Bible

Joel

Chapter 1

¹This is the word of Yahweh that came to Joel son of Pethuel.

²Hear this, you elders,

and listen, all you inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days

or in the days of your ancestors?

³Tell your children about it,

and let your children tell their children,

and their children the next generation.

⁴What the swarming locust has left,

the great locust has eaten;

what the great locust has left,

the grasshopper has eaten;

and what the grasshopper has left,

the caterpillar has eaten.

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!

Wail, all you drinkers of wine,

because the sweet wine has been cut off from you.

⁶For a nation has come up upon my land,

mighty and without number.

His teeth are the teeth of a lion,

and he has the teeth of a lioness.

⁷He has made my vineyard into a desolate place

and has stripped my fig tree bare.

He has stripped its bark

and thrown it away;

the branches are bare white.

⁸Mourn like a virgin girded in sackcloth

for the death of her young bridegroom.

⁹The grain offering and the drink offering

have been cut off from the house of Yahweh.

The priests, Yahweh's servants, mourn.

¹⁰The fields are ruined;

the ground is mourning

because the grain has been destroyed.

The new wine has dried up;

the oil fails.

¹¹Be ashamed, you farmers,

and wail, you vine growers,

for the wheat and the barley.

For the harvest of the fields has perished.

¹²The vines have withered

and the fig trees have dried up;

the pomegranate trees, also the palm trees, and the apple trees—

all the trees of the field have withered.

For joy has withered away

from the descendants of mankind.

¹³Gird yourselves with sackcloth and mourn, you priests!

Wail, you servants of the altar.

Come, lie all night in sackcloth,

you servants of my God.

For the grain offering and the drink offering

have been withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Call for a holy fast,

and call a holy assembly.

Gather the elders

and all the inhabitants of the land

to the house of Yahweh your God,

and cry to Yahweh.

¹⁵Alas for the day!

For the day of Yahweh is almost here.

With it will come destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶Has not food been cut off

from before our eyes,

and joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seeds rot under their clods,

the storehouses are desolate,

and the barns have been torn down,

for the grain has withered.

¹⁸How the cattle groan!

Their herds are wandering in confusion

because they have no pasture.

Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

¹⁹Yahweh, I cry to you.

For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,

and flames have burned all the trees of the fields.

²⁰Even the animals of the fields pant for you,

for the water brooks have dried up,

and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Chapter 2

¹Blow the ram's horn in Zion,

and sound an alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble in fear,

for the day of Yahweh is coming;

indeed, it is near.

²It is a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and thick darkness.

Like the dawn that spreads on the mountains,

a large and mighty army is approaching.

There has never been an army like it,

and there never will be again,

even after many generations.

³A fire is consuming everything in front of it,

and behind it a flame is burning.

The land is like the garden of Eden in front of it,

but behind it there is a ruined wilderness.

Indeed, nothing will escape from it.

⁴The army's appearance is like horses,

and they run like horsemen.

⁵They jump with a noise like that of chariots

on the tops of the mountains,

like the sound of fiery flames that devour the stubble,

like a mighty army ready for battle.

⁶At their presence people are in anguish

and all their faces become pale.

⁷They run like mighty warriors;

they climb the walls like soldiers;

they march, every one in step,

and do not break their ranks.

⁸Neither does one thrust another aside;

they march, each in his path;

they break through the defenses

and do not fall out of line.

⁹They rush on the city,

they run on the wall,

they climb in the houses,

and they go through the windows like thieves.

¹⁰The earth shakes in front of them,

the heavens tremble,

the sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars stop shining.

¹¹Yahweh raises his voice

in front of his army,

for his warriors are very numerous;

for they are strong,

those who carry out his commands.

For the day of Yahweh is great

and very terrible.

Who can endure it?

¹²"Yet even now"—this is Yahweh's declaration—

"Return to me with all your heart.

Fast, weep, and mourn."

¹³Tear your heart

and not only your garments,

and return to Yahweh your God.

For he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love

and relenting from inflicting punishment.

¹⁴Who knows? Will he perhaps turn and relent,

and leave a blessing behind him,

a grain offering and a drink offering

for Yahweh your God?

¹⁵Blow the ram's horn in Zion,

call for a holy fast,

and call a holy assembly.

¹⁶Gather the people;

call for the holy assembly.

Assemble the elders;

gather the children

and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegrooms come out of their rooms,

and the brides out of their bridal chambers.

¹⁷Let the priests, the servants of Yahweh,

weep between the porch and the altar.

Let them say, "Spare your people, Yahweh,

and do not make your inheritance into an object of scorn,

that the nations mock them.

