⁶ Who can stand before his indignation?
    Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
    and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
⁷ The Lord is good,
    a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
⁸     But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,^[a]
    and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
⁹ What do you plot against the Lord?
    He will make a complete end;
    trouble will not rise up a second time.
¹⁰ For they are like entangled thorns,
    like drunkards as they drink;
    they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
¹¹ From you came one
    who plotted evil against the Lord,
    a worthless counselor.

¹² Thus says the Lord,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
    they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
    I will afflict you no more.
¹³ And now I will break his yoke from off you
    and will burst your bonds apart.”

¹⁴ The Lord has given commandment about you:
    “No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
    the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

^15 [b] Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
    who brings good news,
    who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
    fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
    he is utterly cut off.

² For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
    as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
    and ruined their branches.

³ The shield of his mighty men is red;
    his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
    on the day he musters them;
    the cypress spears are brandished.
⁴ The chariots race madly through the streets;
    they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
    they dart like lightning.
⁵ He remembers his officers;
    they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
    the siege tower^[d] is set up.
⁶ The river gates are opened;
    the palace melts away;
⁷ its mistress^[e] is stripped;^[f] she is carried off,
    her slave girls lamenting,
moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.
⁸ Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters run away.^[g]
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
    but none turns back.
⁹ Plunder the silver,
    plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
    or of the wealth of all precious things.

¹⁰ Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
    Hearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
    all faces grow pale!
¹¹ Where is the lions' den,
    the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
    where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
¹² The lion tore enough for his cubs
    and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
    and his dens with torn flesh.