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¹ WOE to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and iniquity; the plunder in it cannot be estimated.² The noise of the whip and the noise of rattling of the wheels and of the snorting of horses and of bounding chariots!³ The horseman driving, with the flash of the sword and the glittering spear! And there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of corpses; there is no end to corpses; they stumble over their corpses.⁴ Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the harlot that was beautiful and mistress of witchcrafts, who brings up nations through her whoredoms and tribes through her witchcraft,⁵ Behold, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts; and I will raise your skirts over your face and will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.⁶ And I will cast filth upon you and disgrace you, and will make you a spectacle,⁷ And it shall come to pass that all who look upon you shall abhor you and say, Nineveh is plundered; who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek a comforter for you?

⁸ Are you better than Jawan of Ammon, which is situated by the rivers, that had waters round about her, whose rampart was the sea, and water her wall?⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was limitless; Put and the Libyans were her helpers;¹⁰ Yet even she was carried away into captivity; her children were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.¹¹ You also shall be grieved and you shall be despised; you also shall seek help because of your enemies.¹² All your strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs; when they are ripe, they fall into the mouth of the eater.¹³ Behold, your people in the midst of you are cowards; they will open the gates of your land to your enemies; the fire shall devour your bars.¹⁴ Draw water for the siege, fortify your strongholds; mix the clay, tread the mortar, strengthen the foundations.¹⁵ There shall the fire devour you, the sword shall cut you off; it shall devour you like the crawling locust because you have become many like the crawling locust and multiplied like the locust.¹⁶ You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the heaven; the young locust swarms and flies away.¹⁷ Your Nazarites are as the locusts, and your warriors as the swarms of locusts which settle on the hedges on a cold day, but when the sun arises they fly off, and it is not known where they are.¹⁸ Your friends slumber, O king of Assyria; your allies have deserted; your people are scattered on the mountains, and they have none to gather them.¹⁹ There is no one to grieve over your wound; your wound is painful; all who hear the news of you clap their hands over you; for your wickedness has gone forth against every man continually.