Nahum 3

God will punish Nineveh for her sins

1  Terrible things will happen to you, Nineveh.

Your people are murderers

and they love to tell lies.

The city is full of valuable things

that belonged to other people.

2 Listen to the sound of the enemy as they attack Nineveh!

The whips of the chariot drivers make a loud noise.

The wheels of the chariots cause the ground to shake.

Listen to the sound of the horses' feet as they pull the chariots.

The chariots move so fast that they shake.

3 The chariot drivers make their horses run forward to the battle.

Their swords and their spears shine brightly in their hands.

There are heaps of dead bodies.

They lie everywhere on the ground.

There are so many dead bodies that people fall over them.

4 This has happened because Nineveh has lived like a beautiful prostitute.

She has used magic to cause other nations to come to her.

She catches people in her trap

and she makes them her slaves.

5 The Lord Almighty says to Nineveh,

‘Now I have become your enemy.

I will make you ashamed,

like a woman whose skirt no longer covers her body.

Other nations will see that you have no clothes.

They will see your great shame.

6 I will throw dirty rubbish at you.

I will show everyone that you are useless.

I will cause other people to laugh at you.

7 When anyone sees you,

they will turn away from you.

They will say, “Nineveh has become a heap of stones.

But nobody will come to her funeral.”

Nobody will be there to comfort you.’

Nineveh's people will not save themselves

8 Your city is no better than Thebes.

That city was beside the Nile River.

It had water all around it.

The river protected the city,

like a wall of water.

9 Thebes trusted in the great power of Ethiopia and Egypt.

Put and Libya were also her strong friends.

10 But Thebes' enemies took her people away as prisoners.

They killed her babies in the city's streets.

They used lots to decide who would take each leader as their slave.

They tied chains on the leaders and they led them away.

11 Now you people of Nineveh will also become like men who are drunk.

You will try to hide in a safe place.

You will try to escape from your enemy.

12 All your strong buildings are like fig trees

with ripe figs on them.

When your enemy comes and shakes them,

the figs will fall into their mouths!

13 Look at your soldiers!

They will be like women, too weak to fight!

Your enemies will push the gates of your city wide open.

Fire will destroy the bars which hold the gates shut.

14 Enemy soldiers will be all around the city, so get ready!

Store the water that you will need.

Make your buildings strong.

Prepare clay to make bricks for the walls.

15 But fire will destroy your city.

Soldiers will use their swords to kill you.

They will destroy everything,

as locusts destroy crops.

Grow in number,

like a large crowd of locusts or grasshoppers.

16 You have many traders in your city.

They are more than the stars in the sky.

But they are like locusts.

They take everything from the land and then they fly away!

17 Your guards and your officers are also like a crowd of locusts.

On a cold day, they stay together on the walls to be warm.

But when the sun comes up, they fly away.

Nobody knows where they have gone.

18 King of Assyria, your leaders are now asleep.

Your officers will never wake up again.

Your people have run away into the mountains.

There is nobody to bring them back together.

19 Your life will come to an end,

like someone with a terrible wound.

Everyone will be very happy

when they hear what has happened to you.

You always did cruel things to people,

and nobody could escape.