1 He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress!
Watch the way! Strengthen your loins! Fortify your power mightily! 2 For
Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the
destroyers have destroyed them, and ruined their vine branches. 3 The
shield of his mighty men is made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The
chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the pine spears
are brandished. 4 The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and
forth in the broad ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the
lightnings. 5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way.
They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place. 6 The
gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. 7 It is
decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids 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. “Stop! Stop!” they cry,
but no one 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, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock
together, their bodies and faces have grown 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 cubs, and no one made them afraid? 12 The lion
tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and
filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey. 13 “Behold, I am
against you,” says Yahweh of Hosts, “and I will burn her chariots in the
smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your
prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be
heard.”
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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