Habakkuk 1-3

English Standard Version

1 ^(A)The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk's Complaint

²O Lord, ^(B)how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not hear?
Or cry to you ^(C)“Violence!”
    and you will not save?
³^(D)Why do you make me see iniquity,
    and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction ^(E)and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
⁴^(F)So the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never goes forth.
^(G)For the wicked surround the righteous;
    so justice goes forth perverted.

The Lord's Answer

⁵^(H)“Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
^(I)For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told.
⁶For behold, ^(J)I am raising up the Chaldeans,
    that bitter and hasty nation,
^(K)who march through the breadth of the earth,
    ^(L)to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷They are dreaded and fearsome;
    ^(M)their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
⁸^(N)Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    more fierce than ^(O)the evening wolves;
    their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
    ^(P)they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
⁹They all come ^(Q)for violence,
    all their faces forward.
    They gather captives ^(R)like sand.
¹⁰At kings they scoff,
    and at rulers they laugh.
^(S)They laugh at every fortress,
    for ^(T)they pile up earth and take it.
¹¹Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
    ^(U)guilty men, ^(V)whose own might is their god!”

Habakkuk's Second Complaint

¹²Are you not ^(W)from everlasting,
    O Lord my God, my Holy One?
    ^(X)We shall not die.
O Lord, ^(Y)you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O ^(Z)Rock, have established them for reproof.
¹³You who are ^(AA)of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
^(AB)why do you idly look at traitors
    and ^(AC)remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
¹⁵^(AD)He^[a] brings all of them up ^(AE)with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
    so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶^(AF)Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,^[b]
    and his food is rich.
¹⁷Is he then to keep on emptying his net
    ^(AG)and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2 I will ^(AH)take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and ^(AI)look out to see ^(AJ)what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

²And the Lord answered me:

^(AK)“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
³For still ^(AL)the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, ^(AM)wait for it;
    ^(AN)it will surely come; it will not delay.

⁴“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but ^(AO)the righteous shall live by his faith.^[c]

⁵“Moreover, wine^[d] is ^(AP)a traitor,
    an arrogant man who is never at rest.^[e]
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
    like death ^(AQ)he has never enough.
^(AR)He gathers for himself all nations
    and collects as his own all peoples.”

Woe to the Chaldeans

⁶Shall not all these ^(AS)take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

^(AT)“Woe to him ^(AU)who heaps up what is not his own—
    for ^(AV)how long?—
    and ^(AW)loads himself with pledges!”
⁷^(AX)Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
    and those awake who will make you tremble?
    Then you will be spoil for them.
⁸^(AY)Because you have plundered many nations,
    all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
^(AZ)for the blood of man and ^(BA)violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who dwell in them.

⁹^(BB)“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
    ^(BC)to ^(BD)set his nest on high,
    to be safe from the reach of harm!
¹⁰You have devised shame for your house
    ^(BE)by cutting off many peoples;
    you have forfeited your life.
¹¹For ^(BF)the stone will cry out from the wall,
    and the beam from the woodwork respond.

¹²^(BG)“Woe to him ^(BH)who builds a town with blood
    and founds a city on iniquity!
¹³Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts
    that ^(BI)peoples labor merely for fire,
    and nations weary themselves for nothing?
¹⁴^(BJ)For the earth will be filled
    with the knowledge of ^(BK)the glory of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵^(BL)“Woe to him ^(BM)who makes his neighbors drink—
    you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
    in order to gaze ^(BN)at their nakedness!
¹⁶You will have your fill ^(BO)of shame instead of glory.
    ^(BP)Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
^(BQ)The cup in the Lord's right hand
    will come around to you,
    and ^(BR)utter shame will come upon your glory!
¹⁷^(BS)The violence ^(BT)done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
    as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
^(BU)for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who dwell in them.

¹⁸^(BV)“What profit is an idol
    when its maker has shaped it,
    a metal image, ^(BW)a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
    when he makes ^(BX)speechless idols!
¹⁹^(BY)Woe to him ^(BZ)who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
    to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
    and ^(CA)there is no breath at all in it.
²⁰But ^(CB)the Lord is in his holy temple;
    ^(CC)let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Habakkuk's Prayer

3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

²O Lord, ^(CD)I have heard the report of you,
    and ^(CE)your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years ^(CF)revive it;
    in the midst of the years make it known;
    ^(CG)in wrath remember mercy.
³God came from ^(CH)Teman,
    ^(CI)and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
    and the earth was full of his praise.
⁴^(CJ)His brightness was like the light;
    rays flashed from his hand;
    and there he veiled his power.
⁵^(CK)Before him went pestilence,
    and plague followed ^(CL)at his heels.^[f]
⁶He stood ^(CM)and measured the earth;
    he looked and shook the nations;
then the ^(CN)eternal mountains ^(CO)were scattered;
    the everlasting hills sank low.
    His were ^(CP)the everlasting ways.
⁷I saw the tents of ^(CQ)Cushan in affliction;
    ^(CR)the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
⁸^(CS)Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
    Was your anger against the rivers,
    ^(CT)or your indignation against the sea,
^(CU)when you rode on your horses,
    ^(CV)on your chariot of salvation?
⁹You stripped the sheath from your bow,
    calling for many arrows.^[g] Selah
    ^(CW)You split the earth with rivers.
¹⁰^(CX)The mountains saw you and writhed;
    the raging waters swept on;
^(CY)the deep gave forth its voice;
    ^(CZ)it lifted its hands on high.
¹¹^(DA)The sun and moon stood still in their place
    ^(DB)at the light of your arrows as they sped,
    at the flash of your glittering spear.
¹²^(DC)You marched through the earth in fury;
    ^(DD)you threshed the nations in anger.
¹³^(DE)You went out for the salvation of your people,
    for the salvation of ^(DF)your anointed.
^(DG)You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
    laying him bare from thigh to neck.^[h] Selah
¹⁴You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
    who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
    rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
¹⁵^(DH)You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.

