Nahum 1–3

aAn oracle concerning bNineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

cThe Lord is a jealous and avenging God;

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

dthe Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and ekeeps wrath for his enemies.

fThe Lord is slow to anger and ggreat in power,

and hthe Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

iHis way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

jHe rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers;

kBashan and lCarmel wither;

the bloom of kLebanon withers.

mThe mountains quake before him;

nthe hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

othe world and all who dwell in it.

pWho can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath qis poured out like fire,

and rthe rocks are broken into pieces by him.

sThe Lord is good,

ta stronghold in the day of trouble;

uhe knows those who take refuge in him.

But vwith an overflowing flood

he will make a complete end of the adversaries,1

and wwill pursue his enemies into darkness.

What xdo you plot against the Lord?

yHe will make a complete end;

trouble will not rise up a second time.

10  For they are zlike entangled thorns,

like drunkards as they drink;

athey are consumed like stubble fully dried.

11  From you came one

bwho plotted evil against the Lord,

a worthless counselor.

12  Thus says the Lord,

Though they are at full strength and many,

cthey will be cut down and pass away.

dThough I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.

13  And now eI will break his yoke from off you

and will burst your bonds apart.

14  The Lord has given commandment about you:

fNo more shall your name be perpetuated;

from gthe house of your gods I will cut off

the carved image and the metal image.

hI will make your grave, ifor you are vile.

15  2 jBehold, upon the mountains, kthe feet of him

who brings good news,

who publishes peace!

lKeep your feasts, O Judah;

mfulfill your vows,

nfor never again shall the worthless pass through you;

he is utterly cut off.

oThe scatterer has come up against you.

pMan the ramparts;

watch the road;

dress for battle;3

collect all your strength.

For qthe Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob

as the majesty of Israel,

for plunderers have plundered them

and rruined their branches.

The shield of his mighty men is red;

shis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.

The chariots come with flashing metal

on the day he musters them;

the cypress spears are brandished.

tThe chariots race madly through the streets;

they rush to and fro through the squares;

they gleam like torches;

they dart like lightning.

He remembers uhis officers;

vthey stumble as they go,

they hasten to the wall;

the siege tower4 is set up.

wThe river gates are opened;

the palace xmelts away;

its mistress5 is ystripped;6 she is carried off,

her slave girls zlamenting,

moaning like doves

and beating their breasts.

bNineveh is like a pool

whose waters run away.7

Halt! Halt! they cry,

but cnone turns back.

Plunder the silver,

plunder the gold!

There is no end of the treasure

or of the wealth of all precious things.

10  dDesolate! Desolation and ruin!

eHearts melt and fknees tremble;

ganguish is in all loins;

hall faces grow pale!

11  Where is the lions’ den,

the feeding place of ithe young lions,

where the lion and lioness went,

where his cubs were, with jnone to disturb?

12  kThe lion tore enough for his cubs

and lstrangled prey for his lionesses;

he filled his caves with prey

and his dens with torn flesh.

13 mBehold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and nI will burn your8 chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and othe voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

Woe to pthe bloody city,

all full of lies and plunder

qno end to the prey!

The crack of the whip, and rrumble of the wheel,

sgalloping horse and tbounding chariot!

Horsemen charging,

flashing sword and uglittering spear,

vhosts of slain,

heaps of corpses,

dead bodies without end

they stumble over the bodies!

And all for the countless whorings of the wprostitute,

xgraceful and of deadly charms,

who betrays nations with her whorings,

and peoples with her charms.

mBehold, I am against you,

declares the Lord of hosts,

and ywill lift up your skirts over your face;

and I will make nations look at zyour nakedness

and kingdoms at your shame.

I will throw filth at you

and atreat you with contempt

and make you ba spectacle.

