[2:1] The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.
[2:2] For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.
[2:3] The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.
[2:4] The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.
[2:5] He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up.
[2:6] The river gates are opened; the palace melts away;
[2:7] its mistress is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.
[2:8] Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. “Halt! Halt!” they cry, but none turns back.
[2:9] Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.
[2:10] Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!
[2:11] Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
[2:12] The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
[2:13] Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.