Beginning
Habakkuk has a problem
1 This is the message that God showed to his prophet Habakkuk.
2 Lord, how long must I call out to you for help?[a]
You do not listen to me!
I shout aloud to you, ‘Violence is everywhere!’
but you do nothing to make us safe.
3 You cause me to see many things that are not right.
You do not punish people who are doing wrong things.
Why do you let that happen?
People do cruel things and there is violence everywhere.
They argue and they fight and they quarrel.
4 The law has no power to make things right.
There is no justice in the courts.
Instead, wicked people win against good people.
The judges decide that bad people are good.
The Lord speaks
5 ‘All of you, look carefully at the other nations.
You will be very surprised at what is happening.
While you are still alive, I will do a very surprising thing.
You would not believe it even if someone told you.
6 I will give more power to the Babylonians.
They are a cruel nation with brave soldiers.
They march across the whole earth.
They take cities that do not belong to them.
7 They cause people to be very afraid.
They obey no laws except their own rules.
8 Their horses run faster than leopards.
They are more cruel than wolves
that attack in the evening.
Their riders come on fast horses
from places that are far away.
They quickly attack their enemies,
like hungry eagles that fly down to catch chickens.
9 Their whole army comes to do violent things.
They march forward like a wind from the desert.
They make people their prisoners,
as easily as if they are picking up sand.
10 They insult kings,
and they laugh at rulers.
They laugh at all the strong cities of their enemies.
They build heaps of earth against the walls,
and they take those cities for themselves.
11 Their army quickly moves on to another place,
like a wind that blows.
They think that their own god has made them strong,
and so they are guilty.’[b]
Habakkuk has another problem
12 Lord, you have always been God,
since the beginning.
You are the God that I worship as holy,
and you will never die.
Lord, you have chosen the Babylonians
as your weapon to punish your people.
You are a strong rock to protect us,
but you have decided to use them to punish us.
13 But you are too holy to accept anything that is evil.
You cannot agree with people who do wrong things.
So why do you let these wicked people live?
Why do you say nothing?
They are killing people who are more righteous than themselves.
14 It seems that you have made people like fish in the sea.
They are like animals that have no leader to rule them.
15 The Babylonians can easily catch them,
like people who catch fish with hooks.
They throw their nets into the water,
and they catch as many as they want.
When they store their fish in special nets,
they sing happy songs.
16 Their nets give them everything that they need,
so they offer sacrifices to their nets.
Their nets give them plenty of good food to eat,
so they burn incense to thank their nets.
17 Will you let them continue to do that?
Will they make their nets full of fish
as many times as they want to?
Will they continue to destroy other nations
and never stop?[c]
The Lord answers Habakkuk
2 I will stand at my place on the wall of the city. I will watch from there. I will wait to see what God will say to me. I have complained to him and now I will see how he answers me.
2 The Lord answered me. He said:
‘Write down what I will show to you. Make it very clear on the page where you write it. Then someone can easily read it, and he can tell the message to other people. 3 What I will show to you must happen at the time that I have decided. That is a future time, but it will certainly happen, as I have said. It may not happen very soon, but you must be patient. What I show to you will certainly happen at the right time, so wait for it.
4 Look now! The enemy is very proud. They do not want to do what is right.[d] But righteous people will live because of their faith in God.
5 Wine will destroy that proud enemy.[e] They do not stop attacking other people. They never have enough for themselves. They are like death that is so hungry that it eats as much as it can. The deep hole of death eats everything. The cruel enemy is like that! They want all the nations to belong to them. They catch everyone to be their prisoners.
6 But one day, their prisoners will laugh at them. The people will insult that proud nation with songs and proverbs. They will say, “You have stored for yourselves many valuable things that do not belong to you. It will be very bad for you! You have robbed other nations so that you can be rich. This will not continue much longer!”
7 The people that have lent their riches to you will suddenly attack. They will come to take back their things and you will be very afraid. Now they will come to rob you! 8 You have robbed many nations. You have murdered people in many lands. You have destroyed towns and the people who live in them. Now the people who remain will come to rob you.
9 It will be very bad for anyone who cheats other people so that he can make his family rich. He thinks that his riches will make him safe. He thinks that he is too high up for any trouble to reach him. 10 But the cruel things that you have done will bring shame to your family. You decided to destroy people from many countries. Because of that, you will pay with your own life. 11 The stones in the walls of your houses will cry out against you. The beams in your roof will also shout aloud.
12 It will be very bad for anyone who kills people so that he can build a city for himself. It will be bad for anyone who does wicked things to make his town great.
