Nahum 2:1-10

2¹ The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle;[1] collect all your strength. 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[2] is set up. ⁶ The river gates are opened; the palace melts away; ⁷ its mistress[3] is stripped;[4] 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.[5] "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!