1WOE to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and iniquity; the plunder in it cannot be estimated.

2The noise of the whip and the noise of rattling of the wheels and of the snorting of horses and of bounding chariots!

3The horseman driving, with the flash of the sword and the glittering spear! And there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of corpses; there is no end to corpses; they stumble over their corpses.

4Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the harlot that was beautiful and mistress of witchcrafts, who brings up nations through her whoredoms and tribes through her witchcraft,

5Behold, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts; and I will raise your skirts over your face and will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.

6And I will cast filth upon you and disgrace you, and will make you a spectacle,

7And it shall come to pass that all who look upon you shall abhor you and say, Nineveh is plundered; who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek a comforter for you?

8Are you better than Jawan of Ammon, which is situated by the rivers, that had waters round about her, whose rampart was the sea, and water her wall?

9Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was limitless; Put and the Libyans were her helpers;

10Yet even she was carried away into captivity; her children were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

11You also shall be grieved and you shall be despised; you also shall seek help because of your enemies.

12All your strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs; when they are ripe, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

13Behold, your people in the midst of you are cowards; they will open the gates of your land to your enemies; the fire shall devour your bars.

14Draw water for the siege, fortify your strongholds; mix the clay, tread the mortar, strengthen the foundations.

15There shall the fire devour you, the sword shall cut you off; it shall devour you like the crawling locust because you have become many like the crawling locust and multiplied like the locust.

16You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the heaven; the young locust swarms and flies away.

17Your Nazarites are as the locusts, and your warriors as the swarms of locusts which settle on the hedges on a cold day, but when the sun arises they fly off, and it is not known where they are.

18Your friends slumber, O king of Assyria; your allies have deserted; your people are scattered on the mountains, and they have none to gather them.

19There is no one to grieve over your wound; your wound is painful; all who hear the news of you clap their hands over you; for your wickedness has gone forth against every man continually.