And all who look at you cwill shrink from you and say,

Wasted is dNineveh; ewho will grieve for her?

fWhere shall I seek comforters for you?

gAre you better than hThebes9

that sat iby the Nile,

with water around her,

her rampart a sea,

and water her wall?

jCush was her strength;

Egypt too, and that without limit;

kPut and the lLibyans were her10 helpers.

10  mYet she became an exile;

she went into captivity;

nher infants were dashed in pieces

at the head of every street;

for her honored men olots were cast,

pand all her great men were bound in chains.

11  qYou also will be drunken;

you will go into hiding;

ryou will seek a refuge from the enemy.

12  All your fortresses are slike fig trees

with first-ripe figs

if shaken they fall

into the mouth of the eater.

13  Behold, your troops

tare women in your midst.

The gates of your land

are wide open to your enemies;

fire has devoured your bars.

14  uDraw water for the siege;

rstrengthen your forts;

go into the clay;

tread the mortar;

take hold of the brick mold!

15  There will the fire devour you;

the sword will cut you off.

It will vdevour you wlike the locust.

Multiply yourselves wlike the locust;

multiply wlike the grasshopper!

16  You increased xyour merchants

more than the stars of the heavens.

wThe locust spreads its wings and flies away.

17  Your zprinces are wlike grasshoppers,

ayour scribes11 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.

18  Your shepherds bare asleep,

O king of Assyria;

cyour nobles slumber.

Your people dare scattered on the mountains

with none to gather them.

19  There is no easing your hurt;

eyour wound is grievous.

All who hear the news about you

fclap their hands over you.

For gupon whom has not come

your unceasing evil?

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Habakkuk 1–2

aThe oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

O Lord, bhow long shall I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

Or cry to you cViolence!

and you will not save?

dWhy do you make me see iniquity,

and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction cand violence are before me;

strife and contention arise.

eSo the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

fFor the wicked surround the righteous;

so justice goes forth perverted.

gLook among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

hFor I am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

For behold, iI am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

jwho march through the breadth of the earth,

kto seize dwellings not their own.

They are dreaded and fearsome;

ltheir justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

mTheir horses are swifter than leopards,

more fierce than nthe evening wolves;

their horsemen press proudly on.

Their horsemen come from afar;

othey fly like an eagle swift to devour.

They all come pfor violence,

all their faces forward.

They gather captives rlike sand.

10  At kings they scoff,

and at rulers they laugh.

sThey laugh at every fortress,

for tthey pile up earth and take it.

11  Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

uguilty men, vwhose own might is their god!

12  Are you not wfrom everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

xWe shall not die.

O Lord, yyou have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O zRock, have established them for reproof.

13  You who are aof purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

bwhy do you idly look at traitors

and cremain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

14  You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

15  dHe1 brings all of them up ewith a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

16  fTherefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

for by them he lives in luxury,2

and his food is rich.

17  Is he then to keep on emptying his net

gand mercilessly killing nations forever?

I will htake my stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and ilook out to see jwhat he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

And the Lord answered me:

kWrite the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.

For still lthe vision awaits its appointed time;

it hastens to the endit will not lie.

If it seems slow, mwait for it;

nit will surely come; it will not delay.

Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but othe righteous shall live by his faith.3

Moreover, wine4 is pa traitor,

an arrogant man who is never at rest.5

His greed is as wide as Sheol;

like death qhe has never enough.

rHe gathers for himself all nations

and collects as his own all peoples.

Shall not all these stake up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

tWoe to him uwho heaps up what is not his own

for vhow long?

and wloads himself with pledges!

xWill not your debtors suddenly arise,

and those awake who will make you tremble?

Then you will be spoil for them.

yBecause you have plundered many nations,

all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,

zfor the blood of man and yviolence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

tWoe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

ato bset his nest on high,

to be safe from the reach of harm!

10  You have devised shame for your house

cby cutting off many peoples;

you have forfeited your life.

11  For dthe stone will cry out from the wall,

and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12  tWoe to him ewho builds a town with blood

and founds a city on iniquity!

