Judgment on Cush and Assyria

12 “You too, O Cushites,[fn]

will be slain by My sword.”

13 And He will stretch out His hand against the north

and destroy Assyria;

He will make Nineveh a desolation,

as dry as a desert.

14 Herds will lie down in her midst,

creatures of every kind.[fn]

Both the desert owl and screech owl[fn]

will roost atop her [pillars].

Their calls will sound from the window,

but desolation will lie on the threshold,

for He will expose the beams of cedar.

15 This carefree city

that dwells securely,

that thinks to herself:

“I [am it], and [there is] none besides me,”

what a ruin she has become,

a resting place for beasts.

Everyone who passes by her

hisses and shakes his fist.