Nahum 1; Nahum 2; Nahum 3; Habakkuk 1; Habakkuk 2; Habakkuk 3

1 The oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is fierce in wrath. The Lord takes vengeance against His foes; He is furious with His enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave [the guilty] unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

4 He rebukes the sea so that it dries up, and He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither; even the flower of Lebanon withers.

5 The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt; the earth trembles at His presence- the world and all who live in it.

6 Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, even rocks are shattered before Him.

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; He cares for those who take refuge in Him.

8 But He will completely destroy Nineveh with an overwhelming flood, and He will chase His enemies into darkness.

9 Whatever you plot against the Lord, He will bring [it] to complete destruction; oppression will not rise up a second time.

10 For they will be consumed like entangled thorns, like a drunkard's drink, and like straw that is fully dry.

11 One has gone out from Nineveh, who plots evil against the Lord, and is a wicked counselor.

12 This is what the Lord says: Though they are strong and numerous, they will still be mowed down, and he will pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer.

13 For I will now break off his yoke from you and tear off your shackles.

14 The Lord has issued an order concerning you: There will be no offspring to carry on your name. I will eliminate the carved idol and cast image from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.

15 Look to the mountains- the feet of one bringing good news and proclaiming peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked one will never again march through you; he will be entirely wiped out.

1 One who scatters is coming up against you. Man the fortifications! Watch the road! Brace yourself! Summon all your strength!

2 For the Lord will restore the majesty of Jacob, yes, the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their vine branches.

3 The shields of his warriors are dyed red; the valiant men are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariot flash like fire on the day of its [battle] preparations, and the spears are brandished.

4 The chariots dash madly through the streets; they rush around in the plazas. They look like torches; they dart back and forth like lightning.

5 He gives orders to his officers; they stumble as they advance. They race to its wall; the protective shield is set in place.

6 The river gates are opened, and the palace erodes away.

7 Beauty is stripped, she is carried away; her ladies-in-waiting moan like the sound of doves, and beat their breasts.

8 Nineveh has been like a pool of water from her [first] days, but they are fleeing. "Stop! Stop!" [they cry,] but no one turns back.

9 "Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!" There is no end to the treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.

10 Desolation, decimation, devastation! Hearts melt, knees tremble, loins shake, every face grows pale!

11 Where is the lions' lair, or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled, and the lion's cub, with nothing to frighten them away?

12 The lion mauled whatever its cubs needed and strangled [prey] for its lionesses. It filled up its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.

13 Beware, I am against you- the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. I will make your chariots go up in smoke and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the sound of your messengers will never be heard again.

1 Woe to the city of blood, totally deceitful, full of plunder, never without prey.

2 The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot!

3 Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end- they stumble over their dead.

4 Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft,

5 I am against you- the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.

6 I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.

7 Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying: Nineveh is devastated; who will show sympathy to her? Where can I find anyone to comfort you?

8 Are you better than Thebes that sat along the Nile with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, the river her wall?

9 Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.

10 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her children were also dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.

11 You also will become drunk; you will hide yourself. You also will seek refuge from the enemy.

12 All your fortresses are fig trees with figs that ripened first; when shaken, they fall- right into the mouth of the eater!

13 Look, your troops are women among you; the gates of your land are wide open to your enemies. Fire will devour the bars [of your gates].

14 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Step into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick-mold!

15 The fire will devour you there; the sword will cut you down. It will devour you like the young locust. Multiply yourselves like the young locust, multiply like the swarming locust!

16 You have made your merchants more numerous than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips [the land] and flies away.

17 Your court officials are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they take off, and no one knows where they are.

18 King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered across the mountains with no one to gather [them] together.

19 There is no remedy for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands because of you, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 How long, Lord, must I call for help and You do not listen, or cry out to You about violence and You do not save?

3 Why do You force me to look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.

4 This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.

5 Look at the nations and observe- be utterly astounded! For something is taking place in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it.

