Nahum 3

English Standard Version

Woe to Nineveh

3 Woe to ^(A)the bloody city,
    all full of lies and plunder—
    ^(B)no end to the prey!
²The crack of the whip, and ^(C)rumble of the wheel,
    ^(D)galloping horse and ^(E)bounding chariot!
³Horsemen charging,
    flashing sword and ^(F)glittering spear,
^(G)hosts of slain,
    heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
    they stumble over the bodies!
⁴And all for the countless whorings of the ^(H)prostitute,
    ^(I)graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
    and peoples with her charms.

⁵^(J)Behold, I am against you,
    declares the Lord of hosts,
    and ^(K)will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at ^(L)your nakedness
    and kingdoms at your shame.
⁶I will throw filth at you
    and ^(M)treat you with contempt
    and make you ^(N)a spectacle.
⁷And all who look at you ^(O)will shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is ^(P)Nineveh; ^(Q)who will grieve for her?”
    ^(R)Where shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸^(S)Are you better than ^(T)Thebes^[a]
    that sat ^(U)by the Nile,
with water around her,
    her rampart a sea,
    and water her wall?
⁹^(V)Cush was her strength;
    Egypt too, and that without limit;
    ^(W)Put and the ^(X)Libyans were her^[b] helpers.

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

¹⁴^(AG)Draw water for the siege;
    ^(AH)strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
    tread the mortar;
    take hold of the brick mold!
¹⁵There will the fire devour you;
    the sword will cut you off.
    It will ^(AI)devour you ^(AJ)like the locust.
Multiply yourselves ^(AK)like the locust;
    multiply ^(AL)like the grasshopper!
¹⁶You increased ^(AM)your merchants
    more than the stars of the heavens.
    ^(AN)The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

¹⁷Your ^(AO)princes are ^(AP)like grasshoppers,
    ^(AQ)your scribes^[c] 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.

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

Footnotes

Nahum 3:8 Hebrew No-amon
Nahum 3:9 Hebrew your
Nahum 3:17 Or marshals

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

Zephaniah 1:1-13

English Standard Version

1 The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, ^(A)in the days of ^(B)Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

The Coming Judgment on Judah

²^(C)“I will utterly sweep away everything
    from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.
³“I will sweep away ^(D)man and beast;
    I will sweep away the birds of the heavens
    and ^(E)the fish of the sea,
and ^(F)the rubble^[a] with the wicked.
    I will ^(G)cut off mankind
    from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.
⁴“I will stretch out my hand against Judah
    and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
^(H)and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal
    and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,
⁵^(I)those who bow down on the roofs
    to the host of the heavens,
^(J)those who bow down and swear to the Lord
    and yet swear by ^(K)Milcom,^[b]
⁶^(L)those who have turned back from following the Lord,
    ^(M)who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.”

The Day of the Lord Is Near

⁷^(N)Be silent before the Lord God!
    For ^(O)the day of the Lord is near;
^(P)the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
    and ^(Q)consecrated his guests.
⁸And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice—
^(R)“I will punish the officials and the king's sons
    and ^(S)all who array themselves in foreign attire.
⁹On that day I will punish
    everyone ^(T)who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master's^[c] house
    with violence and fraud.

¹⁰“On that day,” declares the Lord,
    “a cry will be heard from ^(U)the Fish Gate,
^(V)a wail from ^(W)the Second Quarter,
    a loud crash from the hills.
¹¹^(X)Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!
    For all the traders^[d] are no more;
    all who weigh out silver are cut off.
¹²At that time ^(Y)I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
    and I will punish the men
^(Z)who are complacent,^[e]
    ^(AA)those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good,
    nor will he do ill.’
¹³Their goods shall be ^(AB)plundered,
    and their houses laid waste.
^(AC)Though they build houses,
    they shall not inhabit them;
^(AD)though they plant vineyards,
    they shall not drink wine from them.”