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

1 This is a revelation from the LORD about Nineveh. This book contains the vision of Nahum from Elkosh.

2 God does not tolerate rivals. The LORD takes revenge. The LORD takes revenge and is full of anger. The LORD takes revenge against his enemies and holds a grudge against his foes.

3 The LORD is patient and has great strength. The LORD will never let the guilty go unpunished. Raging winds and storms mark his path, and clouds are the dust from his feet.

4 He yells at the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither. The flowers of Lebanon wither.

5 The mountains quake because of him. The hills melt. The earth draws back in his presence. The world and all who live in it draw back as well.

6 Who can stand in the presence of his rage? Who can oppose his burning anger? He pours out his rage like fire and smashes the rocky cliffs.

7 The LORD is good. [He is] a fortress in the day of trouble. He knows those who seek shelter in him.

8 He will put an end to Nineveh with a devastating flood. He will pursue his enemies with darkness.

9 What do you think about the LORD? He is the one who will bring Nineveh to an end. This trouble will never happen again.

10 [The people of Nineveh will be] like tangled thorns and like people drunk on their own drink. They will be completely burned up like very dry straw.

11 From you, Nineveh, a person who plans evil against the LORD sets out. His advice is wicked.

12 This is what the LORD says: Though the people of Nineveh are physically fit and many in number, they will be cut down and die. Though I have humbled you, Judah, I will not humble you again.

13 But now I will break Nineveh's yoke off of you and tear its chains from you.

14 The LORD has given this command about you, Nineveh: You will no longer have descendants to carry on your name. I will remove the wooden and metal idols from the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave because you are worthless.

15 There on the mountains are the feet of a messenger who announces the good news: "All is well!" Celebrate your festivals, Judah! Keep your vows! This wickedness will never pass your way again. It will be completely removed.

1 The one who will scatter you is coming to attack you. Guard your fortress! Keep a lookout on the road! Prepare for battle! Be very courageous!

2 The LORD will restore Jacob's glory like Israel's glory, although enemies have looted it and have destroyed its vines.

3 The shields of his warriors are painted red. His soldiers have red uniforms. The metal on his chariots flashes fiery red, so do the spears when they are waved on the day he prepares for battle.

4 Chariots are racing madly through the streets, rushing this way and that in the city squares. They look like torches, like lightning, as they dart about.

5 He remembers his best fighting men. They stumble over themselves as they march. They hurry to Nineveh's wall. The shield has been set up for the battering ram.

6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace melts away.

7 The LORD has determined: "It will be stripped. It will be carried away. Its young women will be mourning like doves as they beat their breasts."

8 Nineveh was like a pool of water from its first day on. But now its people are fleeing. "Stop! Stop!" But no one turns around.

9 Steal the silver! Steal the gold! There is no end to what is stored here-- everything a person could ever want.

10 Nineveh is destroyed, deserted, demolished. Hearts are melting. Knees are knocking. Every stomach becomes upset. Every face turns pale.

11 Where is the lions' den, that feeding place for young lions? Where are the lion, the lioness, and the lion cub who moved about with no one to terrify them?

12 The lion tore its prey to pieces to feed its cubs. It strangled [the prey] for its mates. It used to fill its caves with torn carcasses and its dens with torn flesh.

13 "I am against you, Nineveh," declares the LORD of Armies. "I will send your chariots up in smoke, and a sword will kill your young lions. I will remove your prey from the earth, and no one will ever hear the voice of your messengers again."

1 How horrible it will be for that city of bloody violence! It is completely full of lies and stolen goods--never without victims.

2 The sound of the whip! The sound of rattling wheels! Horses gallop! Chariots bounce along!

3 Horses charge! Swords flash! Spears glitter! Many are killed! Dead bodies pile up! There is no end to the corpses! People trip over corpses

4 because of Nineveh's constant prostitution, this very charming mistress of evil magic. She used to sell nations her prostitution and people her evil magic."

5 "I am against you, Nineveh," declares the LORD of Armies. "I will lift up your dress over your face. I will show nations your naked body and kingdoms your disgrace.

