The people of Nineveh will not be able to defend themselves

8 Your city is certainly [RHQ] no safer than Thebes city was.

Thebes was an important city beside the Nile River;

the river was like [SIM] a wall that protected the city [DOU].

9 The rulers of Ethiopia and Egypt helped Thebes;

there was no limit to their power.

The governments of the nearby countries of Put and Libya were also allies of Thebes.

10 But Thebes was captured,

and its people were ◄exiled/forced to go to other countries►.

Their babies were dashed to pieces in the streets of the city.

Enemy soldiers ◄cast lots/threw small marked stones► to decide who would get each official in Thebes to become his slave.

All the leaders of Thebes were fastened/tied by chains.

11 You people of Nineveh will similarly become dazed and drunk,

and you will search for places to hide

to escape from your enemies.

12 Your enemies will cause the walls around your city to fall down

like [SIM] the first figs that fall from fig trees each year.

Your city will be captured easily, like [MET] figs that fall into the mouths [HYP] of those who shake the fig trees.

13 Look at your soldiers!

They will be as weak/helpless as [MET] women!

The gates of your city will be opened wide

to allow your enemies to enter them,

and then the bars of those gates will be burned.

14 Store up water now to use when your enemies surround the city!

Repair the forts!

Dig up clay and trample it to make it soft,

and put it into molds to make bricks to repair the walls!

15 Nevertheless, your enemies will burn your city;

they will kill you with their swords;

they will kill you like [SIM] locusts destroy crops.

16 In your city there are now very many merchants;

it seems that there are more of them than there are stars.

But when your city is being destroyed, those merchants will take the valuable things and disappear

like [SIM] locusts that strip the leaves from plants and then fly away.

17 Your leaders are also like a swarm of [SIM] locusts [DOU]

that crowd together on the stone fences/walls on a cold day,

and then fly away when the sun comes up,

and no one knows where they have gone.

18 O King of Assyria, your officials will all be dead [EUP];

your important people will lie down and rest forever.

Your people will be scattered over the mountains,

and there will no one to gather them together.

19 You are like someone who has a wound that cannot be healed;

it will be a wound that causes him to die.

And all those who hear about what has happened to you will clap their hands joyfully.

They will say, “Everyone has [RHQ] suffered because he continually was very cruel to us.”