Read the Bible

^1 (a)The scatterer has come up against you.
    ^(b)Man the ramparts;
    watch the road;
dress for battle;^[a]
    collect all your strength.

² For ^(c)the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
    as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
    and ^(d)ruined their branches.

³ The shield of his mighty men is red;
    ^(e)his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
    on the day he musters them;
    the cypress spears are brandished.
^4 (f)The chariots race madly through the streets;
    they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
    they dart like lightning.
⁵ He remembers ^(g)his officers;
    ^(h)they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
    the siege tower^[b] is set up.
^6 (i)The river gates are opened;
    the palace ^(j)melts away;
⁷ its mistress^[c] is ^(k)stripped;^[d] she is carried off,
    her slave girls ^(l)lamenting,
moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.
^8 (m)Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters run away.^[e]
"Halt! Halt!" they cry,
    but ⁽ⁿ⁾none turns back.
⁹ Plunder the silver,
    plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
    or of the wealth of all precious things.

^10 (o)Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
    ^(p)Hearts melt and ^(q)knees tremble;
^(r)anguish is in all loins;
    ^(s)all faces grow pale!
¹¹ Where is the lions' den,
    the feeding place of ^(t)the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
    where his cubs were, with ^(u)none to disturb?
^12 (v)The lion tore enough for his cubs
    and ^(w)strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
    and his dens with torn flesh.