Why should they say among the nations,

'Where is their God?'"

¹⁸Then Yahweh was zealous for his land

and had pity on his people.

¹⁹Yahweh answered his people,

"Look, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil.

You will be satisfied with them,

and I will no longer make you

a disgrace among the nations.

²⁰I will remove the northern attackers far from you,

and will drive them into a dry and desolate land.

The front of their army will go into the eastern sea,

and the rear into the western sea.

Its stench will rise,

and its bad smell will rise."

Indeed, he has done great things.

²¹Do not fear, land; be glad and rejoice,

for Yahweh will do great things.

²²Do not fear, you wild animals!

For the pastures of the wilderness will sprout,

the trees will bear their fruit,

and the fig trees and the vines will yield their full harvest.

²³Be glad, people of Zion,

and rejoice in Yahweh your God.

For he will give you the autumn rain

as vindication

and bring down showers for you,

the autumn rain and the spring rain as before.

²⁴The threshing floors will be full of wheat,

and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵"I will restore to you the years of crops

that the swarming locust has eaten—

the great locust, the devouring locust, and the destroying locust—

my mighty army that I sent among you.

²⁶You will eat plentifully and be satisfied,

and praise the name of Yahweh your God,

who has done wonders among you,

and I will never again bring shame on my people.

²⁷You will know that I am among Israel,

and that I am Yahweh your God,

and there is none else,

and I will never bring shame on my people.

²⁸It will come about afterward

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Your old men will dream dreams;

your young men will see visions.

²⁹Also on servants and female servants,

in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰I will show wonders in the heavens

and on the earth,

blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.

³¹The sun will turn into darkness

and the moon into blood,

before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.

³²It will be that everyone who calls

on the name of Yahweh will be saved.

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

there will be an escaped remnant,

as Yahweh has said,

and among the survivors,

those whom Yahweh calls.

Chapter 3

¹Behold, in those days and at that time,

when I reverse the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

²I will gather all the nations,

and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

I will judge them there,

because of my people and my inheritance Israel,

whom they scattered among the nations,

and because they divided up my land.

³They cast lots for my people,

traded a boy for a prostitute,

and sold a girl for wine so they could drink.

⁴Now, why are you angry at me,

Tyre, Sidon and all the regions of Philistia?

Will you repay me?

Even if you do repay me,

I will immediately return your repayment on your own head.

⁵For you took my silver and my gold,

and you brought my precious treasures into your temples.

⁶You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,

in order to send them far away from their territory.

⁷Look, I am about to stir them up,

out of the place where you sold them,

and will return payment on your own head.

⁸I will sell your sons and your daughters,

by the hand of the people of Judah.

They will sell them to the Sabeans,

to a nation far off,

for Yahweh has spoken."

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:

"Prepare yourselves for war;

rouse the mighty men;

let them come near;

let all the men of battle come up.

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords

and your pruning knives into spears.

Let the weak say,

'I am mighty.'

¹¹Hurry and come,

all you nearby nations;

gather yourselves together there.

Yahweh, bring down your mighty warriors.

¹²Let the nations wake themselves up

and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

For there will I sit to judge

all the surrounding nations.

¹³Put in the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Come, crush the grapes,

for the winepress is full.

The vats overflow,

for their wickedness is great."

¹⁴There is a tumult, a tumult

in the Valley of Judgment.

For the day of Yahweh is near

in the Valley of Judgment.

¹⁵The sun and the moon become dark,

the stars keep back their brightness.

¹⁶Yahweh will roar from Zion,

and raise his voice from Jerusalem.

The heavens and earth will shake,

but Yahweh will be a shelter for his people,

and a fortress for the people of Israel.

¹⁷"So you will know that I am Yahweh your God

who lives in Zion, my holy mountain.

Then Jerusalem will be holy,

and foreigners will not pass through her again.

¹⁸It will come about on that day

that the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

the hills will flow with milk,

all the brooks of Judah will flow with water,

and a fountain will come from the house of Yahweh

and water the Valley of Shittim.

¹⁹Egypt will become an abandoned devastation,

and Edom will become an abandoned wilderness,

because of the violence done to the people of Judah,

because they shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem will be inhabited from generation to generation.

²¹I will avenge their blood that I have not yet avenged,

for Yahweh lives in Zion."

Obadiah

Chapter 1

¹The vision of Obadiah. The Lord Yahweh says this concerning Edom: We have heard a report from Yahweh and an ambassador has been sent among the nations, saying, "Rise up! Let us rise up against her for battle!"

²Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you will be greatly despised.

