11. You too will become drunk;you will go into hidingand seek refuge from the enemy.
12. All your fortresses are like fig-treeswith their first ripe fruit;when they are shaken,the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.
13. Look at your troops –they are all weaklings.The gates of your landare wide open to your enemies;fire has consumed the bars of your gates.
14. Draw water for the siege,strengthen your defences!Work the clay,tread the mortar,repair the brickwork!
15. There the fire will consume you;the sword will cut you down –and it will devour you like a swarm of locusts.Multiply like grasshoppers,multiply like locusts!
16. You have increased the number of your merchantstill they are more numerous than the stars in the sky,but like locusts they strip the landand then fly away.
17. Your guards are like locusts,your officials like swarms of locuststhat settle in the walls on a cold day –but when the sun appears they fly away,and no one knows where.
18. King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;your nobles lie down to rest.Your people are scattered on the mountainswith no one to gather them.
19. Nothing can heal you;your wound is fatal.All who hear the news about youclap their hands at your fall,for who has not feltyour endless cruelty?Footnotes for the Book of Nahuma In Hebrew texts 2:1-13 is numbered 2:2-14.b 3 Hebrew; Septuagint and Syriac ready; / the horsemen rush to and fro.c 7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.