13 Listen! The Lord Almighty has commanded this: All the work that people do to get things for themselves is useless. The things that the nations work so hard to get will become smoke! 14 But people everywhere will one day recognize the Lord's great glory. Those people will fill the whole earth, as the waters fill the sea.
15 It will be very bad for you! You cause your neighbours to become drunk.[f] You are so angry that you make them drink too much wine. You are happy when they are so drunk that you can see their bare bodies. 16 But it is you who will become ashamed, not great. You will become drunk so that people see you with no clothes on! The Lord has a cup of wine in his right hand. He is ready to give it to you as a punishment. You will no longer be great, but you will be ashamed.
17 You have done cruel things to the people in Lebanon. You destroyed their animals. The Lord will punish you for the things that you have done, and you will be very afraid. You have murdered people. You have destroyed the land and the towns and the people who live in them.
18 What value does an idol have? What help can it give? Somebody has made it as the image of a false god. It can only tell false messages. Why should its maker trust it for help? He has used wood or metal to make it and it cannot speak!
19 It will be very bad for anyone who says to a piece of wood, “Wake up!” It will be bad for anyone who says to a stone that cannot speak, “Get up and help me!” It cannot teach you! It has gold or silver to make it look nice, but it is not alive.
20 But the Lord rules from his holy temple. Everybody on the earth should be quiet in front of him.’
Habakkuk prays
3 These are the words that the prophet Habakkuk prayed. He used special music to sing it.
2 Lord, I have heard the report about you.
I see the things that you have done, Lord,
and I respect your power.
Please do great things like that again.
Do them again now for us to see.
When you are angry with us,
please still remember to be kind!
3 God is coming from Teman!
The Holy God is coming from Paran mountain.[g]
Selah.
His beautiful power covers the whole sky!
People praise him all over the earth!
4 He is as bright as the sunrise.
His hands throw bright lightning!
That is where he hides his power.
5 As he marches to war,
bad disease marches with him.
6 God stands ready to fight,
and he causes the earth to shake.
He looks at the nations
and they shake with fear.
The very old mountains break into pieces.
The old hills fall down flat.
He travels on roads that have been there for ever.
7 I see the tents where Cushan's people live,
and the people are afraid.
The people in Midian are shaking with fear.
8 Was it the rivers that made you angry, Lord?
Did the sea make you so angry?
You rode on your chariots as horses pulled them!
You rode into battle to win against your enemies.
9 You have prepared your bow.
You are ready to shoot your arrows.
Selah.
You send rivers of water to cut the earth into pieces.
10 The mountains see you and they shake.
Rain pours down from the sky and it causes floods.
The deep sea roars
and it lifts its waves up high.
11 You shoot your bright arrows
so that the sun and the moon stand still in the sky.
Your bright spear flies like lightning,
and the sun and the moon do not move!
12 You angrily march across the earth.
You knock down the armies of the nations,
because you are so angry.
13 You have marched out to rescue your people,
and to save your special servant.[h]
You have knocked down the leader of the wicked nation.
You have removed all his clothes,
from head to foot.
Selah.
14 You threw his own spear into his head,
and you destroyed his army.
When his soldiers rushed out to attack us,
they were laughing.
They thought that they would easily win against us,
as if we were poor, weak people.
15 But you, Lord, marched across the sea with your horses.
You made the waters of the sea shake.
16 I listened to this
and I was very afraid.
My lips shook with fear
when I heard the sound.
My bones became weak.
My legs would not let me walk.
But I will be patient.
I will wait for the day of trouble that will come.
Yes, punishment will come to the people who are attacking us.
17 Whatever happens, I will continue to thank the Lord.
If there are no flowers on the fig trees,
if there are no grapes on the vines,
if there are no olives on the olive trees,
if there are no crops in the fields,
if the sheep are dying in the hills,
if there are no cows on the farms,
18 I will still sing to thank the Lord!
I will be happy because God is the one who makes me safe.[i]
19 The Lord God causes me to be strong.
He makes my feet run safely over the rocks and hills,
like a deer's feet.
This prayer is for the music leader. He must use stringed instruments.
The Lord will destroy Judah
1 This is the Lord's message, which he gave to Zephaniah, Cushi's son.[a] Cushi's father was Gedaliah. Gedaliah's father was Amariah, and Amariah's father was Hezekiah. The Lord gave this message to Zephaniah when Josiah was king. Josiah was the son of Amon, who was the king of Judah.
2 ‘It is the Lord who is speaking now.
I will remove everything from the ground.
3 I will remove men and animals.
I will remove the birds that fly in the air.
I will also remove the fish that live in the sea.
