“She despises you, she scorns you—

^wthe virgin daughter of Zion;

she ^xwags her head behind you—

the daughter of Jerusalem.

22  “Whom have you ^ymocked and ^zreviled?

Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes to the heights?

Against ^athe Holy One of Israel!

23  ^bBy your messengers you have mocked the Lord,

and you have said, ^c‘With my many chariots

I have gone up the heights of the mountains,

to the far recesses of ^dLebanon;

I felled its tallest cedars,

its choicest cypresses;

I entered its farthest lodging place,

its most ^efruitful forest.

24  I dug wells

and drank foreign waters,

and I dried up with the sole of my foot

all the streams ^fof Egypt.’

25  “Have you not heard

that ^gI determined it long ago?

I planned from days of old

what ^hnow I bring to pass,

that you should turn fortified cities

into heaps of ruins,

26  while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,

are dismayed and confounded,

and have become ⁱlike plants of the field

and like tender grass,

like grass on the housetops,

blighted before it is grown.

27  “But I know your sitting down

^jand your going out and coming in,

and your raging against me.

28  Because you have raged against me

and your complacency has come into my ears,

I will ^kput my hook in your nose

and my bit in your mouth,

and ^lI will turn you back on the way

by which you came.

1  In Judah God is ^eknown;

his name is great in Israel.

2  His ^fabode has been established in ^gSalem,

his ^hdwelling place in Zion.

3  There he ⁱbroke the flashing arrows,

the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah

4  Glorious are you, more majestic

^jthan the mountains full of ^kprey.

5  ^lThe stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;

^mthey sank into sleep;

all the men of war

were unable to use their hands.

6  At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,

both ⁿrider and horse lay stunned.

7  ^oBut you, you are to be feared!

Who can ^pstand before you

when once your anger is roused?

8  From the heavens you uttered judgment;

^qthe earth feared and was still,

9  when God ^rarose to establish judgment,

to save all the humble of the earth. Selah

10  Surely ^sthe wrath of man shall praise you;

the remnant¹ of wrath you will put on like a belt.

11  ^tMake your vows to the Lord your God and perform them;

let all around him ^ubring gifts

to him who ^vis to be feared,

12  who ^wcuts off the spirit of princes,

who ^xis to be feared by the kings of the earth.

2  ^cThe Lord is a jealous and avenging God;

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

^dthe Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and ^ekeeps wrath for his enemies.

3  ^fThe Lord is slow to anger and ^ggreat in power,

and ^hthe Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

ⁱHis way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4  ^jHe rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers;

^kBashan and ^lCarmel wither;

the bloom of ^kLebanon withers.

5  ^mThe mountains quake before him;

ⁿthe hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

^othe world and all who dwell in it.

6  ^pWho can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath ^qis poured out like fire,

and ^rthe rocks are broken into pieces by him.

7  ^sThe Lord is good,

^ta stronghold in the day of trouble;

^uhe knows those who take refuge in him.

8  But ^vwith an overflowing flood

he will make a complete end of the adversaries,¹

and ^wwill pursue his enemies into darkness.

9  What ^xdo you plot against the Lord?

^yHe will make a complete end;

trouble will not rise up a second time.

10  For they are ^zlike entangled thorns,

like drunkards as they drink;

^athey are consumed like stubble fully dried.

11  From you came one

^bwho plotted evil against the Lord,

a worthless counselor.

12  Thus says the Lord,

“Though they are at full strength and many,

^cthey will be cut down and pass away.

^dThough I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.

13  And now ^eI will break his yoke from off you

and will burst your bonds apart.”

14  The Lord has given commandment about you:

^f“No more shall your name be perpetuated;

from ^gthe house of your gods I will cut off

the carved image and the metal image.

^hI will make your grave, ⁱfor you are vile.”

15  ^{2 j}Behold, upon the mountains, ^kthe feet of him

who brings good news,

who publishes peace!

^lKeep your feasts, O Judah;

^mfulfill your vows,

ⁿfor never again shall the worthless pass through you;

he is utterly cut off.

1  ^oThe scatterer has come up against you.

^pMan the ramparts;

watch the road;

dress for battle;³

collect all your strength.

