The Daily Audio Bible
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Learning How to Trust God
1 This is the message that was given to Habakkuk the prophet.
Habakkuk Complains
2 Lord, I continue to ask for help.
How long will you ignore me?
I cry out to you about violence,
but you do not save us!
3 Why do you let me see wrong things?
Why do you put up with evil?
People are destroying things and hurting others while I am looking.
They are arguing and fighting.
4 People are not forced to obey the teachings.
No one receives a fair trial.
Evil people gain while good people lose.
The judges no longer make fair decisions.
The Lord Answers
5 “You and your people, look at the nations!
Watch them and be amazed.
I will do something in your lifetime that will amaze you.
You won’t believe it even when you are told about it.
6 I will use the Babylonian people to punish the evil people.
The Babylonians are cruel and powerful fighters.
They march across the earth.
They take lands that don’t belong to them.
7 The Babylonians frighten other people.
They do what they want to do.
They are good only to themselves.
8 Their horses are faster than leopards
and more cruel than wolves at sunset.
Their horse soldiers attack quickly.
They come from places that are far away.
They attack quickly, like an eagle swooping down for food.
9 They all come to fight.
Their armies march quickly like a whirlwind in the desert.
Their prisoners are as many as the grains of sand.
10 The Babylonian soldiers laugh at kings.
They make fun of rulers.
They laugh at all the strong, walled cities.
They build dirt roads up to the top of the walls.
They capture the cities.
11 Then they leave like the wind and move on.
They are guilty of worshiping their own strength.”
Habakkuk Complains Again
12 Lord, you are the Lord who lives forever.
You are my God, my holy God.
You will not let those who trust you die.
Lord, you have chosen the Babylonians to punish people.
Our Rock, you created them to punish the people.
13 Your eyes are too good to look at evil.
You cannot stand to see people do wrong.
So how can you put up with those evil people?
How can you be quiet when wicked people defeat people who are better than they are?
14 You treat people like fish in the sea.
You treat them like sea animals without a leader.
15 The enemy catches all of them with hooks.
He catches them in his net.
He drags them in.
He is glad that he has caught them.
16 The enemy offers sacrifices to his net.
He burns incense to worship it.
This is because his net lets him live like a rich man.
His net lets him enjoy the best food.
17 Will he keep on taking riches with his net?
Will he go on destroying people without showing mercy?
2 I will stand like a guard to watch.
I will stand on the tower.
I will wait to see what the Lord will say to me.
I will wait to learn how to answer his complaint.
The Lord Answers
2 The Lord answered me:
“Write down what I show you.
Write it clearly on stone tablets
so whoever reads it can run to tell others.
3 It is not yet time for the message to come true.
But that time is coming soon.
The message will come true.
It may seem like a long time before it happens.
But be patient and wait for it.
These things will happen.
They will not be delayed.
4 See, the nation that is evil and trusts in itself will fail.
But those who do right because they trust in God will live.
5 “Wine can trick a person.
In the same way the Babylonians are fooled by their pride.
Their desire for wealth is like a grave’s desire for death.
They always want more and more.
And, like death, they collect other nations for themselves.
They make them their own people.
6 But all the nations the Babylonians have hurt will laugh at them.
They will make fun of the Babylonians.
They will say, ‘How terrible it will be for the nation that steals many things.
How long will that nation get rich by forcing others to pay them?’
7 “One day the people you have taken money from will turn against you.
They will realize what is happening and make you shake with fear.
Then they will hurt you.
8 You have stolen from many nations.
So the people who are left will take much from you.
This is because you have killed many people.
You have destroyed countries and cities and everyone in them.
9 “How terrible it will be for the nation that becomes rich by doing wrong.
They do those things to live in a safe place.
They think they will be safe from harm.
10 You have made plans to destroy many people.
This has made your own houses ashamed of you.
Because of it, you will lose your lives.
11 The stones of the walls will cry out against you.
Even the wooden boards that support the roof will agree that you are wrong.
12 “How terrible it will be for the nation that kills people to build a city.
How terrible for that nation that wrongs others to start a town.
13 The Lord of heaven’s armies will send fire
to destroy what those people have built.
All the nations’ work will be for nothing.
14 Then people everywhere will know the Lord’s greatness.
This news will spread like water covering the sea.
15 “How terrible for the nation that becomes angry and makes others suffer.
In anger they knock other people to the ground.
And they treat them as if they are naked and drunk.
16 You Babylonians will receive the Lord’s anger, not respect.
This anger will be like a cup of poison in the Lord’s right hand.
You will taste this anger and fall to the ground like a drunk person.
You will drink from this cup.
You will receive disgrace, not respect.
17 You hurt many people in Lebanon.
Now you will be hurt.
You killed many animals there.
And now you must be afraid.
You will be afraid because of what you did
to those cities and the people who lived in them.
The Message About Idols
18 “An idol does no good, because a man made it.
It is only a statue that teaches lies.
The person who made it expects his own work to help him.
But it can’t even speak!
19 How terrible it will be for the nation that says to a wooden statue, ‘Come to life!’
How terrible it will be when this nation says to a stone that cannot speak, ‘Get up!’
These things cannot tell them what to do.
