1  The scatterer has come up against you.

Man the ramparts;

watch the road;

dress for battle;¹

collect all your strength.

2  For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob

as the majesty of Israel,

for plunderers have plundered them

and ruined their branches.

3  The shield of his mighty men is red;

^rhis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.

The chariots come with flashing metal

on the day he musters them;

the cypress spears are brandished.

4  The 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 his officers;

they stumble as they go,

they hasten to the wall;

the siege tower² is set up.

6  The river ^sgates are opened;

the palace melts away;

7  its mistress³ is stripped;⁴ she is carried off,

her slave girls lamenting,

moaning ^tlike doves

and beating their breasts.

8  Nineveh is like a pool

whose waters run away.⁵

“Halt! Halt!” they cry,

but none 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  Desolate! Desolation and ruin!

^uHearts melt and knees tremble;

anguish is in all loins;

^vall faces grow pale!

11  Where is the lions’ den,

the feeding place of the young lions,

where the lion and lioness went,

where his cubs were, with none to disturb?

12  The lion tore enough for his cubs

and strangled prey for his lionesses;

he filled his caves with prey

and his dens with torn flesh.