3. Horsemen charge,swords flash, spears gleam!Corpses are piled high,dead bodies without number —men stumble over them!
4. Nineveh the whore is being punished.Attractive and full of deadly charms,she enchanted nations and enslaved them.
5. The Lord Almighty says,“I will punish you, Nineveh!I will strip you nakedand let the nations see you,see you in all your shame.
6. I will treat you with contemptand cover you with filth.People will stare at you in horror.
7. All who see you will shrink back.They will say, ‘Nineveh lies in ruins!Who has any sympathy for her?Who will want to comfort her?’ ”
8. Nineveh, are you any better than Thebes, the capital of Egypt? She too had a river to protect her like a wall — the Nile was her defence.
9. She ruled Ethiopia and Egypt, there was no limit to her power; Libya was her ally.
10. Yet the people of Thebes were carried off into exile. At every street corner their children were beaten to death. Their leading men were carried off in chains and divided among their captors.
11. Nineveh, you too will fall into a drunken stupor! You too will try to escape from your enemies.