I will remove all the bad people.
Bad people cause trouble for other people.
Yes, I will remove all the people from the ground.
It is the Lord who is speaking.
4 I will destroy Judah.
I will remove all the people who live in Jerusalem.
I will remove all those who believe in the false god Baal.
I will remove Baal's priests.[b]
5 Some people stand on the roof tops to worship the sun, the moon and the stars.[c] I will remove those people.
Some people say that they love me. But they say also that they love Malcam (a false god). So I will remove them, too.’[d]
6 ‘I will remove those who have turned away from the Lord.
I will also remove those who decide things without the Lord.
7 Be quiet! The Lord God is here.
It will soon be the day of the Lord.[e]
The Lord has made his sacrifice ready.[f]
He has made the people ready who will give the sacrifice to him.’[g]
8 ‘When it is time for the Lord's sacrifice, I will punish the rulers and the king's sons.
I will punish everyone who wears clothes like foreign people do.’[h]
9 ‘I will also punish the people who rush into other people's houses. They do that because they want to rob those people.
On that same day, I will also punish other robbers. Those people fill their masters' houses with the things that they take.’
10 The Lord says, ‘On that day you will hear the noise of people who are shouting from one gate of the city. It is the gate called the Fish Gate.
And there will be sad sounds from the next gate.
There will be loud noises from the hills.
11 Shout out, you who live near Jerusalem's market! Weep!
The Lord will remove the traders from your town.
Some people have lots of money there. But all those people will be dead then.’[i]
12 ‘At that time,
I will look in all Jerusalem's dark corners. I will take lights with me.
I will find the drunks and I will punish them. These people say in their minds,
“The Lord will do neither good things nor bad things to us.”
13 So I will take away from them everything that they have.
I will take away their houses too.
They will build houses, but they will never live in them.
They will plant plants to get grapes. But they will never have wine from them.’
The great day of the Lord
14 The time for the great day of the Lord is coming very soon.
It will happen quickly.
Strong men will weep when they hear the noise of it.
15 The Lord will be very angry at that time.
It will be a time when there will be trouble.
On that day, he will destroy everything bad.
It will be very dark. At that time, there will be thick dark clouds.
16 At that time, people will make a noise with trumpets. They will shout when they go to fight in a war.
In the fight, they will try to destroy the strong walls of cities.
And they will try to destroy the strong high parts of the walls.
17 I will cause trouble for people.
So they will walk like people who cannot see.
This is because they have not obeyed the Lord.
Their blood will fall to the ground.
Yes, they will fall to the ground and they will die. After that, they will be nothing.
18 Their money will not save them,
on the day when the Lord is angry.
He watches.
And he is angry when his people love other gods.
So he will send fire on the earth.
Yes, he will quickly kill all the people who live in Judah.
2 Come together!
Yes, you people, come together and think.
You do not know how to be ashamed!
2-3 The wind takes away the dry parts of a plant that covered the seed.
It will be like that when I punish you.
Before it is the time for me to punish you, look for me.
Before this time is past, look for me.
Look for me, before I become very, very angry with you.
There will be a day when the Lord will be angry. Look for me, before that day.
Yes, look for the Lord, all you people who want to make him happy.
You have done what the Lord wants.
Continue to do what is good.
But do not think that you are great.
Perhaps you will find a safe place
on the day when the Lord is angry.
The Lord will destroy the Philistines
4 Then, the people who have lived in Gaza city and Ashkelon city will not be there.
Enemies will also send away the people in Ashdod city at midday. And those enemies will destroy Ekron city.
5 Terrible trouble will come to you people who came from Crete,
you people who live beside the sea!
The Lord has said this against you:
I will kill all you Philistines who live in the land of Canaan!
You will all die. So nobody will live there.
6 By the sea, there will be houses for people who feed sheep.
There will be safe places for their sheep.
7 Those people in Judah who love God will live there, by the sea.
They will have food there.
They will lie down to sleep in Ashkelon city's houses.
The Lord, their God, will be with them.
He will stop their troubles.
The Lord will destroy the people of other countries
8 The Lord of all his armies says, ‘I have heard the cruel people in the countries called Moab and Ammon.
They laugh about you and they say cruel things about you, my people.
They have thought that they were greater than you.
They have come against you.’
9 The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says,
‘You can be sure that I live.
In the same way, you can also be sure that my people will take everything for themselves.
God will destroy Moab as he destroyed Sodom.
He will destroy Ammon as he destroyed Gomorrah.
After this, the ground will have lots of salt on it. Weeds will grow there.
Nobody will build anything there again.
My people who are still alive will take for themselves the Ammonites' things and the Moabites' things.’