6 I will throw filth on you. I will make you look like a fool. I will make you a sight to be seen.

7 Everyone who sees you will run from you, saying, 'Nineveh has been violently destroyed! Who will feel sorry for her?' Where can I find anyone to comfort you?"

8 Are you better than No-amon, which sits by the streams of the Nile with water surrounding her? The sea was [her] defense. The water was her wall.

9 Sudan and Egypt were her endless strength. Put and the Lybians were her help.

10 Even she went into captivity and was exiled. Even her little children were smashed to death at every street corner. Soldiers tossed dice for her important men, and all her best men were bound in chains.

11 Even you, Nineveh, will stagger like a drunk. You will disappear. Even you will look for a fortress [to escape] from the enemy.

12 All your defenses will be like fig trees with the earliest figs. When shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.

13 Look at your soldiers; they're women! The gates of your country are wide open to your enemies. Fire has destroyed the bars of your gates.

14 Store water for the siege! Strengthen your defenses! Step into the claypits and trample the clay! Grab the brick mold!

15 Fire will consume you there. A sword will cut you down. It will consume you like locusts. Multiply like locusts! Multiply like hungry locusts!

16 You have produced more businessmen than there are stars in the sky. [They are] like locusts that attack and then fly away.

17 Your officers are like locusts, and your scribes are like swarms of locusts that settle on the fences when it is cold. The sun rises, and they scatter in every direction. No one knows where they've gone.

18 Your shepherds, king of Assyria, have fallen into a deep sleep. Your best fighting men are at rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.

19 There is no relief for your collapse. Your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands. Who hasn't suffered from your endless evil?

1 The divine revelation that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2 How long, O LORD, am I to cry for help, but you will not listen? I cry out to you, "There's violence!" yet you will not come to the rescue.

3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing? And why do you watch wickedness? Destruction and violence are in front of me. Quarrels and disputes arise.

4 That is why your teaching is numbed, and justice is never carried out. Wicked people surround righteous people so that when justice is carried out, it's perverted.

5 Look among the nations and watch. Be amazed and astonished. I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if it were reported to you.

6 I am going to send the Babylonians, that fierce and reckless nation. They will march throughout the earth to take possession of lands that don't belong to them.

7 They will be terrifying and fearsome. They will carry out their own kind of justice and honor.

8 Their horses will be faster than leopards and quicker than wolves in the evening. Their riders will gallop along proudly. Their riders will come from far away. They will fly like an eagle that swoops down for its prey.

9 They will all come for violence. Every face will be directed forward. They will gather prisoners like sand.

10 They will make fun of kings and treat rulers as a joke. They will laugh at every fortified city and build a dirt ramp to capture it.

11 They will move quickly and pass through like the wind. So they will be guilty, because their own strength is their god.

12 Didn't you exist before time began, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die! O LORD, you have appointed the Babylonians to bring judgment. O Rock, you have destined them to correct us.

13 Your eyes are too pure to look at evil. You can't watch wickedness. Why do you keep watching treacherous people? Why are you silent when wicked people swallow those who are more righteous than they are?

14 You make all people like the fish in the sea, like schools of sea life that have no ruler.

15 The Babylonians pull them all up with fishhooks, drag them away in nets, and gather them in dragnets. So they rejoice and are happy.

16 That is why they sacrifice to their nets and burn incense to their dragnets. They are rich and well fed because of them.

17 Will they keep on emptying their nets and always kill nations without mercy?

1 I will stand at my guard post. I will station myself on the wall. I will watch to see what he will say to me and what answer I will get to my complaint.

2 Then the LORD answered me, "Write the vision. Make it clear on tablets so that anyone can read it quickly.

3 The vision will still happen at the appointed time. It hurries toward its goal. It won't be a lie. If it's delayed, wait for it. It will certainly happen. It won't be late.

4 "Look at the proud person. He is not right in himself. But the righteous person will live because of his faithfulness.

