Daily Text and Bible Reading: Thursday, October 9 [Press play below]

Nahum Chapter 1

1.1 A pronouncement against Nineveh: The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:

1.2 Jehovah is a God who requires exclusive devotion and takes vengeance; Jehovah takes vengeance and is ready to express his wrath. Jehovah takes vengeance against his foes, And he stores up wrath for his enemies.

1.3 Jehovah is slow to anger and great in power, But by no means will Jehovah hold back due punishment. His path is in destructive wind and storm, And the clouds are the dust of his feet.

1.4 He rebukes the sea, and he dries it up; And he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither, And the blossoms of Lebanon wither.

1.5 Mountains quake because of him, And the hills melt. The earth will be in an upheaval because of his face, Along with the land and all those dwelling in it.

1.6 Who can stand before his indignation? And who can withstand the heat of his anger? His wrath will be poured out like fire, And the rocks will be shattered because of him.

1.7 Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of distress. He is mindful of those seeking refuge in him.

1.8 With a sweeping flood he will make a complete extermination of her place, And darkness will pursue his enemies.

1.9 What will you plot against Jehovah? He is causing a complete extermination. Distress will not arise a second time.

1.10 For they are interwoven like thorns, And they are like those drunk with beer; But they will be consumed like dry stubble.

1.11 From you will come one who plots evil against Jehovah, Giving worthless advice.

1.12 This is what Jehovah says: “Though they were at full strength and numerous, Even so they will be cut down and will pass away. I have afflicted you, but I will afflict you no more.

1.13 And now I will break his yoke bar from off you, And I will tear your bonds in two.

1.14 Jehovah has commanded concerning you, ‘Your name will not be perpetuated further. I will do away with the carved images and metal statues from the house of your gods. I will make a grave for you, because you are contemptible.’

1.15 Look! On the mountains are the feet of one bringing good news, The one proclaiming peace. Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, pay your vows, For the worthless one will never pass through you again. He will be utterly destroyed.”

Chapter 2

2.1 One who scatters has come up against you. Guard the fortifications. Keep watch over the road. Brace yourselves and muster all your strength.

2.2 For Jehovah will restore the pride of Jacob, Along with the pride of Israel, For the devastators have devastated them; And they have ruined their shoots.

2.3 The shields of his mighty men are dyed red, His warriors are dressed in crimson. The iron fittings of his war chariots flash like fire In the day he prepares for battle, And the juniper spears are brandished.

2.4 The war chariots race madly through the streets. They rush up and down the public squares. They shine like burning torches and flash like lightning.

2.5 He will summon his officers. They will stumble as they advance. They rush to her wall; They set up the barricade.

2.6 The gates of the rivers will be opened, And the palace will be dissolved.

2.7 It has been decreed: She is exposed, She is carried away, and her slave girls moan; They sound like doves as they beat their breasts.

2.8 Throughout her days Nineveh was like a pool of waters, But now they are fleeing. “Stand still! Stand still!” But no one is turning back.

2.9 Plunder silver, plunder gold! There is no end to the treasures. It is stocked with all sorts of precious things.

2.10 The city is empty, desolate, devastated! Their hearts melt in fear, their knees buckle, their hips tremble; All their faces are flushed.

2.11 Where is the lair of lions, where the young lions feed, Where the lion goes out leading its cub, With no one to make them afraid?

2.12 The lion tore apart enough prey for his cubs And strangled for his lionesses. He kept his dens filled with prey, His lairs with torn animals.

2.13 “Look! I am against you,” declares Jehovah of armies, “I will burn up her war chariots 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 be heard no more.”

Chapter 3

3.1 Woe to the city of bloodshed! She is completely full of deception and robbery. She is never without prey!

3.2 There is the crack of the whip and the rattle of wheels, The dashing horse and the bounding chariot.

3.3 The mounted horseman, the flashing sword, and the glittering spear, The multitude of the slain and the heaps of carcasses, There is no end to the dead bodies. They keep stumbling over the dead bodies.

3.4 This is because of the many acts of prostitution of the prostitute, She who is attractive and charming, a mistress of sorceries, Who ensnares nations by her prostitution and families by her sorceries.

3.5 “Look! I am against you,” declares Jehovah of armies, “I will lift your skirts up over your face; I will cause nations to see your nakedness, And kingdoms your disgrace.