That idol is only a statue covered with gold and silver.
There is no life in it.
20 The Lord is in his Holy Temple.
So all the earth should be silent in his presence.”
Habakkuk’s Prayer
3 This is the prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on shigionoth.
2 Lord, I have heard the news about you.
Lord, I am amazed at the powerful things you have done.
Do great things once again in our time.
Make those things happen again in our own days.
Even when you are angry,
remember to be gentle with us.
3 God is coming from Teman in the south.
The Holy One comes from Mount Paran.[a] Selah
The Lord’s greatness covers the heavens.
His praise fills the earth.
4 He is like a bright light.
Rays of light shine from his hand.
And there he hides his power.
5 Sickness goes before him,
and fever follows behind him.
6 The Lord stands and shakes the earth.
He looks, and the nations shake with fear.
The mountains, which stood for ages, break into pieces.
The old hills fall down.
God has always done this.
7 I saw that the tents of Cushan were in trouble.
The tents of Midian trembled.
8 Lord, were you angry at the rivers?
Were you angry at the streams?
Were you angry with the sea
when you rode your horses and chariots to victory?[b]
9 You uncovered your bow.
You commanded many arrows to be brought to you. Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you and shook with fear.
The rushing water flowed by.
The sea made a loud noise,
and its waves rose high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in the sky.
They stopped when they saw the flash of your flying arrows.
They stopped when they saw the gleam of your shining spear.
12 In anger you marched on the earth.
In anger you punished the nations.
13 You came to save your people.
You came to save your chosen one.
You crushed the leader of the wicked ones.
You took everything away from them. Selah
14 With the enemy’s own spear you stabbed the leader of his army.
His soldiers rushed out like a storm to scatter us.
They were happy as if
they were robbing the poor people in secret.
15 But you marched through the sea with your horses,
stirring the great waters.
16 I hear these things, and my body trembles.
My lips tremble when I hear the sound.
My bones feel weak.
My legs shake.
But I will wait patiently for the day of disaster.
That day is coming to the people who attack us.
17 Fig trees may not grow figs.
There may be no grapes on the vines.
There may be no olives growing on the trees.
There may be no food growing in the fields.
There may be no sheep in the pens.
There may be no cattle in the barns.
18 But I will still be glad in the Lord.
I will rejoice in God my Savior.
19 The Lord God gives me my strength.
He makes me like a deer, which does not stumble.
He leads me safely on the steep mountains.
For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
9 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet. And I saw a star fall from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the deep hole that leads down to the bottomless pit. 2 Then it opened the bottomless pit. Smoke came up from the hole like smoke from a big furnace. The sun and sky became dark because of the smoke from the hole. 3 Then locusts came down to the earth out of the smoke. They were given the power to sting like scorpions.[a] 4 They were told not to harm the grass on the earth or any plant or tree. They could harm only the people who did not have the sign of God on their foreheads. 5 These locusts were given the power to cause pain to the people for five months. But they were not given the power to kill anyone. And the pain they felt was like the pain that a scorpion gives when it stings a person. 6 During those days people will look for a way to die, but they will not find it. They will want to die, but death will run away from them.
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore things that looked like crowns of gold. Their faces looked like human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 Their chests looked like iron breastplates. The sound their wings made was like the noise of many horses and chariots hurrying into battle. 10 The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions. The power they had to hurt people for five months was in their tails. 11 The locusts had a king who was the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in the Hebrew language is Abaddon. In the Greek language his name is Apollyon.[b]
12 The first great trouble is past. There are still two other great troubles that will come.
13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. Then I heard a voice coming from the horns on the golden altar that is before God. 14 The voice said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are tied at the great river Euphrates.” 15 These four angels had been kept ready for this hour and day and month and year. They were freed to kill a third of all people on the earth. 16 I heard how many troops on horses were in their army. There were 200,000,000.
17 In my vision I saw the horses and their riders. They looked like this: They had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses looked like heads of lions. The horses had fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their mouths. 18 A third of all the people on earth were killed by these three terrible things coming out of the horses’ mouths: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur. 19 The horses’ power was in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails were like snakes that have heads to bite and hurt people.
20 The other people on the earth were not killed by these terrible things. But they still did not change their hearts and turn away from what they had made with their own hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—things that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 These people did not change their hearts and turn away from murder or evil magic, from their sexual immorality or stealing.
Israelites in Captivity
137 By the rivers in Babylon we sat and cried
when we remembered Jerusalem.
2 On the poplar trees nearby
we hung our harps.
3 Those who captured us asked us to sing.
Our enemies wanted happy songs.
They said, “Sing us a Temple song from Jerusalem!”
4 But we cannot sing songs about the Lord
while we are in this foreign country!
5 Jerusalem, if I forget you,
let my right hand lose its skill.
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you.
Let these things happen if I do not think about Jerusalem
as my greatest joy.
7 Lord, remember what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
They said, “Tear it down!
Tear it down to its foundations!”
8 People of Babylon, you will be destroyed.
The people who pay you back will be happy.
They will punish you for what you did to us.
9 They will grab your babies
and throw them against the rocks.
10 “Do not say bad things about a servant to his master.
If you do, he will curse you, and you will suffer for it.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.