Open English Translation NAH Chapter 3

3 The city of bloodshed will have a bad end.

It’s full of lies and stolen property.

Always taking plunder—never letting go.

2 The sound of whips and the rattling of wheels.

Horses galloping and chariots jolting.

3 Charging horsemen, flashing swords, glittering spears.

Many slain—heaps of corpses.

≈ Uncountable bodies—people trip over them.

4 That will happen because the beautiful prostitute had so much business.

She’s the mistress of witchcraft.

She attracts other countries with her prostitution.

≈ She attracts other peoples with her sorceries.

5 Army commander Yahweh declares that he’s against you.

He’ll lift your skirt up over your head,

and show your nakedness to the other countries.

Show your shame to the various kingdoms.

6 I throw disgusting filth at you

and treat you with contempt.

I’ll make a spectacle of you.

7 Everyone who sees you will run away

and say, ‘Nineveh is destroyed.’

Who will weep for her?

Where can I find someone who’ll comfort her?

8 Are you better than Thebes city[fn] was,

where the Nile surrounded and protected her?

≈ Where the water was one of her secure walls.

9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,

and her strength had no limit.

Put and Libya were her allies.

10 Yet Thebes was taken as an exile—

≈ taken into captivity.

Her young children were dashed to pieces at the top of every street.

Her captors threw dice for her nobles.

≈ All her leading men were bound in chains.

11 You, too, will become drunk.

You’ll look for places to hide.

≈ You’ll try to find somewhere to be safe from your enemies.

12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees

with the early fruit now ready.

When they’re shaken

the fruit falls right into the mouth of the eater.

13 See, your troops are like weak women.

Your city gates will be opened wide to your enemies—

their cross-bars will be destroyed by fire.

14 Get water from the wells to store for the siege.

Strengthen your fortifications.

Fetch clay and start working it.

Get the molds ready to make bricks.

15 Even so, fire will devour you.

The sword will cut you down.

They’ll chew you up like locusts.

You need to multiply like locusts and grasshoppers.

16 You have so many merchants—

more than the stars in the sky.

Like locusts, they strip valuables and then fly away.

17 Your many guards are like locusts,

and you have a swarm of officials.

On a cold morning they settle on the walls,

but when the sun rises they fly away

to some place that nobody knows about.

18 You, king of Assyia,

your shepherds have fallen asleep.

≈ Your nobles have settled down for a break.

Your people will be scattered across the hills,

with no one to gather them again.

19 Your pain will get no relief—

your wound is too severe.

Everyone who hears the news about you will do a high-five,

because there’s no one who hasn’t experienced your cruelty.

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