For while princes are perplexed, And with their drink are drunken, They have been consumed as stubble fully dried.

Thus said Jehovah: Though complete, and thus many, Yet thus they have been cut off, And he hath passed away. And I afflicted thee, I afflict thee no more.

For turned back hath Jehovah to the excellency of Jacob, As to the excellency of Israel, For emptied them out have emptiers, And their branches they have marred.

In out-places shine do the chariots, They go to and fro in broad places, Their appearances are like torches, As lightnings they run.

He doth remember his honourable ones, They stumble in their goings, They hasten to its wall, and prepared is the covering.

And Nineveh is as a pool of waters, From of old it is -- and they are fleeing! 'Stand ye, stand;' and none is turning!

And the flame of a sword, and the lightning of a spear, And the abundance of the wounded, And the weight of carcases, Yea, there is no end to the bodies, They stumble over their bodies.

Even she doth become an exile, She hath gone into captivity, Even her sucklings are dashed to pieces At the top of all out-places, And for her honoured ones they cast a lot, And all her great ones have been bound in fetters.

All thy fortresses are fig-trees with first-fruits, If they are shaken, They have fallen into the mouth of the eater.

Thy crowned ones are as a locust, And thy princes as great grasshoppers, That encamp in hedges in a day of cold, The sun hath risen, and it doth flee away, And not known is its place where they are.