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¹ Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey does not depart.² The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots,³ the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies; they stumble on their bodies;-⁴ because of the multitude of the prostitutions of the well-favored prostitute, the mistress of witchcrafts, that sells nations through her prostitutions, and families through her witchcrafts.⁵ Look, I am against you, says Yahweh of hosts, and I will uncover your skirts on your face; and I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.⁶ And I will cast detestable things on you, and make you vile, and will set you as a gazing-stock.⁷ And it shall come to pass, that all those that look at you shall flee from you, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? from where shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸ Are you better than No-amon, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, [and] her wall was more than the sea?⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were your helpers.¹⁰ Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also 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 drunk; you shall be hid; you also shall seek a stronghold because of the enemy.¹² All your fortresses shall be [like] fig-trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.¹³ Look, your people in the midst of you are women; the gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies: the fire has devoured your bars.¹⁴ Draw yourself water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses; go into the clay, and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln.¹⁵ There the fire shall devour you; the sword shall cut you off; it shall devour you like the canker-worm: make yourself many as the canker-worm; make yourself many as the locust.¹⁶ You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm ravages, and flees away.¹⁷ Your princes are as the locusts, and your marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun rises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.¹⁸ Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles are at rest; your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is none to gather them.¹⁹ There is no assuaging of your hurt: your wound is grievous: all that hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for on whom has not your wickedness passed continually?