City where sin never sleeps
1Oh yes, sin city, where crime calls home.You’re a treacherous town,
Throbbing in violence.
You’re the city where sin never sleeps.
Nineveh’s fate
2Listen to the sounds of Nineveh to come:There’s a crack of the whip.
Thumping wheels.
Galloping horses.
Thundering chariots.
3Here comes the cavalry, but not to the rescue
Swords flash in the light.
Spears glisten in the sun.
While dead upon dead
Pile high and higher,
And survivors can’t walk
Without stepping on a corpse.
The perfect sinner
4The LORD of all people has a message for Nineveh:You committed the sins of a perfect sinner.
And you lured nations into your sins
With the unrestrained spirit of a witch.
5I’m going to deal with you now,
Says the LORD of all people.
I’ll lift up your dress, over your head.
I’ll show the world the naked you,
And the shame of what you’ve become.
6With the whole world watching,
I’ll pelt you with trash [1]
And treat you like trash,
To show how disgusted I am.
Nations will abandon you
7When people see what I do to you, they’ll say,“Nineveh’s dead, and good riddance.”
Who will help you then?
8What makes you think you’re better than Thebes, [2]
The city protected by Amon, [3]
And, like you, with walls of water?
9Armies of nations defended Thebes:
Egypt and her allies,
Ethiopia, [4] Lybia, and Put. [5]
10None of that mattered at all.
Invaders captured Thebes, [6]
Smashed babies in the rocks,
And arrested survivors for exile.
Invaders threw dice [7] for the nobles.
Top officials left home in chains.
11You in Nineveh get a dose of that, too.
The enemy will shock you
And you’ll stagger like drunks.
Then you’ll run for your lives and hide.
Your soldiers are girls
12Defensive towers you built on your wallsAre fig trees loaded with fruit.
Whoever shakes them
Will eat all they want.
13Your soldiers are girls.
Your gates are wide open,
And you couldn't lock them if you tried.
For their timber bars are firewood.
14Load up on water for a long siege.
Reinforce your walls.
Work the clay and mortar,
Then mold extra bricks.
15You’ll burn inside those walls.
Swords will drop you and kill you.
They’ll feed on you like locusts in a field.
Go ahead and grow your numbers.
Build yourselves into a swarm.
16You’re well on the way with your traveling merchants.
You’ve got more traders than the sky has stars.
But traders feed on you like locusts, too.
They eat, shed their skin, then fly away full.
Leaders are locusts, cold on a fence
17Your officials are more of the same.They’re a swarm of locusts doing nothing
But sitting on a fence in the cold.
When the sun comes up and turns on the heat,
They fly away to who knows where.
18Shepherds who led your nation are sleeping.
Great King of Assyria, they’ll never wake up.
What’s left of your people now hide in the hills.
There are no shepherds left to lead them.
19You, Great King, are wounded and dying.
Nothing will save you now.
When people hear you’re dead and gone,
They’ll clap and cheer and throw a party.
For at one time or another you’ve hurt them all.
And they’re happy to see you go.