10 That will happen to all proud people.
The proud people said cruel words to God's people.
The cruel people thought that they were greater than the people of the Lord Almighty.
11 The Lord will make them afraid.
He will destroy all the false gods.
People will worship him instead. Every person, in his own place, will worship God.
They will also worship him in the places where the people now believe in false gods.
12 ‘I will also punish you people in the country called Ethiopia.
Other people will kill you with a big knife,’ the Lord says.
13 The Lord will go against the north.
There, he will destroy the country called Assyria.
He will also destroy Nineveh city. That place will become as dry as a desert.
14 Sheep will lie down there.
All the wild animals of that place will live together there.
Vultures and owls will rest on top of the high, thin parts of the buildings.
They will sing in the windows.
Bits of doors will lie on the ground.
The Lord will tear down all the things in the houses that they have made from valuable wood.
15 All this will happen to that city, the proud city.
That city's people said in their minds,
‘Here we are. We are greater than all the other people.’
But then, other people will destroy their city! Only bits of it will still be there.
Then wild animals will come and they will lie down in it. People will see this.
So any people who pass by the city will make noises with their lips.
And they will hold their fists up. In this way, they will show that they think bad things about the city.
The Lord will punish Jerusalem
3 It will be very bad for the city!
It is like something that is dirty.
Its people will not obey me. They like to fight weak people. They also like to do bad things.
2 They do not listen to anyone's voice.
Nobody can warn them that they are doing wrong things.
They do not trust in the Lord.
They do not come near to their God.
3 The rulers of the city make a very loud noise with their voices like big wild animals.
Its judges are like hungry wolves.
They are like wolves that have even eaten all an animal's bones before morning.
4 Its prophets do not know what to think.
People cannot trust them.
Its priests have done wrong things,
even in God's holy house.
They have also made changes to God's rules.
They have made changes that they want.
5 But the Lord is among all the people in the city.[j]
He will do what is right.
He is always the honest judge.
He never fails.
But the bad people do not know how to be ashamed.
6 ‘I have destroyed nations,’ the Lord says.
‘There is nobody in their strong towers now.
I have made their streets empty, so no people are there.
I have destroyed their cities.
So nobody lives in them now.
7 I said, “Now people in the city will respect me!
Now they will agree when people warn them.”
The people would have been safe if they had accepted it.
Then I would not have to destroy them.
But it did not happen. I had to punish them.
Still, the people got up early to do bad things.
8 So wait for me,
I will stand up and I will punish the nations.
I have decided to bring together the nations and the people that kings rule over.
Then I will punish them very, very much.
They will see how angry I am.
They will see it because, on that day, I will burn all the earth.’
That is what the Lord says.
The Lord will make the people pure
9 ‘Then I will give to people lips that I have made pure.
With those lips, they will call me Lord.[k]
And then, all the people will agree to work together for me.’
10 ‘Some people live a long way beyond the rivers of Cush.
Yes, my people who pray went away to many other countries.
They will return and they will carry their gifts to me.
11 At that time, you will not have to be ashamed
of the wrong things that you have done against me.
But I will take away those who do not see anything wrong in themselves.
Those people will not call each other
“the people who live on God's holy mountain”.
12 But I will let the poor people remain there.
These are the people who have had bad times.
These are the people who will trust me. And they will call me Lord.
13 I will let those people stay there.
They will not do any bad things.
They will only say things that are true.
They will say honest things.
They will eat well and they will sleep well.
Nobody will make them afraid.’
The Lord will be with his people
14 Sing, you people in Zion. You are my own people, like my own daughter.
Shout, you people in Israel!
Be very, very happy, my people in Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has not punished you as he would have done.
He has sent your enemy away.
I, the King of Israel, am with you!
The bad times have gone.
They will not happen again!
16 On that special day, this will be my message for Jerusalem.
‘Do not be afraid now! Do not be weak now!
17 The Lord, your God, is with you.
He is strong. He will save you.
He will be very happy about you!
He will quietly love you.
He will sing, because he is so happy about you!
18 I will bring together those people among you who want to meet together again.
You want to meet again to pray. And you want to meet again to praise God.
You have had enough cruel words from your enemies.
19 Look! At that time, I will punish
all those people who hurt you.
I will save those who cannot walk well.
I will bring back the people that the enemy has sent away.
I will cause people in every country to know about you. I will cause them to praise you.
20 At that time, I will bring you back to your home.
I will bring you back together.
I will give you a good name among all the people on the earth.
That is what I will do. I will stop your troubles. And you will see it happen.’
That is what the Lord says.
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