³The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty home; who say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?"⁴Though you soar high like the eagle and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there—this is Yahweh's declaration.

⁵If thieves came to you, if robbers came by night—how you will be ruined!—would they not steal only as much as they needed? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave the gleanings?⁶How Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures looted!

⁷All the men of your alliance will send you on your way to the border. The men who were at peace with you will deceive you and prevail against you. They who eat your bread will set a trap under you. There is no understanding in him.

⁸"Will I not on that day"—this is Yahweh's declaration—"destroy the wise men from Edom and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?⁹Your mighty men will be dismayed, Teman, so that every man may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.

¹⁰Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off forever.¹¹On the day you stood aloof, on the day strangers carried away his wealth, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.

¹²But do not gloat over your brother's day, in the day of his misfortune, and do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction; do not boast in the day of their distress.¹³Do not enter my people's gate in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over their affliction in the day of their disaster, do not loot their wealth in the day of their ruin.¹⁴Do not stand at the crossroads to cut down his fugitives, and do not deliver up his survivors in the day of distress.

¹⁵For the day of Yahweh is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return on your own head.¹⁶For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. They will drink and swallow and it will be as though they had never existed.

¹⁷But in Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will take possession of their possessions.¹⁸The house of Jacob will be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau will be stubble, and they will burn them, and consume them. There will be no survivors to the house of Esau, for Yahweh has spoken it."

¹⁹People from the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau and the people of the lowlands will possess the land of the Philistines. They will possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

²⁰The exiles of this army of the people of Israel will possess the land of Canaan as far as Zarephath. The exiles of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.²¹Deliverers will go up to Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau, and the kingdom will belong to Yahweh.

Nahum

Chapter 1

¹The declaration about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkoshite.

²Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges;

Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath;

Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries,

and he continues his anger for his enemies.

³Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power;

he will not acquit the wicked.

Yahweh makes his way in the whirlwind and the storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

⁴He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers.

Bashan is weak, and Carmel also;

the flowers of Lebanon have become weak.

⁵The mountains shake in his presence,

and the hills melt;

the earth collapses in his presence, indeed,

the world and all people who live in it.

⁶Who can stand before his rage?

Who can resist the fierceness of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

and the rocks are broken apart by him.

⁷Yahweh is good,

a stronghold in the day of trouble;

and he acknowledges those who take refuge in him.

⁸But he will make a full end to his enemies

with an overwhelming flood;

he will pursue them into darkness.

⁹What are you people plotting against Yahweh?

He will make a full end to it;

trouble will not rise up a second time.

¹⁰Like tangled thorns

and like the drink of drunkards,

they will be consumed like dry stubble.

¹¹From you, Nineveh, has come out

someone who plotted evil against Yahweh,

a wicked counselor.

¹²This is what Yahweh says,

"Even if they are at their full strength and full numbers,

they will nevertheless be sheared; their people will pass away.

But you, Judah: Though I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.

¹³Now will I break that people's yoke from off you;

I will break your chains."

¹⁴Yahweh has given a command about you, Nineveh:

"There will be no more descendants bearing your name.

I will cut off the carved images and the cast metal figures

from the houses of your gods.

I will prepare your grave,

for you are contemptible."

¹⁵Look, on the mountains

there are the feet of someone who is bringing good news,

who is announcing peace!

Celebrate your festivals, Judah,

and fulfill your vows,

for the wicked one will invade you no more;

he is completely cut off.

Chapter 2

¹The one who scatters is coming up against you.

Guard the city wall, watch the road,

strengthen your loins, pull together all your strength.

²For Yahweh is restoring the majesty of Jacob

like the majesty of Israel,

although the plunderers devastated them

and destroyed their vine branches.

³The shields of his mighty men are red,

and the soldiers are clothed in scarlet;

the chariots flash with their metal

on the day that they are made ready,

and the cypress spears are waved in the air.

⁴The chariots speed through the streets;

they rush back and forth in the wide streets.

They look like torches,

and they run like lightning.

⁵He remembers his nobles;

they stumble over each other in their march;

they hurry to attack the city wall.

The large shield is made ready to protect these attackers.

⁶The gates at the rivers are forced open,

and the palace collapses.

⁷Huzzab is stripped

and is taken away;

her female servants moan like doves,

beating on their breasts.

⁸Nineveh is like a leaking pool of water,

with its people fleeing away like rushing water.

Others shout, "Stop, stop,"

but no one turns back.

⁹Take the silver plunder, take the gold plunder,

for there is no end to the treasure,

to the splendor of all Nineveh's desirable things.

¹⁰Nineveh is empty; empty and devastated.

