Chapter 2

  Come up hath a scatterer to thy face, Keep the bulwark, watch the way, Strengthen the loins, strengthen power mightily. 

  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. 

  The shield of his mighty ones is become red, Men of might [are in] scarlet, With fiery torches [is] the chariot in a day of his preparation, And the firs have been caused to tremble. 

  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. 

  Gates of the rivers have been opened, And the palace is dissolved. 

  And it is established -- she hath removed, She hath been brought up, And her handmaids are leading as the voice of doves, Tabering on their hearts. 

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

  Seize ye silver, seize ye gold, And there is no end to the prepared things, [To] the abundance of all desirable vessels. 

  She is empty, yea, emptiness and waste, And the heart hath melted, And the knees have smitten together, And great pain [is] in all loins, And the faces of all of them have gathered paleness. 

  Where [is] the habitation of lionesses? And a feeding-place it [is] for young lions Where walked hath a lion, an old lion, A lion's whelp, and there is none troubling. 

  The lion is tearing parts [for] his whelps, And is strangling for his lionesses, And he doth fill [with] prey his holes, And his habitations [with] rapine. 

  Lo, I [am] against thee, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And I have burned in smoke its chariot, And thy young lions consume doth a sword, And I have cut off from the land thy prey, And not heard any more is the voice of thy messengers!