1He who dashes in pieces has come up against you: keep the fortress, watch the way, make your loins strong, fortify your power mightily. 2For Yehovah restores the majesty of Jacob, as the majesty of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and destroyed their vine branches. 3The 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 cypress spears are brandished. 4The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: their appearance is like torches; they run like the lightnings. 5He remembers his nobles: they stumble in their march; they hurry to its wall, and the mantelet is prepared. 6The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. 7And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her female servants moan as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts. 8But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water: yet they flee away. Stand, stand, they cry; but no one looks back. 9Take the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, the glory of all precious furnishings. 10She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melts, and the knees knock together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all have grown pale. 11Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion’s cub, and no one made them afraid? 12The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with torn flesh. 13Behold, I am against you, says Yehovah of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.