13  Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts

that fpeoples labor merely for fire,

and nations weary themselves for nothing?

14  gFor the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of hthe glory of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

15  tWoe to him iwho makes his neighbors drink

you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,

in order to gaze jat their nakedness!

16  You will have your fill kof shame instead of glory.

lDrink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!

lThe cup in the Lord’s right hand

will come around to you,

and mutter shame will come upon your glory!

17  nThe violence odone to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,

nfor the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

18  pWhat profit is an idol

when its maker has shaped it,

a metal image, qa teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in his own creation

when he makes rspeechless idols!

19  sWoe to him twho says to a wooden thing, Awake;

to a silent stone, Arise!

Can this teach?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

and uthere is no breath at all in it.

20  But vthe Lord is in his holy temple;

wlet all the earth keep silence before him.

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Revelation 16–17

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling pthe seven angels, Go and qpour out on the earth rthe seven bowls of the wrath of God.

So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful ssores came upon the people who bore tthe mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and uit became like the blood of a corpse, and vevery living thing died that was in the sea.

The third angel poured out his bowl into wthe rivers and the springs of water, and xthey became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters1 say,

yJust are you, zO Holy One, awho is and who was,

for you brought these judgments.

For bthey have shed the blood of csaints and prophets,

and dyou have given them blood to drink.

It is what they deserve!

And I heard ethe altar saying,

Yes, Lord God the Almighty,

ftrue and just are your judgments!

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people gwith fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and hthey cursed2 the name of God who had power over these plagues. iThey did not repent jand give him glory.

10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on kthe throne of the beast, and lits kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed mthe God of heaven for their pain and nsores. oThey did not repent of their deeds.

12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on pthe great river Euphrates, and qits water was dried up, rto prepare the way for the kings sfrom the east. 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of tthe dragon and out of the mouth of uthe beast and out of the mouth of vthe false prophet, three wunclean spirits like xfrogs. 14 For they are ydemonic spirits, zperforming signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, ato assemble them for battle on bthe great day of God the Almighty. 15 (Behold, cI am coming like a thief! dBlessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, ethat he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!) 16 And fthey assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called gArmageddon.

17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into hthe air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, iIt is done! 18 And there were jflashes of lightning, rumblings,3 peals of thunder, and ka great earthquake lsuch as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 mThe great city nwas split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God oremembered pBabylon the great, qto make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And revery island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And sgreat hailstones, about one hundred pounds4 each, fell from heaven on people; and tthey cursed God for uthe plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

Then vone of the seven angels who had wthe seven bowls came and said to me, Come, I will show you the judgment of xthe great prostitute ywho is seated on many waters, zwith whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and awith the wine of whose sexual immorality bthe dwellers on earth have become drunk. And che carried me away in the Spirit dinto a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on ea scarlet beast that was full of fblasphemous names, and git had seven heads and ten horns. The woman hwas arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned iwith gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand ja golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of kmystery: lBabylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations. And I saw the woman, drunk mwith the blood of the saints, the blood of nthe martyrs of Jesus.5

When I saw her, I marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, Why do you marvel? I will tell you othe mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. The beast that you saw pwas, and is not, and qis about to rise from rthe bottomless pit6 and sgo to destruction. And tthe dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in uthe book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because pit was and is not and is to come. vThis calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; 10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. 11 As for the beast wthat was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. 12 And xthe ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings yfor one hour, together with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. 14 They zwill make war on the Lamb, and athe Lamb will conquer them, for he is bLord of lords and bKing of kings, and those with him are ccalled and chosen and faithful.

15 And the angel7 said to me, dThe waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16 And ethe ten horns that you saw, they and the beast fwill hate the prostitute. They will make her gdesolate and hnaked, and idevour her flesh and jburn her up with fire, 17 for kGod has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and lhanding over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 18 And the woman that you saw is mthe great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.

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2 View All Leviticus 19:27