Habakkuk 1:1-3

New International Version

1 The prophecy^(A) that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

²How long,^(B) Lord, must I call for help,
    but you do not listen?^(C)
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
    but you do not save?^(D)
³Why do you make me look at injustice?
    Why do you tolerate^(E) wrongdoing?^(F)
Destruction and violence^(G) are before me;
    there is strife,^(H) and conflict abounds.

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Habakkuk 2:1-4

New International Version

2 I will stand at my watch^(A)
and station myself on the ramparts;^(B)
I will look to see what he will say^(C) to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.^[a]^(D)

The Lord’s Answer

²Then the Lord replied:

“Write^(E) down the revelation
    and make it plain on tablets
    so that a herald^[b] may run with it.
³For the revelation awaits an appointed time;^(F)
    it speaks of the end^(G)
    and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait^(H) for it;
    it^[c] will certainly come
    and will not delay.^(I)

⁴“See, the enemy is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous person^(J) will live by his faithfulness^[d]^(K)—

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Footnotes

Habakkuk 2:1 Or and what to answer when I am rebuked
Habakkuk 2:2 Or so that whoever reads it
Habakkuk 2:3 Or Though he linger, wait for him; / he
Habakkuk 2:4 Or faith

Luke 12:35-40

New International Version

Watchfulness^(A)^(B)

³⁵“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.^(C) Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.^(D) ³⁸It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. ³⁹But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief^(E) was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready,^(F) because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

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Revelation 22:6-13

New International Version

John and the Angel

⁶The angel said to me,^(A) “These words are trustworthy and true.^(B) The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets,^(C) sent his angel^(D) to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”

⁷“Look, I am coming soon!^(E) Blessed^(F) is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”^(G)

⁸I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.^(H) And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet^(I) of the angel who had been showing them to me. ⁹But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll.^(J) Worship God!”^(K)

¹⁰Then he told me, “Do not seal up^(L) the words of the prophecy of this scroll,^(M) because the time is near.^(N) ¹¹Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”^(O)

Epilogue: Invitation and Warning

¹²“Look, I am coming soon!^(P) My reward is with me,^(Q) and I will give to each person according to what they have done.^(R) ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega,^(S) the First and the Last,^(T) the Beginning and the End.^(U)