Nahum 3

Woe to the City of Blood, and No One Mourns Her

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Woe to the City of Bloodshed

3:1O city of bloodshed, wholly false, full of injustice! Game will not be touched.

3:2The sound of whips and the sound of shaking wheels, of a pursuing horse and a jolting chariot,

3:3and of a mounting horseman, a flashing sword and glittering weapons, a multitude of slain and a grievous fall! There was no limit to her nations, and they will weaken in their bodies

3:4because of the multitude of prostitution. A prostitute, beautiful and pleasing, mistress of potions, selling nations through her prostitution and tribes through her potions,

3:5look, I am against you, says the Lord God Almighty. I will expose your hind parts over your face and show nations your shame and kingdoms your dishonor,

3:6and cast abomination upon you according to your impurities, and make you an example,

3:7and everyone seeing you will spring away and say, “Miserable Nineveh! Who will lament her? Where shall I seek consolation for her?”

Amon, Who Dwells Among the Rivers

3:8Prepare a portion; tune a string; prepare a portion, Amon, who dwells among rivers, water around her, whose dominion was the sea and whose walls were water,

3:9and Ethiopia was her strength, and Egypt, and there is no limit to the flight; Libyans became her helpers.

3:10She too will go into deportation as a captive; they will dash her infants to the ground at the head of all her roads, cast lots for all her glorious things; and all her nobles will be bound in handcuffs.

3:11You too will become drunk and be overlooked; you too will seek a place to stand away from enemies.

3:12All your fortresses are fig trees having lookouts; if shaken, they will fall into the eater’s mouth.

3:13Look, your people within you are like women! The gates of your land will open wide to your enemies, and fire will consume your bars.

Draw Water for the Siege

3:14Draw water for yourself for the siege, hold your fortresses firmly; step into mud, be trampled in straw, hold fast over the brick.

3:15There fire will consume you; a sword will destroy you, devouring you like a locust, and you will become heavy like a crawling locust.

3:16You multiplied your trading beyond the stars of heaven. A crawling locust rushed out and flew away.

3:17Your mixed company leaped away like a young locust, like a locust perched on a fence on frosty days. The sun rose, it leaped away, and it did not know its place. Woe to them!

3:18Your shepherds slumbered; the Assyrian king put your rulers to sleep. Your people departed upon the mountains, and there was no one receiving them.

3:19There is no healing for your crushing; your wound has become inflamed. All who hear the report of you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has your evil not continually come?

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V2 · working draft awaiting specialist review.