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¹ A RULER has come up against you who keeps a watch, guards the road, and girds loins; whose strength is exceedingly great.² For the LORD will restore the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the oppressors have trampled upon them and destroyed their branches.³ The shields of their mighty men are red, the valiant men parade with flaming torches and in chariots in the day of their preparation, and the horsemen are terrifying.⁴ In the streets they sing praises and glory in their chariots, their appearance is like torches; they run like lightning.⁵ The soldiers are obedient to their officers; they stumble as they march; they make haste to the wall, and the battlements are prepared.⁶ The city gates are opened and the palace trembles.⁷ And the queen summons her horsemen and flees northward; her maids are mourning in their hearts like doves.⁸ And Nineveh is like a lake, and she is situated by the waters; her warriors flee away. Make a stand, make a stand, their officers cry; but none turns back.⁹ Plunder the silver, plunder the gold; for there is no end to the precious ornaments, and abundance of every kind of precious vessels.¹⁰ She is trampled upon, she is overthrown and breached; the heart faints and the knees tremble and pain is in all loins, and all of them are greatly ashamed.

¹¹ where is the lions den and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion went to enter there and the lions whelp, and there was none to harm them?¹² The lion did tear in pieces enough to feed his whelps, and ripped apart for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey and his dens with pieces of flesh.¹³ Behold, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will burn up your multitudes in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the news of your deeds shall no more be heard.