| New Living Translation | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1 Your enemy is coming to crush you, Nineveh. Man the ramparts! Watch the roads! Prepare your defenses! Call out your forces! | 1One who scatters is coming up against you. Man the fortifications! Watch the road! Brace yourself! Summon all your strength! |
| 2Even though the destroyer has destroyed Judah, the LORD will restore its honor. Israel’s vine has been stripped of branches, but he will restore its splendor. | 2For the LORD will restore the majesty of Jacob, yes, the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their vine branches. |
| 3Shields flash red in the sunlight! See the scarlet uniforms of the valiant troops! Watch as their glittering chariots move into position, with a forest of spears waving above them. | 3The shields of his warriors are dyed red; the valiant men are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariot flash like fire on the day of its battle preparations, and the spears are brandished. |
| 4The chariots race recklessly along the streets and rush wildly through the squares. They flash like firelight and move as swiftly as lightning. | 4The chariots dash madly through the streets; they rush around in the plazas. They look like torches; they dart back and forth like lightning. |
| 5The king shouts to his officers; they stumble in their haste, rushing to the walls to set up their defenses. | 5He gives orders to his officers; they stumble as they advance. They race to its wall; the protective shield is set in place. |
| 6The river gates have been torn open! The palace is about to collapse! | 6The river gates are opened, and the palace erodes away. |
| 7Nineveh’s exile has been decreed, and all the servant girls mourn its capture. They moan like doves and beat their breasts in sorrow. | 7Beauty is stripped, she is carried away; her ladies-in-waiting moan like the sound of doves, and beat their breasts. |
| 8Nineveh is like a leaking water reservoir! The people are slipping away. “Stop, stop!” someone shouts, but no one even looks back. | 8Nineveh has been like a pool of water from her first days, but they are fleeing." Stop! Stop!" they cry, but no one turns back." |
| 9Loot the silver! Plunder the gold! There’s no end to Nineveh’s treasures— its vast, uncounted wealth. | 9Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!" There is no end to the treasure, an abundance of every precious thing. |
| 10Soon the city is plundered, empty, and ruined. Hearts melt and knees shake. The people stand aghast, their faces pale and trembling. | 10Desolation, decimation, devastation! Hearts melt, knees tremble, loins shake, every face grows pale! |
| 11Where now is that great Nineveh, that den filled with young lions? It was a place where people—like lions and their cubs— walked freely and without fear. | 11Where is the lions' lair, or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled, and the lion's cub, with nothing to frighten them away? |
| 12The lion tore up meat for his cubs and strangled prey for his mate. He filled his den with prey, his caverns with his plunder. | 12The lion mauled whatever its cubs needed and strangled prey for its lionesses. It filled up its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey. |
| 13“I am your enemy!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “Your chariots will soon go up in smoke. Your young men will be killed in battle. Never again will you plunder conquered nations. The voices of your proud messengers will be heard no more.” | 13Beware, I am against you. This is the declaration of the LORD of Hosts. I will make your chariots go up in smoke and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the sound of your messengers will never be heard again. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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