The LORD is slow to anger and powerful, and he will never let the guilty go unpunished. The LORD's path is in the windstorm and hurricane; thunderclouds are dust beneath his feet.

He rebukes the sea, and it evaporates; he dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, while the flowers of Lebanon languish.

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.

Now I will break off Assyria's yoke from you, and tear apart your shackles."

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.

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.

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?

The cavalry attacks the flashing sword and the glittering spear! Many are the slain so many casualties! No end to bodies, and the soldiers trip over the corpses.

"Look, I am against you," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "so I will pull up your dress over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations, and your disgrace to the kingdoms.

"Are you any better than Thebes, which sits by the upper Nile, surrounded by water? The sea was her defense, the waters her wall of protection.

All your defenses are like fig trees with ripe early fruit when shaken, it falls right into the devourer's mouth.