Study Desk

"And it will come about that all who see you Will shrink back and run from you and say, 'Nineveh is completely ruined! Who will grieve for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"

Yet she became an exile; She went into captivity. Her young children were dashed to pieces At the head of every street; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound with chains.

You too [Nineveh] will become drunk [with the cup of God's wrath]; You will be hidden. You too [Nineveh] will search [in vain] for a refuge from the enemy.

Draw water for a [long, continued] siege! Strengthen your fortresses! Go down to the clay pits, trample the mortar! Prepare the brick kiln [to burn bricks for the rampart]!

There is no relief and healing for your hurt; Your wound is incurable. All who hear the news about you Clap their hands over [what has happened to] you. For on whom has your [unceasing] evil not come continually?

O LORD, how long will I call for help And You will not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save.

Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? For destruction and violence are before me; Strife continues and contention arises.

Therefore, the law is ineffective and ignored And justice is never upheld, For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore, justice becomes perverted.

[The LORD replied,] "Look among the nations! See! Be astonished! Wonder! For I am doing something in your days— You would not believe it if you were told.

"For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans [who rule in Babylon], That fierce and impetuous nation Who march throughout the earth To take possession of dwelling places that do not belong to them.

"They all come for violence; Their horde of faces moves [eagerly] forward, They gather prisoners like sand.

"They make fun of kings And rulers are a laughing matter to them. They ridicule every stronghold And heap up rubble [for earth mounds] and capture it.

"For the vision is yet for the appointed [future] time It hurries toward the goal [of fulfillment]; it will not fail. Even though it delays, wait [patiently] for it, Because it will certainly come; it will not delay.

"Will your creditors not rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Then you will become plunder for them.

"Because you [king of Babylon] have looted many nations, All peoples who are left will loot you— Because of human bloodshed and for the violence done to the land, To the city and all its inhabitants.

"Woe (judgment is coming) to him who obtains wicked gain for his house [and thinks by so doing] To set his nest on high, That he may be rescued from the hand of evil.

"You have devised a shameful thing for your house By cutting off and putting an end to many peoples; So you are sinning against your own life and forfeiting it.

"For the stone will cry out from the wall [to accuse you—built in sin!] And the rafter will answer it out of the woodwork.

"Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts That peoples labor [only] for the fire [that will destroy their work], And nations grow weary for nothing [that is, things which have no lasting value]?

"For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; The destruction of the animals will terrify you On account of human bloodshed and the violence done to the land, To the city and all its inhabitants.