1 ARST You people of Nineveh, your enemies are coming to attack you. So place guards on the tops of the walls around the city! Guard the roads into the city! Get ready to fight! Gather your troops together! BSB BSB: One who scatters advances against you, O Nineveh. Guard the fortress! Watch the road! Brace yourselves! Summon all your strength!
2 ARST Even though your soldiers have destroyed the descendants of Jacob, Yahweh will cause other nations to honor them again. Invaders from your country have ruined Israel as enemies would uproot a vineyard, but Israel will prosper again. BSB BSB: For the LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and ruined the branches of their vine.
3 ARST The shields of the enemy soldiers who are coming to attack you will shine red as the sun shines on them, and they will wear bright red uniforms. The metal of their chariot wheels will flash when they line up before the battle, and their soldiers will lift up their cypress spear and wave them. BSB BSB: The shields of his mighty men are red; the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariots flash like fire on the day they are prepared, and the spears of cypress have been brandished.
4 ARST Their chariots dash through the streets of Nineveh and rush furiously through the plazas. Going as quickly as lightning, they look like flaming torches. BSB BSB: The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.
5 ARST An officer gives a command to his officials, and they come to him so quickly that they stumble. They run up the city wall to attack it, and they set up a large wooden shield above the soldiers to protect them. BSB BSB: He summons his nobles; they stumble as they advance. They race to its wall; the protective shield is set in place.
6 ARST The enemy soldiers will force open the city gates on the rivers; the palace will collapse. BSB BSB: The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.
7 ARST The queen will have her clothes stripped off her by enemy soldiers, and her slave girls will moan like doves and beat their breasts to show that they are very sad. BSB BSB: It is decreed that the city be exiled and carried away; her maidservants moan like doves, and beat upon their breasts.
8 ARST The people will rush from Nineveh like water rushes from a broken dam. The officials will shout,“Stop! Stop!” but the people will not even look back as they run away. BSB BSB: Nineveh has been like a pool of water throughout her days, but now it is draining away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.
9 ARST The enemy attackers say to each other,“Seize the silver! Grab the gold! There is a huge amount of very valuable things in the city, more valuable things than anyone can count!” BSB BSB: “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.
10 ARST Soon everything valuable in the city will be seized or ruined. People will be trembling, with the result that they will not be able to fight. Their faces will all become pale with fear. BSB BSB: She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!
11 ARST After that happens, people will say,“What happened to that great city of Nineveh? It was like a den full of young lions, where the male and female lions lived and fed the young ones, where they were afraid of nothing. BSB BSB: Where is the lions’ lair or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled with their cubs, with nothing to frighten them away?
12 ARST The soldiers in Nineveh were like lions that killed or strangled other animals and brought the meat to their dens.” BSB BSB: The lion mauled enough for its cubs and strangled prey for the lioness. It filled its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.
13 ARST Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says to the people of Nineveh,“I am your enemy; I will cause your chariots to burn in fire and go up in smoke. Your young men will be killed with swords. I will make all the valuable things you stole from other nations disappear. Your messengers will never again take messages to other nations, demanding that their armies surrender to them.” BSB BSB: “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will reduce your chariots to cinders, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”