2  For ^qthe Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob

as the majesty of Israel,

for plunderers have plundered them

and ^rruined their branches.

3  The shield of his mighty men is red;

^shis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.

The chariots come with flashing metal

on the day he musters them;

the cypress spears are brandished.

4  ^tThe chariots race madly through the streets;

they rush to and fro through the squares;

they gleam like torches;

they dart like lightning.

5  He remembers ^uhis officers;

^vthey stumble as they go,

they hasten to the wall;

the siege tower⁴ is set up.

6  ^wThe river gates are opened;

the palace ^xmelts away;

7  its mistress⁵ is ^ystripped;⁶ she is carried off,

her slave girls ^zlamenting,

moaning like doves

and beating their breasts.

8  ^bNineveh is like a pool

whose waters run away.⁷

“Halt! Halt!” they cry,

but ^cnone turns back.

9  Plunder the silver,

plunder the gold!

There is no end of the treasure

or of the wealth of all precious things.

10  ^dDesolate! Desolation and ruin!

^eHearts melt and ^fknees tremble;

^ganguish is in all loins;

^hall faces grow pale!

11  Where is the lions’ den,

the feeding place of ⁱthe young lions,

where the lion and lioness went,

where his cubs were, with ^jnone to disturb?

12  ^kThe lion tore enough for his cubs

and ^lstrangled prey for his lionesses;

he filled his caves with prey

and his dens with torn flesh.

1  Woe to ^pthe bloody city,

all full of lies and plunder—

^qno end to the prey!

2  The crack of the whip, and ^rrumble of the wheel,

^sgalloping horse and ^tbounding chariot!

3  Horsemen charging,

flashing sword and ^uglittering spear,

^vhosts of slain,

heaps of corpses,

dead bodies without end—

they stumble over the bodies!

4  And all for the countless whorings of the ^wprostitute,

^xgraceful and of deadly charms,

who betrays nations with her whorings,

and peoples with her charms.

5  ^mBehold, I am against you,

declares the Lord of hosts,

and ^ywill lift up your skirts over your face;

and I will make nations look at ^zyour nakedness

and kingdoms at your shame.

6  I will throw filth at you

and ^atreat you with contempt

and make you ^ba spectacle.

7  And all who look at you ^cwill shrink from you and say,

“Wasted is ^dNineveh; ^ewho will grieve for her?”

^fWhere shall I seek comforters for you?

8  ^gAre you better than ^hThebes⁹

that sat ⁱby the Nile,

with water around her,

her rampart a sea,

and water her wall?

9  ^jCush was her strength;

Egypt too, and that without limit;

^kPut and the ^lLibyans were her¹⁰ helpers.

10  ^mYet she became an exile;

she went into captivity;

ⁿher infants were dashed in pieces

at the head of every street;

for her honored men ^olots were cast,

^pand all her great men were bound in chains.

11  ^qYou also will be drunken;

you will go into hiding;

^ryou will seek a refuge from the enemy.

12  All your fortresses are ^slike fig trees

with first-ripe figs—

if shaken they fall

into the mouth of the eater.

13  Behold, your troops

^tare women in your midst.

The gates of your land

are wide open to your enemies;

fire has devoured your bars.

14  ^uDraw water for the siege;

^rstrengthen your forts;

go into the clay;

tread the mortar;

take hold of the brick mold!

15  There will the fire devour you;

the sword will cut you off.

It will ^vdevour you ^wlike the locust.

Multiply yourselves ^wlike the locust;

multiply ^wlike the grasshopper!

16  You increased ^xyour merchants

more than the stars of the heavens.

^wThe locust spreads its wings and flies away.

17  Your ^zprinces are ^wlike grasshoppers,

^ayour scribes¹¹ like clouds of locusts

settling on the fences

in a day of cold—

when the sun rises, they fly away;

no one knows where they are.

18  Your shepherds ^bare asleep,

O king of Assyria;

^cyour nobles slumber.

Your people ^dare scattered on the mountains

with none to gather them.

19  There is no easing your hurt;

^eyour wound is grievous.

All who hear the news about you

^fclap their hands over you.

For ^gupon whom has not come

your unceasing evil?