Day 357 of 365

Nah 1:1–3:19

1:1 An oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

1:2 The Lord is a jealous God and avenges. The Lord avenges and is full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.

1:3 The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

1:4 He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.

1:5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.

1:6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.

1:7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.

1:8 But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

1:9 What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a full end. Affliction won't rise up the second time.

1:10 For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.

1:11 There is one gone forth out of you, who devises evil against the Lord, who counsels wickedness.

1:12 Thus says the Lord: "Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

1:13 Now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart."

1:14 The Lord has commanded concerning you: "No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile."

1:15 Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.

2:1 He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!

2:2 For the Lord restores the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed them, and ruined their vine branches.

2:3 The shield of his mighty men is made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the pine spears are brandished.

2:4 The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the broad ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.

2:5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place.

2:6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.

2:7 It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts.

2:8 But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. "Stop! Stop!" they cry, but no one looks back.

2:9 Take the spoil of silver. Take the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture.

2:10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

2:11 Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's cubs, and no one made them afraid?

2:12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey.

2:13 "Behold, I am against you," says the Lord of hosts, "and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard."

3:1 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn't depart.

3:2 The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots,

3:3 the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies,

3:4 because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.

3:5 "Behold, I am against you," says the Lord of hosts, "and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.

3:6 I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle.

3:7 It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"

3:8 Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?

3:9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers.

3:10 Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

3:11 You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.

3:12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

3:13 Behold, your troops in your midst are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.

3:14 Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.

3:15 There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust.

3:16 You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.

3:17 Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

3:18 Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.

3:19 There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn't felt your endless cruelty?

Hab 1:1–17

1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 Lord, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you "Violence!" and will you not save?

3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.

5 "Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.

6 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

7 They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.

8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.

9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.

10 Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it.

11 Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god."

12 Aren't you from everlasting, Lord my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Lord, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish.

13 You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,

14 and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

15 He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad.

16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good.

17 Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?

Rev 15:1–8

1 I saw another great and marvelous sign in the sky: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them God's wrath is finished.

2 I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who overcame the beast, his image, and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

3 They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.

4 Who would not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed."

5 After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.

6 The seven angels came out of the temple who had the seven plagues, clothed with pure, bright linen, and wearing golden sashes around their chests.

7 One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.

8 The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power. No one was able to enter into the temple, until the seven plagues of the seven angels would be finished.

Job 40:24–41:8

40:24 Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare?

41:1 "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord?

41:2 Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook?

41:3 Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you?

41:4 Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever?

41:5 Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls?

41:6 Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants?

41:7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?

41:8 Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.