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2A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength. ²(For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their branches.) ³The shields of his warriors are red; his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day when he musters them; the chargers prance. ⁴The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like torches, they dart like lightning. ⁵He calls his officers; they stumble as they come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet is set up. ⁶The river gates are opened, the palace trembles. ⁷It is decreed that the city be exiled, its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. ⁸Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. “Halt! Halt!”— but no one turns back. ⁹“Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure! An abundance of every precious thing!” ¹⁰Devastation, desolation, and destruction! Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow pale!

¹¹What became of the lions’ den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them? ¹²The lion has torn enough for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh. ¹³See, I am against you, says 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 be heard no more.