5 Also because wine is treacherous he is arrogant and never rests. He has a large appetite like the grave. He is like death--never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself. He collects all the people to himself.

6 Won't all of them ridicule him, directing clever sayings and riddles at him, like: "'How horrible it will be for the one who makes himself rich with what is not his own and makes himself wealthy on loans. How long will this go on?'

7 Won't your creditors suddenly rise up and those who are going to shake you wake up? Then you will become their prize.

8 You have looted many nations. All the rest of the people will loot you because of the slaughter and violence done to lands, cities, and all their inhabitants.

9 "'How horrible it will be for the one who uses violence to get things for his own household in order to set his nest up high and save himself from disaster.'

10 You have planned disgrace for your household by cutting off many people and forfeiting your own life.

11 A stone in the wall will cry out. A beam in the roof will answer it.

12 "'How horrible it will be for the one who builds a city by slaughter and founds a town by crime.'

13 Isn't it from the LORD of Armies that people grow tired only to feed the flames and nations exhaust themselves for nothing?

14 But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD's glory like the water covers the sea.

15 "'How horrible it will be for the one who makes his neighbor drink from the bowl of God's rage, making him drunk in order to stare at his nakedness.'

16 You are filled with disgrace rather than glory. Drink! Yes you! And expose yourself as godless. The cup in the LORD's right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory.

17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction done to the animals will terrify you because of the slaughter and violence done to lands, cities, and all their inhabitants.

18 "What benefit is there in a carved idol when its maker has carved it? What benefit is there in a molded statue, a teacher of lies, when its maker has molded it? The one who formed it trusts himself to make worthless idols that cannot speak.

19 'How horrible it will be for the one who says to a piece of wood, "Wake up!" and to a stone that cannot talk, "Get up!"' Can that thing teach [anyone]? Just look at it! It's covered with gold and silver, but there's absolutely no life in it."

20 The LORD is in his holy temple. All the earth should be silent in his presence.

1 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk; according to shigionoth.

2 LORD, I have heard the report about you. LORD, I fear your work. In the course of the years, renew it. In the course of the years, reveal it. In all this chaos, remember to be merciful.

3 God comes from Teman. The Holy One comes from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covers the heavens. His praise fills the earth.

4 His brightness is like the sunlight. Rays of light [stream] from his hand. That is where his power is hidden.

5 Diseases go ahead of him. Plagues follow after him.

6 He stands and shakes the earth. He casts a glance and startles the nations. The oldest mountains break apart. The ancient hills sink. The ancient paths belong to him.

7 I see trouble in the tents of Cushan. I see trembling in the tents of Midian.

8 The LORD is not angry with the rivers, is he? If you are angry with the rivers, if you are furious with the sea, [why] do you ride your horses, your chariots of salvation?

9 You get your bow ready for action, for the arrows [you] promised. Selah You split the land with rivers.

10 The mountains look at you. They writhe in pain. Floodwaters pass by. The deep ocean roars. Its waves rise up high.

11 The sun and the moon stand still. They scatter at the light of your arrows, at the bright lightning of your spear.

12 You march through the earth with fury. You trample the nations in anger.

13 You go out to save your people, to save your anointed. You crush the leader of the wicked household, stripping him bare from head to toe. Selah

14 You pierce the leader of his gang with his own arrows. His soldiers come like a violent storm to scatter me. They are arrogant like those who secretly eat up the poor.

15 You march with your horses into the sea, into the mighty raging waters.

16 I have heard, so there's trembling within me. At the report my lips quivered. A rotten feeling has entered me. I tremble where I stand. I wait for the day of trouble to come to the people who will attack us.

17 Even if the fig tree does not bloom and the vines have no grapes, even if the olive tree fails to produce and the fields yield no food, even if the sheep pen is empty and the stalls have no cattle--

18 even then, I will be happy with the LORD. I will truly find joy in God, who saves me.

19 The LORD Almighty is my strength. He makes my feet like those of a deer. He makes me walk on the mountains. For the choir director; on stringed instruments.