into captivity as an exile; even her infants were smashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her nobility; all her dignitaries were bound with chains. | 10But she, too, was exiled— she went into captivity! Her young children were dashed to pieces at every crossroad of their streets, and her famous citizens were sold by lottery, while all of her aristocrats were put in chains. |
| 11You too will act like drunkards; you will go into hiding; you too will seek refuge from the enemy. | 11You will also become drunk. You will disappear, trying to hide from your enemies. |
| 12All your fortifications will be like fig trees with first-ripe fruit: If they are shaken, their figs will fall into the mouth of the eater! | 12All your defenses are like fig trees with ripe early fruit— when shaken, it falls right into the devourer's mouth. |
| 13Your warriors will be like women in your midst; the gates of your land will be wide open to your enemies; fire will consume the bars of your gates. | 13Look at your people— they are women! Your borders stand wide open to your enemies, while fire consumes the bars of your gates." |
| 14Draw yourselves water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! | 14"Draw water, because a siege is coming! Strengthen your fortresses! Make the clay good and strong! Mix the mortar! Go get your brick molds! |
| 15There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down; it will devour you like the young locust would. The Assyrian Defenders Will Flee Multiply yourself like the young locust; multiply yourself like the flying locust! | 15In that place fire will consume you, the sword will cut you down, consuming you as locusts do. Multiply yourself like locusts, increase like swarming grasshoppers. |
| 16Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven! They are like the young locust which sheds its skin and flies away. | 16You added to your inventory of businessmen— they number more than the stars of heaven. The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away. |
| 17Your courtiers are like locusts, your officials are like a swarm of locusts! They encamp in the walls on a cold day, yet when the sun rises, they fly away; and no one knows where they are. | 17Your imperial guards are like the swarming grasshopper; your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers, settling in the stone walls on a chilly day. The sun rises, and they flee away; no one knows where they went. |
| 18Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria! Your officers are slumbering! Your people are scattered like sheep on the mountains and there is no one to regather them! | 18Hey king of Assyria! Your shepherds are asleep and your nobles are lying down! Your people lie scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them together. |
| 19Your destruction is like an incurable wound; your demise is like a fatal injury! All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy, for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty! | 19There is no healing for your injury— your wound is fatal. Everyone who hears about you will applaud, because who hasn't escaped your endless evil?" |
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