² El qanna and avenging is YHWH.
YHWH avenges and is full of wrath.
YHWH takes vengeance on his adversaries,
and he maintains wrath against his enemies.
³ YHWH is slow to anger, and great in power,
and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

YHWH has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
⁴ He rebukes ha-yam, and makes it dry,
and dries up kol ha-n'harot.
Bashan languishes, v'Karmel;
and the flower of L'vanon languishes.
⁵ Harim quake before him,
and the hills melt away.
Ha-aretz trembles at his presence,
yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
⁶ Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the fierceness of his anger?
His wrath is poured out ka-esh,
v'ha-tzurim are broken apart by him.
⁷ Tov YHWH,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
and he knows those who take refuge in him.
⁸ But with an overflowing flood,
he will make a full end of her place,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
⁹ What do you plot against YHWH?
He will make a full end.
Affliction won't rise up the second time.
¹⁰ For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly
like dry stubble.
¹¹ There is one gone out of you,
who devises evil against YHWH,
who counsels wickedness.

¹² Koh amar YHWH:
"Though they be in full strength, and likewise many,
even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
¹³ Now I will break his yoke from off you,
and will burst your bonds apart."

¹⁴ YHWH has commanded concerning you:
"Your name will be sown no more.
Mi-beit eloheikha, I will cut off
pesel and the molten image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile."
^{15 [2:1 in Heb.]} Hinneh, `al-he-harim the feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes shalom!
Keep your chagim, Y'hudah!
Perform your n'darim,
for b'liya`al will no more pass through you.
He is utterly cut off.

^{2:1 [2 in Heb.]} He who dashes in pieces has come up against you.
Keep the fortress!
Watch (the) derekh!
Make strong your loins!
Fortify your power mightily!

^{2 [3]} For YHWH restores the excellency of Ya`akov,
as the excellency of Yisra'el;
for the destroyers have destroyed them,
and ruined their vine branches.

^{3 [4]} Magen gibboreihu is made red.
The valiant men are in scarlet.
The chariots flash with steel
in the day of his preparation,
and the pine spears are brandished.
^{4 [5]} The chariots rage in the streets.
They rush back and forth in the wide ways.
Their appearance is like torches.
They run k'b'rakim.
^{5 [6]} He summons his picked troops.
They stumble on their way.
They dash to its wall,
and the protective shield is put in place.
^{6 [7]} The gates of the rivers are opened,
v'ha-heikhal is dissolved.
^{7 [8]} It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away;
and her servants moan
k'qol yonim, beating on their breasts.
^{8 [9]} But Nin'veh has been from of old like a pool of mayim,
yet they flee away.
"Stop! Stop!" they cry,
but no one looks back.
^{9 [10]} Take the plunder of kesef.
Take the plunder of zahav,
for there is no end of the store,
kavod of all goodly furniture.

^{10 [11]} She is empty, void, and waste.
The heart melts, the knees knock together,
their bodies and faces have grown pale.
^{11 [12]} Where is the den of the lions,
and the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and the lioness walked,
the lion's cubs, and no one made them afraid?
^{12 [13]} The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs,
and strangled for his lionesses,
and filled his caves with the kill,
and his dens with prey.

^3:1 Hoy, ir damim!
It is all full of lies and robbery.
The prey doesn't depart.
² The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels,
prancing horses, and bounding chariots,
³ the horseman mounting,
and the flashing sword, the glittering spear,
and a multitude of slain,
and a great heap of corpses,
and there is no end of the bodies.
They stumble on their bodies,
⁴ because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute,
the mistress of witchcraft,
who sells goyim through her prostitution,
u'mishpachot through her witchcraft.

⁵ "Behold, I am against you,"
n'um YHWH ts'va'ot,
"and I will lift your skirts over your face.
I will show goyim your nakedness,
u'mamlakhot your shame.
⁶ I will throw abominable filth on you,
and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle.
⁷ It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say,
'Nin'veh is laid waste!  Who will mourn for her?'
Where will I seek comforters for you?"

⁸ Are you better than No Amon [Thebes],
who was situated ba-y'orim,
mayim around her;
whose rampart (was the) yam,
mi-yam her wall?
⁹ Kush her strength
u'Mitzrayim without limit.
Put v'Luvim were her helpers.

¹⁰ Yet was she carried away.
She went into captivity.
Her young children also were dashed in pieces
at the head of all the streets,
and they cast lots for her honorable men,
and all her g'dolim were bound in chains.
¹¹ You also will be drunken.
You will be hidden.
You also will seek
a stronghold because of the enemy.
¹² All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs:
if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
¹³ Hinneh, your troops
among you are nashim.
The gates of your eretz
are set wide open to your enemies.
Esh has devoured your bars.
¹⁴ Draw water for the siege.
Strengthen your fortresses.
Go into the clay,
and tread the mortar.  Make the brick kiln strong.
¹⁵ There the fire will devour you.
The sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the grasshopper.

Multiply yourselves like grasshoppers.
Multiply like the locust.
¹⁶ You have increased your merchants
mi-kokhavei ha-shamayim.
The grasshopper strips, and flees away.
¹⁷ Your guards are like the locusts,
and your officials like the swarms of locusts,
which settle on the walls
on a cold day,
but when the shemesh appears, they flee away,
and their place is not known where they are.

¹⁸ Your ro`im slumber,
melekh Ashshur.
Your nobles lie down.
Your people are scattered on he-harim,
and there is no one to gather them.
¹⁹ There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal.
All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you;
for who hasn't felt your endless cruelty?