Everyone's heart melts, everyone's knees strike together,

and anguish is in all loins; their faces are all pale.

¹¹Where now is the lions' den,

the place where the young lion cubs were fed,

the place where the lion and lioness walked,

with the cubs, where they were afraid of nothing?

¹²The lion tore his victims to pieces for his cubs;

he strangled victims for his lionesses,

and filled his cave with victims,

his dens with torn carcasses.

¹³"See, I am against you—

this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts.

I will burn your chariots in the smoke,

and the sword will devour your young lions.

I will cut off your prey from your land,

and the voices of your messengers will be heard no more."

Chapter 3

¹Woe to the city full of blood!

It is all full of lies and stolen property;

victims are always in her.

²But now there is the noise of whips

and the sound of rattling wheels,

prancing horses, and bounding chariots.

³Horsemen charging,

flashing swords and glittering spears!

Piles of the dead, bodies that could not be counted—

their attackers stumble over the bodies.

⁴This is happening because of the lustful actions

of the beautiful prostitute, the expert in witchcraft,

who sells nations through her prostitution,

and peoples through her acts of witchcraft.

⁵"See, I am against you—

this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts—

I will raise up your skirt over your face

and show your private parts to the nations,

your shame to the kingdoms.

⁶I will throw disgusting filth on you

and make you vile;

I will set you up as a spectacle.

⁷It will come about that everyone who looks at you

will flee from you and say,

'Nineveh is destroyed; who will weep for her?'

Where can I go to find anyone to comfort you?"

⁸Nineveh, are you better than Thebes,

which was located on the Nile River,

which had water around her,

whose rampart was the sea,

and the sea was its wall?

⁹Cush and Egypt were her strength,

and there was no end to it;

Put and Libya were allies to her.

¹⁰Yet Thebes was carried away;

she went into captivity;

her young children were dashed in pieces

at the head of every street;

her enemies threw lots for her honorable men,

and all her great men were bound in chains.

¹¹You also will become drunk; you will try to hide,

and you also will look for a refuge from your enemy.

¹²All your fortresses will be like fig trees

with the earliest ripe figs:

if they are shaken,

they fall into the mouth of the eater.

¹³See, the people among you are women;

the gates of your land have been opened wide to your enemies;

fire has devoured their bars.

¹⁴Go draw water for the siege;

strengthen your fortresses;

go into the clay and tread the mortar;

pick up the molds for the bricks.

¹⁵Fire will devour you there, and the sword will destroy you.

It will devour you as young locusts devour everything.

Make yourselves as many as the young locusts,

as many as the full-grown locusts.

¹⁶You have multiplied your merchants

more than the stars in the heavens;

but they are like young locusts:

they plunder the land and then fly away.

¹⁷Your princes are like locust swarms,

and your commanders are like locusts

that camp in the walls on a cold day.

But when the sun rises they flee,

and the place they go to is not known.

¹⁸King of Assyria, your shepherds are asleep;

your nobles are lying down resting.

Your people are scattered on the mountains,

and there is no one to gather them.

¹⁹No healing is possible for your wounds.

Your wounds are severe.

Everyone who hears the news about you

will clap their hands in joy over you.

On whom has your wickedness

not trodden continually?

Habakkuk

Chapter 1

¹The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

²"Yahweh, how long will I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

I cry out to you, 'Violence!'

but you will not save.

³Why do you make me see iniquity

and cause me to look upon wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me;

there is strife, and contention rises up.

⁴Therefore the law is weakened,

and justice does not last for any time.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

therefore twisted justice goes out."

⁵"Look at the nations and observe them;

be amazed and astonished!

For I am surely about to do something in your days

that you will not believe when it is reported to you.

⁶For look! I am about to raise up the Chaldeans—

that fierce and impetuous nation—

they are marching throughout the breadth of the land

to seize homes that were not their own.

⁷They are terrifying and fearsome;

their judgment and splendor proceed from themselves.

⁸Their horses also are swifter than leopards,

quicker than the evening wolves.

So their horses stamp,

and their horsemen come from a great distance—

they fly like an eagle hurrying to eat.

⁹They all come for violence;

their multitudes go like the desert wind

and they gather captives like sand. ¹

¹⁰So they mock kings,

and rulers are only a mockery for them.

They laugh at every stronghold,

for they heap up earth and seize it.

¹¹Then the wind will rush on;

it will move past—

guilty men, those whose might is their god."

¹²"Are you not from ancient times,

Yahweh my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

Yahweh has ordained them for judgment,

and you, Rock, have established them for correction.

¹³Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil,

and you are not able to look on wrongdoing with favor.

Why then have you looked favorably on those who betray?

