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¹ He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee: keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. ² For Jehovah restoreth the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and destroyed their vine-branches. ³ The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots ^[a]flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the ^[b]cypress spears are brandished. ⁴ The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings. ⁵ He remembereth his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared. ⁶ The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. ^7 [c]And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids ^[d]moan as with the voice of doves, beating upon their ^[e]breasts.

⁸ But Nineveh hath been ^[f]from of old like a pool of water: yet they flee away. Stand, stand, they cry; but none ^[g]looketh back. ⁹ Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, the ^[h]glory of all goodly furniture. ¹⁰ She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed pale. ¹¹ Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid? ¹² The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin. ¹³ Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.