| International Standard Version | English Standard Version |
| 1Woe to this city, contaminated with shed blood, all full of lies and robberies— it is never without victims! | 1Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey! |
| 2The crack of whips and the clamor of wheels! The galloping horses and the bounding chariots! | 2The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! |
| 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. | 3Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! |
| 4Innumerable are the harlotries of this well-favored whore, this mistress of witchcraft, who enslaves nations through her fornication and families through her sorcery. | 4And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms. |
| 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. | 5Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. |
| 6I will hurl abominable filth upon you, making you look foolish, and making an example of you. | 6I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. |
| 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?'" | 7And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you? |
| 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. | 8Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? |
| 9Sudan was her source of strength, along with Egypt— there were no limits. Put and the Libyans were her allies. | 9Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. |
| 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. | 10Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. |
| 11You will also become drunk. You will disappear, trying to hide from your enemies. | 11You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy. |
| 12All your defenses are like fig trees with ripe early fruit— when shaken, it falls right into the devourer's mouth. | 12All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. |
| 13Look at your people— they are women! Your borders stand wide open to your enemies, while fire consumes the bars of your gates." | 13Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars. |
| 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! | 14Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! |
| 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. | 15There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper! |
| 16You added to your inventory of businessmen— they number more than the stars of heaven. The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away. | 16You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. |
| 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. | 17Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold— when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are. |
| 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. | 18Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. |
| 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?" | 19There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. |
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