Why are you silent while the wicked devour

those more righteous than they are?

¹⁴You make men like fish in the sea,

like creeping things without a ruler over them.

¹⁵He brings all of them up with a fishhook;

he drags men away in his fishnet;

he gathers them together in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and he is glad.

¹⁶Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and burns incense to his dragnet,

for by his net he lives in luxury,

and his food is the richest kind.

¹⁷Will he therefore keep emptying his net,

and will he continually slaughter the nations without mercy?"

¹The copies of the ancient Hebrew text are translated here, their multitudes go like the desert wind ; this is a difficult passage to translate, and it is translated in different ways in modern translations.

Chapter 2

¹I will stand at my guard post

and station myself on the watchtower,

and I will watch carefully to see what he will say to me

and how I should turn from my complaint. ¹

²Yahweh answered me and said,

"Record this vision,

and write plainly on the tablets

so that the one reading them might run.

³For the vision is yet for the appointed time

and will testify and not fail.

Though it delays, wait for it.

For it will surely come and will not tarry.

⁴Look! The one whose desires are not right within him

is puffed up.

But the righteous will live by his faith.

⁵Indeed, as wine is treacherous,

even so an arrogant man does not stay at home.

He has made his throat as wide as Sheol;

and like death, he is never satisfied.

He has gathered together all the nations,

and he has assembled to himself all the people.

⁶Will all these not take up a proverb and mockery, riddles about him, saying,

'Woe to the one increasing

what is not his!

For how long will you increase

the weight of the pledges you have taken?'

⁷Will the ones biting at you not rise up suddenly,

and the ones terrifying you awaken?

You will become a victim for them.

⁸Because you have plundered many peoples,

all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you.

For you have shed human blood

and acted with violence against the land,

the cities, and all who live in them.

⁹'Woe to the one who gets evil gains for his house,

so he can set his nest on high

to deliver himself from the hand of evil.'

¹⁰You have devised shame for your house

by cutting off many people,

and have sinned against your life.

¹¹For the stones will cry out from the wall,

and the rafters of timber will answer them,

¹²'Woe to the one who builds a city with blood,

and who establishes a town in iniquity.'

¹³Is it not from Yahweh of hosts

that peoples labor for fire,

and nations weary themselves in vain?

¹⁴Yet the land will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh

as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵'Woe to the one who forces his neighbors to drink—

you express your anger ² and you make them drunk

in order to look at their nakedness.'

¹⁶You will be filled with shame instead of glory.

Now it is your turn!

Drink, and you will expose your uncircumcised foreskin!

The cup in Yahweh's right hand is coming around to you,

and disgrace will cover your glory.

¹⁷The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you

and the devastation of animals will terrify you.

For you have shed the blood of man

and you have acted with violence

against the land, the cities, and all who live in them.

¹⁸What profit is there in a carved image?

For a carver has carved it!

Or a cast metal figure, a teacher of lies?

For the maker trusts in what he has made

when he makes these worthless idols.

¹⁹Woe to the one saying to the wood, 'Wake up!

or to the silent stone, 'Arise!'

Do these things teach?

See, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

but there is no breath at all within it.

²⁰But Yahweh is in his holy temple!

Be silent before him, all the land."

¹Instead of how I should turn from my complaint , which is the reading of the copies of the Hebrew text, some modern translations have how I should answer when he replies to my complaint or how I should answer when he rebukes me .

²There is some question about whether the Hebrew should be translated as you express your anger or as you pour from your wineskin .

Chapter 3

¹The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet: ¹

²Yahweh, I have heard your report,

and I am afraid.

Yahweh, revive your work in the midst of these times;

in the midst of these years make it known;

remember to have compassion in your wrath.

³God came from Teman,

and the Holy One from Mount Paran.

Selah

His glory covered the heavens,

and the earth was full of his praise.

⁴With brightness like the light,

two-pronged rays flash from his hand;

and there he hid his power.

⁵Deadly disease went before him,

and the plague came out at his feet.

⁶He stood and measured the earth;

he looked and shook the nations.

Even the eternal mountains were shattered,

and the everlasting hills bowed down.

His path is everlasting.

⁷I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction,

and the fabric of the tents in the land of Midian trembling.

⁸Was Yahweh angry at the rivers?

Was your wrath against the rivers,

or your fury against the sea,

when you rode upon your horses

and your victorious chariots?

⁹You have brought out your bow without a cover;

you put arrows to your bow!

Selah

You divided the earth with rivers.

¹⁰The mountains saw you and twisted in pain.

Downpours of water passed over them;

the deep sea raised a shout.

