| New Living Translation | International Standard Version |
| 1What sorrow awaits Nineveh, the city of murder and lies! She is crammed with wealth and is never without victims. | 1Woe to this city, contaminated with shed blood, all full of lies and robberies— it is never without victims! |
| 2Hear the crack of whips, the rumble of wheels! Horses’ hooves pound, and chariots clatter wildly. | 2The crack of whips and the clamor of wheels! The galloping horses and the bounding chariots! |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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. | 4Innumerable are the harlotries of this well-favored whore, this mistress of witchcraft, who enslaves nations through her fornication and families through her sorcery. |
| 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. | 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 cover you with filth and show the world how vile you really are. | 6I will hurl abominable filth upon you, making you look foolish, and making an example of you. |
| 7All who see you will shrink back and say, ‘Nineveh lies in ruins. Where are the mourners?’ Does anyone regret your destruction?” | 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?'" |
| 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. | 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. |
| 9Ethiopia and the land of Egypt gave unlimited assistance. The nations of Put and Libya 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 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. | 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. |
| 11And you, Nineveh, will also stagger like a drunkard. You will hide for fear of the attacking enemy. | 11You will also become drunk. You will disappear, trying to hide from your enemies. |
| 12All your fortresses will fall. They will be devoured like the ripe figs that fall into the mouths of those who shake the trees. | 12All your defenses are like fig trees with ripe early fruit— when shaken, it falls right into the devourer's mouth. |
| 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. | 13Look at your people— they are women! Your borders stand wide open to your enemies, while fire consumes the bars of your gates." |
| 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. | 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! |
| 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. | 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. |
| 16Your merchants have multiplied until they outnumber the stars. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and fly 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 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. | 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 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. | 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. |
| 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? | 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?" |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. |
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