3.6 And I will throw filth on you And make you despicable; I will make a spectacle of you.

3.7 Everyone who sees you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated! Who will sympathize with her?’ Where will I find comforters for you?

3.8 Are you better than No-amon, which sat by the Nile canals? Waters surrounded her; Her wealth was the sea and her wall was the sea.

3.9 Ethiopia was her source of boundless strength, also Egypt. Put and the Libyans were your helpers.

3.10 But even she became an exile; She went into captivity. Her children also were dashed to pieces on every street corner. They cast lots over her honored men, And all her great men have been bound with fetters.

3.11 You will also become drunk; You will go into hiding. You will seek refuge from the enemy.

3.12 All your fortifications are like fig trees with the first ripe fruits; If they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of devourers.

3.13 Look! Your troops are like women in your midst. The gates of your land will be wide open for your enemies. Fire will consume the bars of your gates.

3.14 Draw water for the siege! Strengthen your fortifications. Go down into the mire and tread the clay; Grab hold of the brick mold.

3.15 Even there fire will consume you. A sword will cut you down. It will devour you as the young locusts do. Make yourself as numerous as the young locusts! Yes, make yourself as numerous as the locusts!

3.16 You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The young locust strips off its skin and flies away.

3.17 Your guards are like the locust, And your officers like a locust swarm. They camp in the stone pens on a cold day, But when the sun shines, they fly away; And no one knows where they are.

3.18 Your shepherds are drowsy, O king of Assyria; Your nobles stay in their residences. Your people are scattered on the mountains, And no one is gathering them together.

3.19 There is no relief for your catastrophe. Your wound is beyond healing. All those hearing the report about you will clap their hands; For who has not suffered from your relentless cruelty?”

Habakkuk Chapter 1

1.1 A pronouncement that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:

1.2 How long, O Jehovah, must I cry for help, but you do not hear? How long must I ask for help from violence, but you do not intervene?

1.3 Why do you make me witness wrongdoing? And why do you tolerate oppression? Why are destruction and violence before me? And why do quarreling and conflict abound?

1.4 So law is paralyzed, And justice is never carried out. For the wicked surround the righteous; That is why justice is perverted.

1.5 “Look among the nations and pay attention! Stare in amazement and be astounded; For something will happen in your days That you will not believe even if it is told to you.

1.6 For here I am raising up the Chaldeans, The ruthless and impetuous nation. They sweep through vast stretches of the earth To seize homes not theirs.

1.7 They are frightening and fearsome. They establish their own justice and authority.

1.8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, And they are fiercer than wolves in the night. Their warhorses gallop forward; Their horses come from far away. They swoop down like the eagle rushing to feed.

1.9 All of them come bent on violence. The assembling of their faces is like the east wind, And they scoop up captives like sand.

1.10 They scoff at kings And laugh at high officials. They laugh at every fortified place; They pile up a dirt ramp and capture it.

1.11 Then they move forward like the wind and pass through, But they will become guilty, Because they credit their power to their god.”

1.12 Are you not from everlasting, O Jehovah? O my God, my Holy One, you do not die. O Jehovah, you appointed them to execute judgment; My Rock, you established them for punishment.

1.13 Your eyes are too pure to look on what is evil, And you cannot tolerate wickedness. Why, then, do you tolerate the treacherous And keep silent when a wicked man swallows up someone more righteous than he is?

1.14 Why do you make man like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things that have no ruler?

1.15 All of these he hauls up with a fishhook. He catches them in his dragnet, And he gathers them in his fishing net. That is why he rejoices greatly.

1.16 That is why he offers sacrifices to his dragnet And makes sacrifices to his fishing net; For by them his portion is rich, And his food is choice.

1.17 Will he then keep emptying out his dragnet? Will he go on slaughtering nations without compassion?

Chapter 2

2.1 At my guardpost I will keep standing, And I will station myself on the rampart. I will keep watch to see what he will speak by means of me And what I will reply when I am reproved.

2.2 Jehovah then answered me: “Write down the vision, and inscribe it clearly on tablets, So that the one reading aloud from it may do so easily.

2.3 For the vision is yet for its appointed time, And it is rushing toward its end, and it will not lie. Even if it should delay, keep in expectation of it! For it will without fail come true. It will not be late!