¹⁶^(DI)I hear, and ^(DJ)my body trembles;
    my lips quiver at the sound;
^(DK)rottenness enters into my bones;
    my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet ^(DL)I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
    to come upon people who invade us.

Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord

¹⁷Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸^(DM)yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    ^(DN)I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹God, the Lord, is my strength;
    ^(DO)he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me ^(DP)tread on my ^(DQ)high places.

^(DR)To the choirmaster: with ^(DS)stringed^[i] instruments.

Footnotes

Habakkuk 1:15 That is, the wicked foe
Habakkuk 1:16 Hebrew his portion is fat
Habakkuk 2:4 Or faithfulness
Habakkuk 2:5 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll wealth
Habakkuk 2:5 The meaning of the Hebrew of these two lines is uncertain
Habakkuk 3:5 Hebrew feet
Habakkuk 3:9 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain
Habakkuk 3:13 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain
Habakkuk 3:19 Hebrew my stringed

John 8

English Standard Version

8 ¹but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²^(A)Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and ^(B)he sat down and taught them. ³The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst ⁴they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. ⁵Now ^(C)in the Law, Moses commanded us ^(D)to stone such women. So what do you say?” ⁶This they said ^(E)to test him, ^(F)that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ^(G)“Let him who is without sin among you ^(H)be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, ^(I)“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on ^(J)sin no more.”]]

I Am the Light of the World

¹²^(K)Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ^(L)“I am the light of the world. Whoever ^(M)follows me will not ^(N)walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ¹³So the Pharisees said to him, ^(O)“You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” ¹⁴Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, ^(P)my testimony is true, for I know ^(Q)where I came from and ^(R)where I am going, but ^(S)you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵^(T)You judge according to the flesh; ^(U)I judge no one. ¹⁶Yet even if I do judge, ^(V)my judgment is true, for ^(W)it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father^[a] who sent me. ¹⁷^(X)In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. ¹⁸I am the one who bears witness about myself, and ^(Y)the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” ¹⁹They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, ^(Z)“You know neither me nor my Father. ^(AA)If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰These words he spoke in ^(AB)the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but ^(AC)no one arrested him, because ^(AD)his hour had not yet come.

²¹So he said to them again, ^(AE)“I am going away, and ^(AF)you will seek me, and ^(AG)you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” ²²So the Jews said, ^(AH)“Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” ²³He said to them, ^(AI)“You are from below; I am from above. ^(AJ)You are of this world; ^(AK)I am not of this world. ²⁴I told you that you ^(AL)would die in your sins, for ^(AM)unless you believe that ^(AN)I am he you will die in your sins.” ²⁵So they said to him, ^(AO)“Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ²⁶I have much to say about you and much to judge, but ^(AP)he who sent me is true, and I declare ^(AQ)to the world ^(AR)what I have heard from him.” ²⁷They did not understand that ^(AS)he had been speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸So Jesus said to them, “When you have ^(AT)lifted up the Son of Man, ^(AU)then you will know that ^(AV)I am he, and that ^(AW)I do nothing on my own authority, but ^(AX)speak just as the Father taught me. ²⁹And ^(AY)he who sent me is with me. ^(AZ)He has not left me alone, for ^(BA)I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” ³⁰As he was saying these things, ^(BB)many believed in him.

The Truth Will Set You Free

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ^(BC)“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will ^(BD)know the truth, and the truth ^(BE)will set you free.” ³³They answered him, ^(BF)“We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(BG)everyone who practices sin is a slave^[b] to sin. ³⁵^(BH)The slave does not remain in the house forever; ^(BI)the son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet ^(BJ)you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ³⁸^(BK)I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard ^(BL)from your father.”

You Are of Your Father the Devil

³⁹They answered him, ^(BM)“Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, ^(BN)“If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, ⁴⁰but now ^(BO)you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth ^(BP)that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, ^(BQ)“We were not born of sexual immorality. We have ^(BR)one Father—even God.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, ^(BS)“If God were your Father, you would love me, for ^(BT)I came from God and ^(BU)I am here. ^(BV)I came not of my own accord, but ^(BW)he sent me. ⁴³^(BX)Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot ^(BY)bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴^(BZ)You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. ^(CA)He was a murderer from the beginning, and ^(CB)does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. ^(CC)When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷^(CD)Whoever is of God hears the words of God. ^(CE)The reason why you do not hear them is that ^(CF)you are not of God.”

Before Abraham Was, I Am

⁴⁸The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and ^(CG)have a demon?” ⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but ^(CH)I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰Yet ^(CI)I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹Truly, truly, ^(CJ)I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never ^(CK)see death.” ⁵²The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! ^(CL)Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet ^(CM)you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never ^(CN)taste death.’ ⁵³^(CO)Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” ⁵⁴Jesus answered, ^(CP)“If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. ^(CQ)It is my Father who glorifies me, ^(CR)of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’^[c] ⁵⁵But ^(CS)you have not known him. ^(CT)I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be ^(CU)a liar ^(CV)like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶^(CW)Your father Abraham ^(CX)rejoiced ^(CY)that he would see my day. ^(CZ)He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”^[d] ⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, ^(DA)I am.” ⁵⁹So ^(DB)they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Footnotes

John 8:16 Some manuscripts he
John 8:34 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface; also verse 35
John 8:54 Some manuscripts your God
John 8:57 Some manuscripts has Abraham seen you?