Habakkuk 3 - Zephaniah 2
Tree of Life Version
Habakkuk’s Confidence in Adonai
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, as a passionate song.
2 Adonai, I have heard the report about You
and I have come to fear.
Adonai, revive Your work throughout the years,
throughout the years make it known,
In wrath remember compassion.
3 God comes from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His majesty covers the heavens,
and His praise fills the earth.
4 With brilliance like light,
rays emanate from His hand.
There His power was hidden.
5 Pestilence goes before Him,
a fiery bolt goes forth at His feet.
6 He stood, and the earth shook.
He looked, and startled nations.
Ancient mountains were shattered,
hills of antiquity sank down.
His ways are everlasting.
7 I saw tents of Cushan under calamity.
The curtains of the land of Midian are trembling.
8 Adonai, is your wrath against rivers?
Or Your anger at the rivers?
Or is Your fury with the sea?
For You ride on Your horses,
Your chariots of salvation!
9 Your bow is laid bare.
Sworn are rods—a decree. Selah
You cleave the land with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and writhe.
A downpour of water overflows.
The deep gives its voice—
it lifts up hands high.
11 Sun and moon, stand in lofty abode.
At the flash of Your arrows they go,
at the radiance of the lightning of Your spear.
12 With indignation You pace the land.
With anger You thresh nations.
13 You went out for the salvation of Your people—
for the deliverance of Your anointed one.[a]
You shatter the head of the house of the wicked—
to lay it bare from foundation up to the top. Selah
14 You have pierced his chief rulers with his own staff—
They stormed in to scatter me.
Their exultation is like devouring the weak in secret.
15 You marched forth,
Your horses in the sea—much water foaming.
16 I heard, and my belly trembled.
My lips quivered at the sound.
Decay comes into my bones.
I tremble where I stand,
since I must wait quietly for a day of distress
to come up against the people who will invade us.
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and there is no yield on the vines,
Though the olive crop fail,
and the fields produce no food,
the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no cattle in the stalls.
18 Yet will I triumph in Adonai,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation![b]
19 Adonai my Lord, is my strength.
He has made my feet like a deer’s,
and will make me walk on my high places.
For the choir director: On my stringed instruments.
Hand of Judgment Upon Idolaters
1 The word of Adonai 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 totally sweep away everything
from the face of the earth,
declares Adonai.
3 I will sweep away man and beast,
I will sweep away the birds of the sky
and the fish of the sea—
also the stumbling blocks—the wicked.
I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,
declares Adonai.[c]
4 “I will stretch out my hand upon Judah
and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place
—the names of the idolatrous priests along with the kohanim,
5 those bowing down on the roofs
to the host of the heavens.
those bowing down, swearing to Adonai
and also swearing by Molech
6 those turning from following Adonai,
not seeking Adonai or consulting Him.
The Day Is At Hand
7 Be silent before Adonai God.
For the day of Adonai is at hand![d]
Adonai has prepared a sacrifice,
He has consecrated his guests.
8 On the day of Adonai’s sacrifice,
I will punish the princes,
the king’s sons
and all who dress in foreign attire.
9 In that day I will punish
all who skip over the threshold
while filling their master’s House
with violence and deceit.
10 In that day—declares Adonai—
there will be the sound of screaming from the Fish Gate,
wailing from the second district
and a loud crash from the heights.
11 Howl, inhabitants of Maktesh![e]
For all the people of Canaan[f] are destroyed.
All who weigh out silver are cut off.
12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps
and punish the men whose spirits have hardened,
who say in their hearts,
‘Adonai will do neither good nor evil.’
13 Their wealth will become plunder,
their houses a ruin.
They will build houses
but not live in them.
They will plant vineyards
but not drink their wine.
14 The great day of Adonai is near—
near and coming very quickly!
The sound of the day of Adonai is bitter—
the shouting of the warrior is there.
15 That day is a day of wrath
a day of trouble and distress,
a day of devastating storm and desolation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 a day of shofar and alarm
against the fortified cities
and against the high corner towers.
17 I will bring such distress upon mankind
that they will walk like the blind—
for they have sinned against Adonai.
Their blood will be poured out like dust,
and their flesh like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to rescue them
on the day of Adonai’s wrath.
With the fire of His passion
the entire earth will be consumed.
For He will make a total,
dreadful annihilation of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Judgment of Nearby Nations
2 Gather together! Gather together,
O shameless nation—
2 before the decree is brought forth,
before the day passes away like chaff,
before Adonai’s burning anger comes upon you,
before the day of Adonai’s anger comes upon you!
3 Seek Adonai, all you humble of the land
who have executed His judgment.
Seek righteousness; seek meekness![g]
Perhaps you will be hidden
on the day of Adonai’s wrath.
4 For Gaza will be abandoned
and Ashkelon will be a wasteland.
Ashdod will be driven out at noon
and Ekron will be uprooted.
5 Oy to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
the nation of Cherethites!
The word of Adonai is against you,
Canaan, the land of the Philistines,
and I will destroy you
until there is no inhabitant.
6 The seacoast will become pastures,
with meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks.
7 The coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah,
upon which they will graze.
In the houses of Ashkelon
they will lie down in the evening.
For Adonai their God will visit them
and return them from captivity.
8 I have heard the taunts of Moab
and the jeers of the children of Ammon,
who taunted My people
and expanded on their border.
9 Therefore, as I live,
declares Adonai-Tzva’ot God of Israel,
Moab will be like Sodom
and Ammon like Gomorrah—
a possession of weeds and a salt pit,
a perpetual wasteland.
The remainder of My people will plunder them.
The remnant of My nation will dispossess them.
10 This is what they will get for their pride,
for they have taunted and expanded
against the people of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
11 Adonai will be fearsome against them.
For all the gods of the earth
He will make waste away.
To Him will bow, each from its place,
the islands of the nations.
12 You Ethiopians too
will be slain by My sword.
13 He will stretch out his hand against the north
and devastate Assyria
and make Nineveh as a wasteland—
dry as a desert.
14 Flocks will lie down in her midst,
all kinds of beasts—
both the little owl and the great owl
will lodge in her pillars.
A voice will hoot in the window.
Ruin will be in the doorway,
for the cedar beams will be exposed.
15 This is the exultant city,
dwelling securely,
saying in her heart,
‘It’s me—no one else but me!’
How did she become a ruin,
an abode for wild beasts?
Everyone who passes by her
hisses and shakes his fist.
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 3:13 cf. Acts 13:26.
- Habakkuk 3:18 cf. Luke 1:47; Phil. 4:4.
- Zephaniah 1:3 Cf. Matt. 13:41.
- Zephaniah 1:7 cf. 2 Cor. 1:14; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 1:7, 10.
- Zephaniah 1:11 A district of Jerusalem for beating mortar.
- Zephaniah 1:11 Or, merchant people.
- Zephaniah 2:3 cf. Matt. 6:3.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.