Habakkuk 1

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?

Footnotes

Habakkuk 1:15 That is, the wicked foe
Habakkuk 1:16 Hebrew his portion is fat

Zephaniah 3

English Standard Version

Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations

3 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
    ^(A)the oppressing city!
²She listens to no voice;
    ^(B)she accepts no correction.
^(C)She does not trust in the Lord;
    she does not draw near to her God.

³^(D)Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
her judges are ^(E)evening wolves
    that leave nothing till the morning.
⁴^(F)Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
^(G)her priests ^(H)profane what is holy;
    they do violence to the law.
⁵The Lord within her ^(I)is righteous;
    he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
    each dawn he does not fail;
    but ^(J)the unjust knows no shame.

⁶^(K)“I have cut off nations;
    their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
    ^(L)so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
    without a man, without an inhabitant.
⁷^(M)I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
    ^(N)you will accept correction.
Then your^[a] dwelling would not be cut off
    according to all that I have appointed against you.’^[b]
But ^(O)all the more they were eager
    to make all their deeds corrupt.

⁸“Therefore ^(P)wait for me,” declares the Lord,
    “for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is ^(Q)to gather nations,
    to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
    all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy
    ^(R)all the earth shall be consumed.

The Conversion of the Nations

⁹“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
    to ^(S)a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
    and serve him with one accord.
¹⁰^(T)From beyond the rivers ^(U)of Cush
    my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
    shall bring my offering.

¹¹^(V)“On that day ^(W)you shall not be put to shame
    because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then ^(X)I will remove from your midst
    your proudly exultant ones,
and ^(Y)you shall no longer be haughty
    in my holy mountain.
¹²But I will leave in your midst
    a people ^(Z)humble and lowly.
^(AA)They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
¹³    ^(AB)those who are left in Israel;
they ^(AC)shall do no injustice
    and speak no lies,
^(AD)nor shall there be found in their mouth
    a deceitful tongue.
^(AE)For they shall graze and lie down,
    and none shall make them afraid.”

Israel's Joy and Restoration

¹⁴^(AF)Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
    shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
    O daughter of Jerusalem!
¹⁵The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
    he has cleared away your enemies.
^(AG)The King of Israel, ^(AH)the Lord, is in your midst;
    you shall never again fear evil.
¹⁶^(AI)On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
    ^(AJ)let not your hands grow weak.
¹⁷^(AK)The Lord your God is in your midst,
    ^(AL)a mighty one who will save;
^(AM)he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
¹⁸I will gather those of you who mourn ^(AN)for the festival,
    so that you will no longer suffer reproach.^[c]
¹⁹Behold, at that time ^(AO)I will deal
    with all your oppressors.
And ^(AP)I will save the lame
    and gather the outcast,
and I will change ^(AQ)their shame into ^(AR)praise
    and renown in all the earth.
²⁰^(AS)At that time I will bring you in,
    at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
    among all the peoples of the earth,
^(AT)when I restore your fortunes
    before your eyes,” says the Lord.

Footnotes

Zephaniah 3:7 Hebrew her
Zephaniah 3:7 Hebrew her
Zephaniah 3:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

Haggai 1

English Standard Version

The Command to Rebuild the Temple

1 ^(A)In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to ^(B)Zerubbabel the son of ^(C)Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to ^(D)Joshua the son of ^(E)Jehozadak, the high priest: ²“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” ³Then the word of the Lord came ^(F)by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ⁴^(G)“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while ^(H)this house lies in ruins? ⁵Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(I)Consider your ways. ⁶^(J)You have sown much, and harvested little. ^(K)You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who ^(L)earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

⁷“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(M)Consider your ways. ⁸Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that ^(N)I may take pleasure in it and that ^(O)I may be glorified, says the Lord. ⁹^(P)You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, ^(Q)I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house ^(R)that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. ¹⁰Therefore ^(S)the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. ¹¹And ^(T)I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on ^(U)the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and ^(V)on all their labors.”

The People Obey the Lord

¹²^(W)Then ^(X)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and ^(Y)Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all ^(Z)the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. ¹³Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, ^(AA)“I am with you, declares the Lord.” ¹⁴And ^(AB)the Lord stirred up the spirit of ^(AC)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of ^(AD)Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all ^(AE)the remnant of the people. And they came and ^(AF)worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, ¹⁵^(AG)on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.