¹ Woe to the city of bloods^*! All of her is full of denial^* and rapine; the prey departs not;

² the voice of a whip, and the voice of the quaking of the wheels, and of the trotting horses, and of the skipping chariots.

³ The horseman makes both the flame of the sword and the lightning of the spear to go·​·up; and there is a multitude of slain, and a heavy heap of corpses, and no end of bodies—they stumble on^◦ their bodies—

⁴ from the multitude of the harlotries of the harlot of good grace^*, the mistress^◦ of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries, and families by her sorceries.

⁵ Behold, I^◦ am against^▵ thee, says^◦ Jehovah of Armies; and I will reveal thy skirts on thy faces, and I will cause nations to see thy nakedness, and kingdoms thy disgrace.

⁶ And I will cast detestable things on thee, and disparage thee, and will set thee as something to·​·see.

⁷ And it shall be, that all they who see thee shall flee·​·away from thee, and say, Nineveh is devastated; who will be·​·sorry for her? Whence^◦ shall I seek comforters for thee?

⁸ Art· thou ·better than No of Amon, that was sitting on^◦ the rivers^◦, with the waters all around her, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

⁹ Cush was her strength^*, and Egypt, and there was no end of them; Put and Lubim were thy help.

¹⁰ Yet even she^◦ was exiled, she went^◦ into captivity; even her babes were dashed at the head of all the streets; and they cast^▵ lots upon her honored^◦ ones, and all her great ones were chained^◦ in shackles.

¹¹ Thou^◦ also shalt be·​·drunken; thou shalt be hidden^◦; thou^◦ also shalt seek a stronghold away from the enemy.

¹² All thy fortresses shall be like fig·​·trees with the firstfruits: if swayed, then they shall fall on the mouth of the eater.

¹³ Behold, thy people in the midst·​·of thee are women; the gates of thy land opening shall be opened to thine enemies; the fire shall eat·​·up thy bars.

¹⁴ Draw^◦ for thyself waters for the siege; make·​·firm thy fortifications; come into the mud and trample the clay; repair the brickkiln.

¹⁵ There shall the fire eat· thee ·up; the sword shall cut· thee ·off; it shall eat· thee ·up as the grub. Multiply thyself as the grub! Multiply thyself as the locust!

¹⁶ Thou hast multiplied thy merchants more than the stars of the heavens; the grub strips, and flies away.^*

¹⁷ Thy crowned^◦ are as the locust, and thine emperors as the locust^◦ of locusts^◦, which camp in the fences in the day of cold, but the sun rises^◦ and they flee·​·away, and their place is not known where^◦ they are.

¹⁸ Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy magnificent ones shall inhabit the dust; thy people are spread·​·out on the mountains, and no·​·one brings· them ·together.

¹⁹ There is no scar for healing^* thy breaking; thy blow^◦ is desperate^*; all who hear the rumor of thee shall clap^◦ the palm of the hands against thee, for upon whom has not thine evil passed continually?

³ For all the nations have drunk from^◦ the wine of the wrath of her harlotry, and the kings of the earth have committed·​·harlotry with her, and the merchants of the earth have become·​·rich from^◦ the power of her delights.