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¹ He that dashes in pieces has come up against you: keep the fortress, watch the way, make your loins strong, fortify your power mightily.² For Yahweh restores 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 are blazing in the day of his preparation, and the 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 remembers his nobles: they stumble in their march; they hurry to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared.⁶ The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.⁷ And he is drawn up, she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her female slaves moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts.⁸ But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water: yet they flee away. Stand, stand, [they cry]; but none looks back.⁹ Take the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture.¹⁰ She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melts, 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 tore in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin.¹³ Look, I am against you, says Yahweh of hosts, and I will burn your crowd in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.