1 Behold, upon the mountains are the feet of him bringing good news, proclaiming shalom. O Judah, celebrate your festivals! Fulfill your vows! For never again will Belial pass through you. He has been utterly cut off.
2 A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the rampart! Watch the way! Chazak! Be very courageous!
3 For Adonai turned aside Jacob’s pride like Israel’s pride— for spoilers emptied them out and ruined their vine branches.
4 He makes the shield of warriors’ red— valiant men are clad in scarlet! the chariot burns with metal fire on the day of his preparation, The fir trees are shaken.
5 The chariots dash madly about through the streets, rushing to and fro in the plazas, their appearance is like torches, darting like flashes of lightning.
6 He will recall his majestic ones. They will stumble in their march. They will hasten to her wall. Now the siege work is set up.
7 The river gates will be opened, and the palace will melt away.
8 What was erected will be exiled and carried away. Her handmaids are lamenting like the sound of doves, beating their breasts.
9 Nineveh was like a pool of water for days—now they are fleeing. Stop, stop! Yet no one turns back.
10 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no end of treasure— glory from everything precious.
11 Emptiness, desolation, waste! Heart melting, knees buckling, anguish in all the loins, all their faces grown pale!
12 Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place for young lions— where the lion went for a lion’s cub— with nothing to disturb them?
13 The lion rips enough for his cubs, strangles prey for his lionesses. Yes, he fills his den with prey, his lair with torn flesh.
14 “Here I am against you” —it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot— “I will burn up her chariots in smoke. A sword will devour your young lions. I will cut them off from the land of your prey, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.”