6 Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter, impetuous nation that marches across the earth's open spaces to seize territories not its own.

7 They are fierce and terrifying; their views of justice and sovereignty stem from themselves.

8 Their horses are swifter than leopards and more fierce than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead; their horsemen come from distant [lands]. They fly like an eagle, swooping to devour.

9 All of them come to do violence; their faces are set in determination. They gather prisoners like sand.

10 They mock kings, and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture it.

11 Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their strength is their god.

12 Are You not from eternity, Yahweh my God? My Holy One, You will not die. Lord, You appointed them to execute judgment; [my] Rock, You destined them to punish [us].

13 [Your] eyes are too pure to look on evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are You silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself?

14 You have made mankind like the fish of the sea, like marine creatures that have no ruler.

15 The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook, catch them in their dragnet, and gather them in their fishing net; that is why they are glad and rejoice.

16 That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet and burn incense to their fishing net, for by these things their portion is rich and their food plentiful.

17 Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?

1 I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see what He will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint.

2 The Lord answered me: Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it.

3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late.

4 Look, his ego is inflated; he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith.

5 Moreover, wine betrays; an arrogant man is never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself; he collects all the peoples for himself.

6 Won't all of these take up a taunt against him, with mockery and riddles about him? They will say: Woe to him who amasses what is not his- how much longer?- and loads himself with goods taken in pledge.

7 Won't your creditors suddenly arise, and those who disturb you wake up? Then you will become spoil for them.

8 Since you have plundered many nations, all the peoples who remain will plunder you- because of human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them.

9 Woe to him who unjustly gains wealth for his house to place his nest on high, to escape from the reach of disaster!

10 You have planned shame for your house by wiping out many peoples and sinning against your own self.

11 For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will answer them from the woodwork.

12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice!

13 Is it not from the Lord of Hosts, that the peoples labor [only] to fuel the fire and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord's glory, as the waters cover the sea.

15 Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath and even making them drunk, in order to look at their nakedness!

16 You will be filled with disgrace instead of glory. You also-drink, and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.

17 For [your] violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of animals will terrify you, because of [your] human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them.

18 What use is a carved idol after its craftsman carves it? It is [only] a cast image, a teacher of lies. For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it and makes idols that cannot speak.

19 Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up! or to mute stone: Come alive! Can it teach? Look! It may be plated with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.

20 But the Lord is in His holy temple; let everyone on earth be silent in His presence.

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. According to Shigionoth.

2 Lord, I have heard the report about You; Lord, I stand in awe of Your deeds. Revive [Your work] in these years; make [it] known in these years. In [Your] wrath remember mercy!

3 God comes from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise.

4 [His] brilliance is like light; rays are flashing from His hand. This is where His power is hidden.

5 Plague goes before Him, and pestilence follows in His steps.

6 He stands and shakes the earth; He looks and startles the nations. The age-old mountains break apart; the ancient hills sink down. His pathways are ancient.

7 I see the tents of Cushan in distress; the tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.

8 Are You angry at the rivers, Lord? Is Your wrath against the rivers? Or is Your rage against the sea when You ride on Your horses, Your victorious chariot?

9 You took the sheath from Your bow; the arrows are ready to be used with an oath. Selah You split the earth with rivers.

10 The mountains see You and shudder; a downpour of water sweeps by. The deep roars with its voice and lifts its waves high.

11 Sun and moon stand still in [their] lofty residence, at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.

12 You march across the earth with indignation; You trample down the nations in wrath.

13 You come out to save Your people, to save Your anointed. You crush the leader of the house of the wicked and strip [him] from foot to neck. Selah

14 You pierce his head with his own spears; his warriors storm out to scatter us, gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak.

15 You tread the sea with Your horses, stirring up the great waters.

16 I heard, and I trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress to come against the people invading us.

17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

18 yet I will triumph in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!

19 Yahweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!