1Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate (chag), O Judah, your feasts (chag); fulfill your vows; for the worthless one shall no more pass through you again; he is wholly cut off.
2A scatterer has come up against your face; guard the fortress, watch the way, strengthen the loins, make power very firm!
3For YHWH restores the excellency of Jacob, like the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and their vine-branches they have ruined.
4The shield of his mighty men is reddened, the men (ish) of valor are clothed in scarlet; with fire of steel are the chariots in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears are made to quiver.
5In the streets the chariots rage, they rush to and fro in the broad places; their appearance is like torches, like the lightnings they run.
6He remembers his nobles; they stumble in their march; they hasten to her wall, and the covering is prepared.
7The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
8And it is fixed: she is stripped, she is carried up; and her maidservants are moaning like the voice of doves, beating upon their hearts.
9And Nineveh is like a pool of water from the days she has been; yet they are fleeing. "Stand! Stand!" but none turns back.
10Plunder silver! Plunder gold! and there is no end to the store, an abundance of every precious vessel.
11Emptiness and void and waste! and the heart melts, and the knees totter, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of all of them gather paleness.
12Where is the den of lions, and the feeding place it is of the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness, there the lion's whelp, and none made afraid?
13The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with torn flesh.
14Behold, I am against you, declares YHWH of hosts (tzevaot), and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.