| NET Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed! She is full of lies; she is filled with plunder; she has hoarded her spoil! | 1What sorrow awaits Nineveh, the city of murder and lies! She is crammed with wealth and 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! | 2Hear the crack of whips, the rumble of wheels! Horses’ hooves pound, and chariots clatter wildly. |
| 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. | 3See the flashing swords and glittering spears as the charioteers charge past! There are countless casualties, heaps of bodies— so many bodies that people stumble over them. |
| 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-- | 4All this because Nineveh, the beautiful and faithless city, mistress of deadly charms, enticed the nations with her beauty. She taught them all her magic, enchanting people everywhere. |
| 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“I am your enemy!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “And now I will lift your skirts and show all the earth your nakedness and shame. |
| 6I will pelt you with filth; I will treat you with contempt; I will make you a public spectacle. | 6I will cover you with filth and show the world how vile you really are. |
| 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!" | 7All who see you will shrink back and say, ‘Nineveh lies in ruins. Where are the mourners?’ Does anyone regret your destruction?” |
| 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. | 8Are you any better than the city of Thebes, situated on the Nile River, surrounded by water? She was protected by the river on all sides, walled in by water. |
| 9Cush and Egypt had limitless strength; Put and the Libyans were among her allies. | 9Ethiopia and the land of Egypt gave unlimited assistance. The nations of Put and Libya were among 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. | 10Yet Thebes fell, and her people were led away as captives. Her babies were dashed to death against the stones of the streets. Soldiers threw dice to get Egyptian officers as servants. All their leaders were bound in chains. |
| 11You too will act like drunkards; you will go into hiding; you too will seek refuge from the enemy. | 11And you, Nineveh, will also stagger like a drunkard. You will hide for fear of the attacking enemy. |
| 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 fortresses will fall. They will be devoured like the ripe figs that fall into the mouths of those who shake the trees. |
| 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. | 13Your troops will be as weak and helpless as women. The gates of your land will be opened wide to the enemy and set on fire and burned. |
| 14Draw yourselves water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! | 14Get ready for the siege! Store up water! Strengthen the defenses! Go into the pits to trample clay, and pack it into molds, making bricks to repair the walls. |
| 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! | 15But the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down. The enemy will consume you like locusts, devouring everything they see. There will be no escape, even if you multiply like swarming locusts. |
| 16Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven! They are like the young locust which sheds its skin and flies away. | 16Your merchants have multiplied until they outnumber the stars. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and fly 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 guards and officials are also like swarming locusts that crowd together in the hedges on a cold day. But like locusts that fly away when the sun comes up, all of them will fly away and disappear. |
| 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! | 18Your shepherds are asleep, O Assyrian king; your princes lie dead in the dust. Your people are scattered across the mountains with 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 wound; your injury is fatal. All who hear of your destruction will clap their hands for joy. Where can anyone be found who has not suffered from your continual cruelty? |
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