This is what the LORD says: "No matter how strong they are, and no matter how numerous, they will surely be annihilated and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will do so no more.

The shields deployed by Israel's elite forces are scarlet, their valiant men are clothed in crimson. When they are prepared, the polished armament on their chariots will shine, and lances will be brandished about ferociously.

Their chariots storm through the streets, jostling each other along broad avenues. They look like torches, as they dart around like lightning.

He will remember to summon his finest troops. They will stumble on their way, hurrying over to Nineveh's wall. Their defensive shield is in place.

It has been determined: The woman is unveiled and sent away, her servant girls mourn. Beating their breasts, they whimper like doves.

Nineveh is a reservoir whose water is draining away. "Wait! Wait!" they cry, yet not even one person looks back.

Where is this lion's den? Where is the place where the young lions fed, where the lion and its mate walked with their young, the place where they feared nothing?

Look at your people they are women! Your borders stand wide open to your enemies, while fire consumes the bars of your gates."

You added to your inventory of businessmen they number more than the stars of heaven. The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away.

Your imperial guards are like the swarming grasshopper; your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers, settling in the stone walls on a chilly day. The sun rises, and they flee away; no one knows where they went.