¹One who scatters has come up against your face. Guard the rampart, watch the road, strengthen the loins, prevail in strength exceedingly.

²For Yahweh has restored the majesty of Jacob like the majesty of Israel, for those who lay waste have laid them waste and ruined their branches.

³The shield of his mighty men is reddened; the men of strength are clothed in scarlet; the chariotry is in the fire of steel on the day he prepares it, and the cypress lances are brandished.

⁴In the streets the chariotry acts madly; they rush about in the broad open places; their appearance is like torches, like lightning flashes they run about.

⁵He will remember his majestic ones; they stumble on their march; they hurry to her wall, and the screen is set up.

⁶The gates of the rivers have been opened, and the palace has melted away.

⁷And it is fixed: she is uncovered, she is carried away, and her maidservants are led along, sighing like the sound of doves, beating on their hearts.

⁸And Nineveh is like a pool of water, from the days she has been; and they are fleeing. Stand! Stand! But there is no one who turns back.

⁹Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! There is no end to the store, the weightiness from every precious article.

¹⁰Emptiness, and desolation, and waste! The heart is melting, the knees are tottering, anguish is in all loins, and the faces of all of them have gathered a glow.

¹¹Where is the dwelling place of lions, and the pasture that it is for the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness, and there the cub of the lion, and no one drove them in terror?

¹²The lion was tearing enough for his cubs, and strangling for his lionesses; and he filled his holes with prey and his lairs with torn flesh.

¹³Look, I am against you, the utterance of Yahweh of hosts; I will burn up her chariotry in smoke, and the sword will eat your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the land, and the voice of your messengers will not be heard again.