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.

2  ^oThe scatterer has come up against you.

^pMan the ramparts;

watch the road;

dress for battle;¹

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 tower² is set up.

6  ^wThe river gates are opened;

the palace ^xmelts away;

7  its mistress³ is ^ystripped;⁴ 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.⁵

“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.

3  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 ^hThebes¹

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 her² 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 scribes³ 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?

2  O Lord, ^bhow long shall I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

Or cry to you ^c“Violence!”

and you will not save?

3  ^dWhy do you make me see iniquity,

and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction ^cand violence are before me;

strife and contention arise.

4  ^eSo the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

^fFor the wicked surround the righteous;

so justice goes forth perverted.

5  ^g“Look among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

^hFor I am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

6  For behold, ⁱI am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

^jwho march through the breadth of the earth,

^kto seize dwellings not their own.

7  They are dreaded and fearsome;

^ltheir justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

8  ^mTheir horses are swifter than leopards,

more fierce than ⁿthe evening wolves;

their horsemen press proudly on.

Their horsemen come from afar;

^othey fly like an eagle swift to devour.

9  They all come ^pfor violence,

all their faces forward.

They gather captives ^rlike sand.

10  At kings they scoff,

and at rulers they laugh.

^sThey laugh at every fortress,

for ^tthey pile up earth and take it.

11  Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

^uguilty men, ^vwhose own might is their god!”

12  Are you not ^wfrom everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

^xWe shall not die.

O Lord, ^yyou have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O ^zRock, have established them for reproof.

13  You who are ^aof purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

^bwhy do you idly look at traitors

and ^cremain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

14  You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

15  ^dHe¹ brings all of them up ^ewith a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

16  ^fTherefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

for by them he lives in luxury,²

and his food is rich.

17  Is he then to keep on emptying his net

^gand mercilessly killing nations forever?

2  I will ^htake my stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and ⁱlook out to see ^jwhat he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

^k“Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.

3  For still ^lthe vision awaits its appointed time;

it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, ^mwait for it;

ⁿit will surely come; it will not delay.

4  “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but ^othe righteous shall live by his faith.¹

5  “Moreover, wine² is ^pa traitor,

an arrogant man who is never at rest.³

His greed is as wide as Sheol;

like death ^qhe has never enough.

^rHe gathers for himself all nations

and collects as his own all peoples.”

^t“Woe to him ^uwho heaps up what is not his own—

for ^vhow long?—

and ^wloads himself with pledges!”

7  ^xWill not your debtors suddenly arise,

and those awake who will make you tremble?

Then you will be spoil for them.

8  ^yBecause you have plundered many nations,

all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,

^zfor the blood of man and ^yviolence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

9  ^t“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

^ato ^bset his nest on high,

to be safe from the reach of harm!

10  You have devised shame for your house

^cby cutting off many peoples;

you have forfeited your life.

11  For ^dthe stone will cry out from the wall,

and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12  ^t“Woe to him ^ewho builds a town with blood

and founds a city on iniquity!

13  Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts

that ^fpeoples labor merely for fire,

and nations weary themselves for nothing?

14  ^gFor the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of ^hthe glory of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

15  ^t“Woe to him ⁱwho makes his neighbors drink—

you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,

in order to gaze ^jat their nakedness!

16  You will have your fill ^kof shame instead of glory.

^lDrink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!

^lThe cup in the Lord’s right hand

will come around to you,

and ^mutter shame will come upon your glory!

17  ⁿThe violence ^odone to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,

ⁿfor the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

18  ^p“What profit is an idol

when its maker has shaped it,

a metal image, ^qa teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in his own creation

when he makes ^rspeechless idols!

19  ^sWoe to him ^twho says to a wooden thing, Awake;

to a silent stone, Arise!

Can this teach?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

and ^uthere is no breath at all in it.

20  But ^vthe Lord is in his holy temple;

^wlet all the earth keep silence before him.”