It lifted up its hands.

¹¹The sun and moon stood still in their high places

at the flash of your arrows as they fly,

at the lightning of your flashing spear.

¹²You have marched over the earth with indignation.

In wrath you have threshed the nations.

¹³You went out for the salvation of your people,

for the salvation of your anointed one.

You shatter the head of the house of the wicked

to lay bare from the base up to the neck.

Selah

¹⁴You have pierced the head of his warriors

with his own spears since they came

like a storm to scatter us;

their gloating was like one

who devours the poor in a hiding place.

¹⁵You have trampled on the sea with your horses,

and heaped up the great waters.

¹⁶I heard, and my inner parts trembled!

My lips quivered at the sound.

Decay comes into my bones,

and under myself I tremble

as I wait quietly for the day of distress

to come upon the people who invade us.

¹⁷Though the fig tree does not bud

and there is no produce from the vines;

and though the produce of the olive tree disappoints

and the fields produce no food;

and though the flock is cut off from the fold

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

this is what I will do.

¹⁸Still, I will rejoice in Yahweh.

I will be joyful because of the God of my salvation.

¹⁹The Lord Yahweh is my strength

and he makes my feet like the deer's.

He makes me go forward on my high places.

—To the music director, on my stringed instruments.

¹The copies of the ancient Hebrew text add the expression on shigionoth , which may refer to musical directions for singers.

Zephaniah

Chapter 1

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

²"I will utterly destroy everything

from off the surface of the earth—

this is Yahweh's declaration.

³I will destroy men and animals;

I will destroy the birds of the heavens

and the fish of the sea,

the ruins along with the wicked.

For I will cut off man

from the surface of the earth—

this is Yahweh's declaration.

⁴I will reach out with my hand over Judah

and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

I will cut off every remnant of Baal from this place

and the names of the idolatrous people among the priests,

⁵the people who on the housetops

worship the heavenly bodies,

and the people who worship and swear to Yahweh

but who also swear by their king. ¹

⁶I will also cut off those who have turned away from following Yahweh,

those who neither seek Yahweh nor ask for his guidance."

⁷Be silent before the Lord Yahweh!

For the day of Yahweh is near;

Yahweh has prepared the sacrifice

and set apart his guests.

⁸"It will come about on the day of Yahweh's sacrifice,

that I will punish the princes

and the king's sons,

and everyone dressed

in foreign clothes.

⁹On that day I will punish

all those who leap over the threshold,

those who fill their master's house

with violence and deceit.

¹⁰So it will be on that day—

this is Yahweh's declaration—

that a cry of distress will come from the Fish Gate,

wailing from the Second District,

and a great crashing sound from the hills.

¹¹Wail, inhabitants of the Market District,

for all the people of Canaan will be ruined;

all those who weigh out silver will be cut off.

¹²It will come about at that time

that I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men

who have settled into their wine and say in their heart,

'Yahweh will not do anything,

either good or evil.'

¹³Their wealth will become plunder,

and their houses will be an abandoned devastation!

They will build houses but not live in them,

and plant vineyards but not drink their wine.

¹⁴The great day of Yahweh is near,

near and hurrying quickly!

The sound of the day of Yahweh

will be that of a warrior crying bitterly!

¹⁵That day will be a day of fury,

a day of distress and anguish,

a day of storm and devastation,

a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds

and thick darkness.

¹⁶It will be a day of rams' horns and alarms

against the fortified cities

and the high battlements.

¹⁷For I will bring distress upon mankind,

so that they will walk about like blind men

since they have sinned against Yahweh.

Their blood will be poured out like dust,

and their inner parts like dung.

¹⁸Neither their silver nor their gold

will be able to deliver them

on the day of Yahweh's fury.

In the fire of his jealousy

the whole earth will be consumed,

for he will bring a complete,

a terrible end of all the inhabitants of the earth."

¹The copies of the ancient Hebrew text have by their king , but some modern translations read by Milcom , the name of a pagan god that many people worshiped.

Chapter 2

¹Rally yourselves together and gather,

unashamed nation—

²before the decree takes effect

and that day passes like the chaff,

before the fierce anger of Yahweh's wrath

comes upon you,

before the day of Yahweh's wrath

comes upon you.

³Seek Yahweh, all you humble people on earth

who obey his ordinances!

Seek righteousness. Seek humility,

and perhaps you will be protected

in the day of Yahweh's wrath.

⁴For Gaza will be abandoned,

and Ashkelon will turn into a devastation.

They will drive out Ashdod at noon,

and they will uproot Ekron!

⁵Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,

the nation of the Kerethites!

