Nahum 3 - Habakkuk 3

New King James Version

⁵ “Behold, I am ^(C)against you,” says the Lord of hosts;
^(D)“I will lift your skirts over your face,
I will show the nations your nakedness,
And the kingdoms your shame.
⁶ I will cast abominable filth upon you,
Make you ^(E)vile,^[e]
And make you ^(F)a spectacle.
⁷ It shall come to pass that all who look upon you
^(G)Will flee from you, and say,
^(H)‘Nineveh is laid waste!
^(I)Who will bemoan her?’
Where shall I seek comforters for you?”

^8 (J)Are you better than ^(K)No^[f] Amon
That was situated by the ^[g]River,
That had the waters around her,
Whose rampart was the sea,
Whose wall was the sea?
⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,
And it was boundless;
^(L)Put and Lubim were ^[h]your helpers.
¹⁰ Yet she was carried away,
She went into captivity;
^(M)Her young children also were dashed to pieces
^(N)At the head of every street;
They ^(O)cast lots for her honorable men,
And all her great men were bound in chains.
¹¹ You also will be ^(P)drunk;
You will be hidden;
You also will seek refuge from the enemy.

¹² All your strongholds are ^(Q)fig trees with ripened figs:
If they are shaken,
They fall into the mouth of the eater.
¹³ Surely, ^(R)your people in your midst are women!
The gates of your land are wide open for your enemies;
Fire shall devour the ^(S)bars of your gates.

¹⁴ Draw your water for the siege!
^(T)Fortify your strongholds!
Go into the clay and tread the mortar!
Make strong the brick kiln!
¹⁵ There the fire will devour you,
The sword will cut you off;
It will eat you up like a ^(U)locust.

Make yourself many—like the locust!
Make yourself many—like the swarming locusts!
¹⁶ You have multiplied your ^(V)merchants more than the stars of heaven.
The locust plunders and flies away.
^17 (W)Your commanders are like swarming locusts,
And your generals like great grasshoppers,
Which camp in the hedges on a cold day;
When the sun rises they flee away,
And the place where they are is not known.

^18 (X)Your shepherds slumber, O ^(Y)king of Assyria;
Your nobles rest in the dust.
Your people are ^(Z)scattered on the mountains,
And no one gathers them.
¹⁹ Your injury has no healing,
^(AA)Your wound is severe.
^(AB)All who hear news of you
Will clap their hands over you,
For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?

⁹ “They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
¹⁰ They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
¹¹ Then his ^[m]mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
^(AL)Ascribing this power to his god.”

¹⁵ They take up all of them with a hook,
They catch them in their net,
And gather them in their dragnet.
Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
¹⁶ Therefore ^(AP)they sacrifice to their net,
And burn incense to their dragnet;
Because by them their share is ^[n]sumptuous
And their food plentiful.
¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net,
And continue to slay nations without pity?

^(AR)“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
³ For ^(AS)the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will ^(AT)not lie.
Though it tarries, ^(AU)wait for it;
Because it will ^(AV)surely come,
It will not tarry.

⁴ “Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the ^(AW)just shall live by his faith.

⁶ “Will not all these ^(AY)take up a proverb against him,
And a taunting riddle against him, and say,
‘Woe to him who increases
What is not his—how long?
And to him who loads himself with ^[p]many pledges’?
⁷ Will not ^[q]your creditors rise up suddenly?
Will they not awaken who oppress you?
And you will become their booty.
^8 (AZ)Because you have plundered many nations,
All the remnant of the people shall plunder you,
Because of men’s ^[r]blood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.

⁹ “Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house,
That he may ^(BA)set his nest on high,
That he may be delivered from the ^[s]power of disaster!
¹⁰ You give shameful counsel to your house,
Cutting off many peoples,
And sin against your soul.
¹¹ For the stone will cry out from the wall,
And the beam from the timbers will answer it.

¹² “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed,
Who establishes a city by iniquity!
¹³ Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts
That the peoples labor ^[t]to feed the fire,
And nations weary themselves in vain?
¹⁴ For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵ “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor,
^[u]Pressing him to your ^(BB)bottle,
Even to make him drunk,
That you may look on ^[v]his nakedness!
¹⁶ You are filled with shame instead of glory.
You also—drink!
And ^[w]be exposed as uncircumcised!
The cup of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you,
And utter shame will be on your glory.
¹⁷ For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you,
And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid,
Because of men’s blood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.

¹⁸ “What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it,
The molded image, a teacher of lies,
That the maker of its mold should trust in it,
To make mute idols?
¹⁹ Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’
To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
Yet in it there is no breath at all.

²⁰ “But^(BC) the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

² O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.

³ God came from Teman,
The Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah

His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
⁴ His brightness was like the light;
He had rays flashing from His hand,
And there His power was hidden.
⁵ Before Him went pestilence,
And fever followed at His feet.

⁶ He stood and measured the earth;
He looked and startled the nations.
^(BD)And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
The perpetual hills bowed.
His ways are everlasting.
⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

⁸ O Lord, were You displeased with the rivers,
Was Your anger against the rivers,
Was Your wrath against the sea,
That You rode on Your horses,
Your chariots of salvation?
⁹ Your bow was made quite ready;
Oaths were sworn over Your ^[y]arrows. Selah

You divided the earth with rivers.
¹⁰ The mountains saw You and trembled;
The overflowing of the water passed by.
The deep uttered its voice,
And ^(BE)lifted its hands on high.
¹¹ The ^(BF)sun and moon stood still in their habitation;
At the light of Your arrows they went,
At the shining of Your glittering spear.

¹² You marched through the land in indignation;
You ^[z]trampled the nations in anger.
¹³ You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
For salvation with Your Anointed.
You struck the head from the house of the wicked,
By laying bare from foundation to neck. Selah

¹⁴ You thrust through with his own arrows
The head of his villages.
They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me;
Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret.
^15 (BG)You walked through the sea with Your horses,
Through the heap of great waters.

¹⁶ When I heard, ^(BH)my body trembled;
My lips quivered at the voice;
Rottenness entered my bones;
And I trembled in myself,
That I might rest in the day of trouble.
When he comes up to the people,
He will invade them with his troops.

^19 [aa]The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like ^(BJ)deer’s feet,
And He will make me ^(BK)walk on my high hills.