Nineveh’s Complete Ruin

1Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage;
         Her prey never departs.

2The noise of the whip,
         The noise of the rattling of the wheel,
         Galloping horses
         And bounding chariots!

3Horsemen charging,
         Swords flashing, spears gleaming,
         Many slain, a mass of corpses,
         And countless dead bodies—
         They stumble over the dead bodies!

4All because of the many harlotries of the harlot,
         The charming one, the mistress of sorceries,
         Who sells nations by her harlotries
         And families by her sorceries.

5“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of hosts;
         “And I will lift up your skirts over your face,
         And show to the nations your nakedness
         And to the kingdoms your disgrace.

6“I will throw filth on you
         And make you vile,
         And set you up as a spectacle.

7“And it will come about that all who see you
         Will shrink from you and say,
         ‘Nineveh is devastated!
         Who will grieve for her?’
         Where will I seek comforters for you?”

8Are you better than No-amon,
         Which was situated by the waters of the Nile,
         With water surrounding her,
         Whose rampart was the sea,
         Whose wall consisted of the sea?

9Ethiopia was her might,
         And Egypt too, without limits.
         Put and Lubim were among her helpers.

10Yet she became an exile,
         She went into captivity;
         Also her small children were dashed to pieces
         At the head of every street;
         They cast lots for her honorable men,
         And all her great men were bound with fetters.

11You too will become drunk,
         You will be hidden.
         You too will search for a refuge from the enemy.

12All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit—
         When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth.

13Behold, your people are women in your midst!
         The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies;
         Fire consumes your gate bars.

14Draw for yourself water for the siege!
         Strengthen your fortifications!
         Go into the clay and tread the mortar!
         Take hold of the brick mold!

15There fire will consume you,
         The sword will cut you down;
         It will consume you as the locust does.
         Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,
         Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.

16You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven—
         The creeping locust strips and flies away.

17Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust.
         Your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers
         Settling in the stone walls on a cold day.
         The sun rises and they flee,
         And the place where they are is not known.

18Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria;
         Your nobles are lying down.
         Your people are scattered on the mountains
         And there is no one to regather them.

19There is no relief for your breakdown,
         Your wound is incurable.
         All who hear about you
         Will clap their hands over you,
         For on whom has not your evil passed continually?

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Woe to thee, O city of blood, all full of lies and violence: rapine shall not depart from thee.

Darby Bible Translation
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and violence; the prey departeth not.

English Revised Version
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not.

Webster's Bible Translation
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robberies; the prey departeth not;

World English Bible
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn't depart.

Young's Literal Translation
Woe to the city of blood, She is all with lies -- burglary -- full, Prey doth not depart."Nineveh, that Great City"
Among the cities of the ancient world in the days of divided Israel one of the greatest was Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian realm. Founded on the fertile bank of the Tigris, soon after the dispersion from the tower of Babel, it had flourished through the centuries until it had become "an exceeding great city of three days' journey." Jonah 3:3. In the time of its temporal prosperity Nineveh was a center of crime and wickedness. Inspiration has characterized it as "the bloody city, . . . full …
Ellen Gould White—The Story of Prophets and Kings

The Tenth Commandment
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.' Exod 20: 17. THIS commandment forbids covetousness in general, Thou shalt not covet;' and in particular, Thy neighbour's house, thy neighbour's wife, &c. I. It forbids covetousness in general. Thou shalt not covet.' It is lawful to use the world, yea, and to desire so much of it as may keep us from the temptation …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Nahum
Poetically the little book of Nahum is one of the finest in the Old Testament. Its descriptions are vivid and impetuous: they set us before the walls of the beleaguered Nineveh, and show us the war-chariots of her enemies darting to and fro like lightning, ii. 4, the prancing steeds, the flashing swords, the glittering spears, iii. 2,3. The poetry glows with passionate joy as it contemplates the ruin of cruel and victorious Assyria. In the opening chapter, i., ii. 2, Jehovah is represented as coming …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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