2.4 Look at the one who is proud; He is not upright within himself. But the righteous one will live by his faithfulness.

2.5 Indeed, because the wine is treacherous, The arrogant man will not reach his goal. He makes his appetite as large as the Grave; He is like death and cannot be satisfied. He keeps gathering all the nations And collecting for himself all the peoples.

2.6 Will not all of these speak a proverb, an allusion, and riddles against him? They will say: ‘Woe to him who accumulates what is not his —For how long?— And who makes even greater his own debt!

2.7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? They will wake up and violently shake you, And you will become something for them to plunder.

2.8 Because you plundered many nations, All the rest of the peoples will plunder you, Because of your shedding men’s blood And your violence to the earth, To the cities and those living in them.

2.9 Woe to the one who makes evil gain for his house, So as to set his nest on the height, To escape the grasp of calamity!

2.10 You have plotted shame against your house. By wiping out many peoples you sin against yourself.
2.11 For a stone will cry out from the wall, And from the woodwork a rafter will answer it.

2.12 Woe to the one who builds a city by bloodshed, And who establishes a town by unrighteousness!

2.13 Look! Is it not from Jehovah of armies that peoples will work hard to feed the fire, And that nations tire themselves out for nothing?

2.14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah As the waters cover the sea.

2.15 Woe to the one who gives his companions something to drink, Adding to it rage and anger, to make them drunk, In order to look on their nakedness!

2.16 You will be glutted with dishonor rather than glory. You too—drink and expose your uncircumcised condition. The cup in the right hand of Jehovah will come around to you, And disgrace will cover over your glory;

2.17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, And the destruction that terrified the beasts will come upon you, Because of your shedding men’s blood And your violence to the earth, To the cities and those living in them.

2.18 Of what benefit is a carved image When its maker has carved it? Of what benefit is a metal statue and a teacher of lies, Even though its maker trusts in it, Making worthless gods that are speechless?

2.19 Woe to the one who says to a piece of wood, “Awake!” Or to a speechless stone, “Wake up! Instruct us!” Look! It is overlaid in gold and silver, And there is no breath at all within it.

2.20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Be silent before him, all the earth!’”

Chapter 3

3.1 The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, in dirges:

3.2 O Jehovah, I have heard the report about you. I am in awe, O Jehovah, of your activity. In the midst of the years bring it to life! In the midst of the years make it known. May you remember to show mercy during the turmoil.

3.3 God came from Teman, The Holy One from Mount Paran.
(Selah)
His majesty covered the heavens; With his praise the earth was filled.

3.4 His brightness was like the light. Two rays flashed from his hand, Where his strength was hidden.

3.5 Before him went pestilence, And burning fever followed at his feet.

3.6 He stood still and shook the earth. With a look, he made nations leap. The eternal mountains were smashed, And the ancient hills bowed down. The paths of long ago are his.

3.7 I saw trouble in the tents of Cushan. The tent cloths of the land of Midian trembled.

3.8 Is it against the rivers, O Jehovah, Is it against the rivers that your anger is burning? Or is your fury against the sea? For you rode on your horses; Your chariots were victorious.

3.9 Your bow is uncovered and ready. The rods are assigned with an oath.
(Selah)
You split the earth with rivers.

3.10 Mountains writhed in pain at the sight of you. A downpour of waters swept through. The deep roared with its voice. It lifted its hands high.

3.11 Sun and moon stood still in their lofty abode. Your arrows went out like the light. The lightning of your spear was brilliant.

3.12 You marched through the earth with indignation. You trampled the nations in anger.

3.13 You went out for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the house of the wicked. It was exposed from the foundation to the top. (Selah)

3.14 You pierced the head of his warriors with his own weapons When they stormed out to scatter me. They were overjoyed to devour an afflicted one in secret.

3.15 Through the sea you trod with your horses, Through the surging of vast waters.

3.16 I heard and I trembled within; At the sound my lips quivered. Rottenness entered my bones; My legs beneath me were shaking. But I quietly wait for the day of distress, For it is coming upon the people who attack us.

3.17 Although the fig tree may not blossom, And there may be no fruit on the vines; Although the olive crop may fail, And the fields may produce no food; Although the flock may disappear from the pen, And there may be no cattle in the stalls;

3.18 Yet, as for me, I will exult in Jehovah; I will be joyful in the God of my salvation.

3.19 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah is my strength; He will make my feet like those of a deer And cause me to tread on high places.
To the director; with my stringed instruments.