1The destroyer is come before thy face: keep the munition: look to the way: make thy loins strong: increase thy strength mightily.
2For the Lord hath turned away the glory of Jacob, as the glory of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.
3The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be as in the fire and flames in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall tremble.
4The chariots shall rage in the streets: they shall run to and fro in the highways: they shall seem like lamps: they shall shoot like the lightning.
5He shall remember his strong men: they shall stumble as they go: they shall make haste to the walls thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.
6The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall melt.
7And Huzzab the Queen shall be led away captive, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, smiting upon their breasts.
8But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry: but none shall look back.
9Spoil ye the silver, spoil the gold: for there is none end of the store and glory of all the pleasant vessels.
10She is empty and void and waste, and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and sorrow is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
11Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the pasture of the lion’s whelps? where the lion and the lioness waked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid.
12The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and worried for his lioness, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with spoil.
13Behold, I come unto thee saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions, and I will cut off thy spoil from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.