Yahweh has spoken against you,

Canaan, land of the Philistines.

I will destroy you

until no inhabitant remains.

⁶So the seacoast will become pastures

for shepherds

and for sheep pens.

⁷The coastal region will belong

to the remnant of the house of Judah,

who will shepherd their flocks there.

Their people will lie down in the evening

in the houses of Ashkelon,

for Yahweh their God will care for them

and reverse their captivity.

⁸"I have heard the taunts of Moab

and the insults of the people of Ammon

when they taunted my people

and violated their borders.

⁹Therefore, as I live—

this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts,

God of Israel—

Moab will become like Sodom,

and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah;

a place of nettles and a salt pit,

deserted forever.

But the remnant of my people will plunder them,

and the remainder of my nation will take possession of them."

¹⁰This will happen to Moab and Ammon because of their pride,

since they taunted and became arrogant

against the people of Yahweh of hosts.

¹¹Then Yahweh will be terrifying to them,

for he will destroy all the gods of the earth.

Everyone will bow down to him,

each from his own place,

from the coastlands of all nations.

¹²You Cushites also

will be pierced by my sword,

¹³and God's hand will attack the north

and destroy Assyria,

so that Nineveh will become an abandoned devastation,

as dry as the desert.

¹⁴Then herds will lie down there,

every animal of the nations;

both the desert owl and the screech owl

will rest in the top of her columns.

A call will sing out from the windows;

rubble will be in the doorways;

her carved cedar beams will be exposed.

¹⁵This is the joyful city

that lived without fear,

that said in her heart,

"I am, and nothing is my equal."

How she has become a horror,

a place for beasts to lie down in.

Everyone that passes by her

will hiss and shake his fist at her.

Chapter 3

¹Woe to the rebellious city!

The violent city is defiled.

²She has not listened to the voice of God,

nor accepted correction from Yahweh.

She does not trust in Yahweh

and will not approach her God.

³Her princes are roaring lions

in her midst.

Her judges are evening wolves

who leave nothing to be gnawed upon in the morning.

⁴Her prophets are insolent

and treasonous men.

Her priests have profaned what is holy

and have done violence to the law.

⁵Yahweh is righteous in her midst.

He can do no wrong.

Morning by morning he will dispense his justice!

It will not be hidden in the light,

yet the unjust knows no shame.

⁶"I have destroyed nations;

their fortresses are ruined.

I have made their streets ruins,

so that no one passes over them.

Their cities are destroyed

so that there is no man inhabiting them.

⁷I said, 'Surely you will fear me.

Accept correction

and do not be cut off from your homes

by all that I have planned to do to you.'

But they were eager to begin each morning

by corrupting all their deeds.

⁸Therefore wait for me—

this is Yahweh's declaration—

until the day that I rise up to seize the prey.

For my decision is to assemble the nations,

to gather the kingdoms,

to pour out on them my anger—

all of my burning wrath;

for in the fire of my jealousy

all the earth will be consumed. ¹

⁹But then I will purify the lips of the peoples,

that all of them may call upon the name of Yahweh

to serve him shoulder to shoulder.

¹⁰From beyond the river of Cush

my worshipers—my scattered people—

will bring offerings due me.

¹¹In that day you will not be put to shame

for all your deeds by which you rebelled against me,

since at that time I will remove from among you

those who boasted in your pride,

and because you will no longer act arrogantly

on my holy mountain.

¹²But I will leave among you

a lowly and poor people,

and they will find refuge

in the name of Yahweh.

¹³The remnant of Israel will no longer

commit injustice or speak lies,

and no deceitful tongue

will be found in their mouth;

so they will graze and lie down,

and no one will make them afraid."

¹⁴Sing, daughter of Zion!

Shout, Israel.

Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,

daughter of Jerusalem.

¹⁵Yahweh has taken away your punishment;

he has turned away your enemies!

Yahweh is the king of Israel among you.

You will never again fear evil!

¹⁶In that day

they will say to Jerusalem,

"Do not fear, Zion.

Do not let your hands become weak.

¹⁷Yahweh your God is among you,

a mighty one to save you.

He will celebrate over you with joy;

he will be silent over you in his love;

he will be glad over you with a shout for joy.

¹⁸I will gather those who grieve,

those who cannot attend the appointed feasts,

so you will no longer

bear any shame for it. ²

¹⁹Behold, I am about to deal

with all your oppressors.

At that time, I will rescue the lame

and gather up the outcast.

I will make them as praise,

and I will change their shame into renown

in all the earth.

²⁰At that time I will lead you;

at that time I will gather you together.

