[Funeral Procession]
Woe to the bloody city,
Full of lies and stolen store.
The crack of whip, the wheel in thunder,
Horse and chariot cross the floor.
[Vision]
Horsemen lifting, bright sword flashing,
Spears like lightning in the rain.
Multitudes fallen, bodies stumbling,
Cruelty returning as its pain.
[Chorus]
Woe to the bloody city,
Your wound is open, no cure remains.
You sold the nations through your sorceries,
You clothed oppression in royal names.
Woe to the bloody city,
The mask is torn before every land.
Those who suffered under endless evil
Hear the silence where your towers stand.
[Oracle II]
The LORD of hosts declares opposition,
Shame exposed before the throne.
Filth is cast on proud ambition,
Spectacle made of what was shown.
[Historical Refrain]
Were you better than No by the rivers,
Water round her like a wall?
Cush and Egypt gave her power,
Yet her children saw the city fall.
[Verse III]
Your forts are figs when shaken,
Your gates stand open to the foe.
Fire consumes the bars of cedar,
Draw your water; knead the clay below.
[Bridge]
Merchants multiplied like stars,
Captains settled like locust swarms.
Sunlight rises, and they vanish;
No one knows the road they formed.
[Final Chorus]
Woe to the bloody city,
Your shepherds sleep, your nobles lie.
Your people scatter on the mountains,
No hand gathers, no reply.
Woe to the bloody city,
Your bruise is final, your wound laid bare.
All who hear the report clap their hands,
For who escaped your constant snare?
[Dirge]
The empire that wounded every neighbor
Could not bind its own wound.
Named in this songEgypt
About the passage
Nahum 3: The city’s fall finds no circle of mourners
Nahum 3 names what the earlier images have been exposing. Nineveh is a bloody city marked by lies, robbery, and prey that does not depart, and the attack upon it ends among bodies too numerous to ignore. The city's ability to attract and manipulate is treated as another face of domination, then its glamour is replaced by public exposure and the flight of those who once looked on. The fall of Egyptian No removes the comfort of exceptionalism: water, allies, and strong position did not save another formidable city. From there, every remaining support is reduced. Fortresses become ripe figs, defensive labour cannot stop fire, merchants and officials multiply only to vanish like insects, and leaders no longer gather the people. The final wound has no cure, and the news produces clapping because Assyria's harm had traveled so widely.
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