2

Habakkuk 1-3:19

Habakkuk 1

¹ The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

²O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you "Violence!"
and you will not save?
³ Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
⁴ So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
 For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.

The LORD’s Answer

⁵ "Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
 For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
⁶For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
 who march through the breadth of the earth,
  to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷They are dreaded and fearsome;
  their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
  they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
⁹They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like sand.
¹⁰At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
 They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and take it.
¹¹Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
  guilty men, whose own might is their god!"

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

¹²Are you not from everlasting,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
  We shall not die.
O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
¹³You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
 why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
¹⁵ He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
¹⁷Is he then to keep on emptying his net
  and mercilessly killing nations forever?

Habakkuk 2

¹I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

²And the LORD answered me:

  "Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
³For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
  it will surely come; it will not delay.

⁴"Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.

⁵"Moreover, wine is a traitor,
an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he has never enough.
 He gathers for himself all nations
and collects as his own all peoples."

Woe to the Chaldeans

⁶Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

  "Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
for how long?—
and loads himself with pledges!"
⁷ Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
and those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be spoil for them.
⁸ Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
 for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.

⁹ "Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
  to set his nest on high,
to be safe from the reach of harm!
¹⁰You have devised shame for your house
  by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
¹¹For the stone will cry out from the wall,
and the beam from the woodwork respond.

¹² "Woe to him who builds a town with blood
and founds a city on iniquity!
¹³Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts
that peoples labor merely for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
¹⁴ For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵ "Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—
you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
in order to gaze at their nakedness!
¹⁶You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
  Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
 The cup in the LORD’s right hand
will come around to you,
and utter shame will come upon your glory!
¹⁷ The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.

¹⁸ "What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
¹⁹ Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
²⁰But the LORD is in his holy temple;
  let all the earth keep silence before him."

Habakkuk 3

Habakkuk’s Prayer

¹A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
²O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
  in wrath remember mercy.
³God came from Teman,
  and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
Selah

⁴ His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
⁵ Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
⁶He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
⁷I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
  the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
⁸ Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?
Was your anger against the rivers,
  or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
⁹You stripped the sheath from your bow,
calling for many arrows.
Selah

  You split the earth with rivers.
¹⁰ The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
 the deep gave forth its voice;
  it lifted its hands on high.
¹¹ The sun and moon stood still in their place
  at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
¹² You marched through the earth in fury;
  you threshed the nations in anger.
¹³ You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
 You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck.
Selah

¹⁴You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
¹⁵ You trampled the sea with your horses,
the surging of mighty waters.

¹⁶ I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
 rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.

Habakkuk Rejoices in the LORD

¹⁷Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
  I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
  he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

 To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Zephaniah 1-2:7

Zephaniah 1

¹The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

The Coming Judgment on Judah

² "I will utterly sweep away everything
from the face of the earth," declares the LORD.
³"I will sweep away man and beast;
I will sweep away the birds of the heavens
and the fish of the sea,
and the rubble with the wicked.
I will cut off mankind
from the face of the earth," declares the LORD.
⁴"I will stretch out my hand against Judah
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
 and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal
and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,
⁵ those who bow down on the roofs
to the host of the heavens,
 those who bow down and swear to the LORD
and yet swear by Milcom,
⁶ those who have turned back from following the LORD,
  who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him."

The Day of the LORD Is Near

⁷ Be silent before the Lord GOD!
For the day of the LORD is near;
 the LORD has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests.
⁸And on the day of the LORD’s sacrifice— "I will punish the officials and the king’s sons
and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
⁹On that day I will punish
everyone who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master’s house
with violence and fraud.

¹⁰"On that day," declares the LORD,
"a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
 a wail from the Second Quarter,
a loud crash from the hills.
¹¹ Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!
For all the traders are no more;
all who weigh out silver are cut off.
¹²At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the men
 who are complacent,
  those who say in their hearts,
'The LORD will not do good,
nor will he do ill.'
¹³Their goods shall be plundered,
and their houses laid waste.
 Though they build houses,
they shall not inhabit them;
 though they plant vineyards,
they shall not drink wine from them."

¹⁴ The great day of the LORD is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter;
  the mighty man cries aloud there.
¹⁵ A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
  a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
¹⁶ a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
 against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements.

¹⁷ I will bring distress on mankind,
so that they shall walk like the blind,
because they have sinned against the LORD;
 their blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their flesh like dung.
¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them
on the day of the wrath of the LORD.
 In the fire of his jealousy,
  all the earth shall be consumed;
 for a full and sudden end
he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Zephaniah 2

Judgment on Judah’s Enemies

¹Gather together, yes, gather,
O shameless nation,
² before the decree takes effect
—before the day passes away like chaff—
 before there comes upon you
the burning anger of the LORD,
before there comes upon you
the day of the anger of the LORD.
³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;
 seek righteousness; seek humility;
  perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the LORD.
⁴ For Gaza shall be deserted,
and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;
Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon,
and Ekron shall be uprooted.

⁵Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast,
you nation of the Cherethites!
 The word of the LORD is against you,
  O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.
⁶ And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
with meadows for shepherds
and folds for flocks.
⁷ The seacoast shall become the possession
of the remnant of the house of Judah,
  on which they shall graze,
and in the houses of Ashkelon
they shall lie down at evening.
For the LORD their God will be mindful of them
and restore their fortunes.