Nahum 2 - Habakkuk 3

English Standard Version

² For ^(C)the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
    as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
    and ^(D)ruined their branches.

³ The shield of his mighty men is red;
    ^(E)his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
    on the day he musters them;
    the cypress spears are brandished.
^4 (F)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 ^(G)his officers;
    ^(H)they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
    the siege tower^[b] is set up.
^6 (I)The river gates are opened;
    the palace ^(J)melts away;
⁷ its mistress^[c] is ^(K)stripped;^[d] she is carried off,
    her slave girls ^(L)lamenting,
moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.
^8 (M)Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters run away.^[e]
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
    but ^(N)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 (O)Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
    ^(P)Hearts melt and ^(Q)knees tremble;
^(R)anguish is in all loins;
    ^(S)all faces grow pale!
¹¹ Where is the lions' den,
    the feeding place of ^(T)the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
    where his cubs were, with ^(U)none to disturb?
^12 (V)The lion tore enough for his cubs
    and ^(W)strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
    and his dens with torn flesh.

^5 (AJ)Behold, I am against you,
    declares the Lord of hosts,
    and ^(AK)will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at ^(AL)your nakedness
    and kingdoms at your shame.
⁶ I will throw filth at you
    and ^(AM)treat you with contempt
    and make you ^(AN)a spectacle.
⁷ And all who look at you ^(AO)will shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is ^(AP)Nineveh; ^(AQ)who will grieve for her?”
    ^(AR)Where shall I seek comforters for you?

^8 (AS)Are you better than ^(AT)Thebes^[g]
    that sat ^(AU)by the Nile,
with water around her,
    her rampart a sea,
    and water her wall?
^9 (AV)Cush was her strength;
    Egypt too, and that without limit;
    ^(AW)Put and the ^(AX)Libyans were her^[h] helpers.

^10 (AY)Yet she became an exile;
    she went into captivity;
^(AZ)her infants were dashed in pieces
    at the head of every street;
for her honored men ^(BA)lots were cast,
    ^(BB)and all her great men were bound in chains.
^11 (BC)You also will be drunken;
    you will go into hiding;
^(BD)you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
¹² All your fortresses are ^(BE)like fig trees
    with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
    into the mouth of the eater.
¹³ Behold, your troops
    ^(BF)are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
    are wide open to your enemies;
    fire has devoured your bars.

^14 (BG)Draw water for the siege;
    ^(BH)strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
    tread the mortar;
    take hold of the brick mold!
¹⁵ There will the fire devour you;
    the sword will cut you off.
    It will ^(BI)devour you ^(BJ)like the locust.
Multiply yourselves ^(BK)like the locust;
    multiply ^(BL)like the grasshopper!
¹⁶ You increased ^(BM)your merchants
    more than the stars of the heavens.
    ^(BN)The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

¹⁷ Your ^(BO)princes are ^(BP)like grasshoppers,
    ^(BQ)your scribes^[i] like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
    in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
    no one knows where they are.

¹⁸ Your shepherds ^(BR)are asleep,
    O king of Assyria;
    ^(BS)your nobles slumber.
Your people ^(BT)are scattered on the mountains
    with none to gather them.
¹⁹ There is no easing your hurt;
    ^(BU)your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
    ^(BV)clap their hands over you.
For ^(BW)upon whom has not come
    your unceasing evil?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

^15 (EI)“Woe to him ^(EJ)who makes his neighbors drink—
    you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
    in order to gaze ^(EK)at their nakedness!
¹⁶ You will have your fill ^(EL)of shame instead of glory.
    ^(EM)Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
^(EN)The cup in the Lord's right hand
    will come around to you,
    and ^(EO)utter shame will come upon your glory!
^17 (EP)The violence ^(EQ)done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
    as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
^(ER)for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who dwell in them.

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

² O Lord, ^(FA)I have heard the report of you,
    and ^(FB)your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years ^(FC)revive it;
    in the midst of the years make it known;
    ^(FD)in wrath remember mercy.
³ God came from ^(FE)Teman,
    ^(FF)and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
    and the earth was full of his praise.
^4 (FG)His brightness was like the light;
    rays flashed from his hand;
    and there he veiled his power.
^5 (FH)Before him went pestilence,
    and plague followed ^(FI)at his heels.^[o]
6 He stood ^(FJ)and measured the earth;
    he looked and shook the nations;
then the ^(FK)eternal mountains ^(FL)were scattered;
    the everlasting hills sank low.
    His were ^(FM)the everlasting ways.
⁷ I saw the tents of ^(FN)Cushan in affliction;
    ^(FO)the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
^8 (FP)Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
    Was your anger against the rivers,
    ^(FQ)or your indignation against the sea,
^(FR)when you rode on your horses,
    ^(FS)on your chariot of salvation?
⁹ You stripped the sheath from your bow,
    calling for many arrows.^[p] Selah
    ^(FT)You split the earth with rivers.
^10 (FU)The mountains saw you and writhed;
    the raging waters swept on;
^(FV)the deep gave forth its voice;
    ^(FW)it lifted its hands on high.
^11 (FX)The sun and moon stood still in their place
    ^(FY)at the light of your arrows as they sped,
    at the flash of your glittering spear.
^12 (FZ)You marched through the earth in fury;
    ^(GA)you threshed the nations in anger.
^13 (GB)You went out for the salvation of your people,
    for the salvation of ^(GC)your anointed.
^(GD)You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
    laying him bare from thigh to neck.^[q] Selah
¹⁴ You 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 (GE)You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.

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

^(GO)To the choirmaster: with ^(GP)stringed^[r] instruments.