I will give you renown and praise

among all the peoples of the earth

when I reverse your captivity before your eyes,"

says Yahweh.

¹The copies of the ancient Hebrew text have, until the day that I rise up to seize the prey . However, some of the copies of the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew copies, and modern translations that follow those suggestions, read, until the day that I rise up as a witness .

²This verse is very difficult to understand, and modern translations translate it in many different ways.

Haggai

Chapter 1

¹In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month,the word of Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,and to the high priest Joshua son of Jozadak, saying,²"Yahweh of hosts says this: These people say, 'It is not time for us to come or to build the house of Yahweh.'"

³Then the word of Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying,⁴"Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your finished houses, while this house lies ruined?⁵So now Yahweh of hosts says this: Consider your ways!

⁶You have sown much seed, but bring in little;

you eat but do not have enough;

you drink but cannot get drunk.

You wear clothes but cannot warm yourselves,

and the wage earner earns money

only to put it into a bag full of holes!

⁷Yahweh of hosts says this: "Consider your ways!⁸Go up to the mountain, bring timber, and build my house;then I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified!—says Yahweh."⁹"You looked for much, but behold! you have brought little home, for I blew it away!Why?" declares Yahweh of hosts. "Because my house lies in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.

¹⁰Because of this the heavens withhold the dew from you, and the earth withholds its produce.¹¹I have summoned a drought upon the land and upon the mountains, upon the grainand upon the new wine, upon the oil and upon what the earth sends forth,upon men and upon animals, and upon all the labor of your hands!"

¹²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and the high priest Joshua son of Jozadak,along with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of Yahweh their Godand the words of Haggai the prophet, because Yahweh their God had sent himand the people feared the face of Yahweh. ¹³Then Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, spoke Yahweh's message to the people and said, "I am with you!—this is Yahweh's declaration!"

¹⁴So Yahweh stirred up the spirit of the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,and the spirit of the high priest Joshua son of Jozadak, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people,so that they went and worked on the house of Yahweh of hosts, their God¹⁵in the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Chapter 2

¹In the seventh month on the twenty-first day of the month,the word of Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying,²"Speak to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,and to the high priest Joshua son of Jozadak, and to the remnant of the people. Say,

³'Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory?How do you see it now? Is it not like nothing in your eyes?⁴Now, be strong, Zerubbabel!—this is Yahweh's declaration—and be strong, high priest Joshua son of Jozadak; and be strong, all you people in the land!—this is Yahweh's declaration—and work, for I am with you!—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts.⁵This is the covenant that I established with you when you came out of Egypt,and my Spirit stands among you. Do not fear!

⁶For Yahweh of hosts says this: In a little whileI will once again shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land!⁷I will shake every nation, and every nation will bring their precious things to me,and I will fill this house with glory, says Yahweh of hosts.

⁸The silver and gold are mine!—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts.⁹The glory of this house will be greater in the future than at the beginning, says Yahweh of hosts,and I will give peace in this place!—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts."

¹⁰On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius,the word of Yahweh came by Haggai the prophet, saying,¹¹"Yahweh of hosts says this: Ask the priests concerning the law, and say,¹²'If a man carries meat that is set apart to Yahweh in the fold of his garment,and the fold touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any kind of food, does it become holy?'"

The priests answered and said, "No."

¹³Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean because of death touches any of these things,do they become unclean?" The priests answered and said, "Yes, they become unclean."

¹⁴So Haggai answered and said, "So it is with this people and this nation before me!—this is Yahweh's declaration—and so it is with the work of their hands. What they offer to me is unclean!

¹⁵So now, think in your minds about the past leading up to this very day.Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of Yahweh,¹⁶how was it then? When you came to a heap of twenty measures of grain,there were only ten; and when you came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures,there were only twenty.¹⁷I afflicted you and all the work of your hands with blight and mildew,but you still did not turn to me—this is Yahweh's declaration.

¹⁸Consider from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month,from the day that the foundation of the temple of Yahweh was laid. Consider it!¹⁹Is there still seed in the storehouse? The vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate,and the olive tree have not borne! But from this day will I bless you!"

²⁰Then the word of Yahweh came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month and said,²¹"Speak to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, and say,

'I will shake the heavens and the earth.

²²For I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms

and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations!

I will overthrow the chariots and their riders;

the horses and their riders will fall down,

each one because of his brother's sword.

²³On that day—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts—I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, as my servant—this is Yahweh's declaration.I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you!—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts!'"

English: Unlocked Literal Bible for Habakkuk, Haggai, Joel, Nahum, Obadiah, Zephaniah

Formatted for Translators

Joel

Obadiah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai