The Daily Audio Bible
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1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
The Prophet’s Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?(A)
3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.(B)
4 So the law becomes slack,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous;
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.(C)
5 Look at the nations and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.(D)
6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.(E)
7 Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.(F)
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.(G)
9 They all come for violence,
with faces pressing[a] forward;
they gather captives like sand.(H)
10 At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress
and heap up earth to take it.(I)
11 Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!(J)
12 Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
You[b] shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.(K)
13 Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?(L)
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.(M)
15 He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his seine,
so he rejoices and exults.(N)
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine,
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and destroying nations without mercy?(O)
God’s Reply to the Prophet’s Complaint
2 I will stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me
and what he[c] will answer concerning my complaint.(P)
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.(Q)
3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.(R)
4 Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faithfulness.(S)
5 Moreover, wealth[d] is treacherous;
the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves
and collect all peoples as their own.(T)
The Woes of the Wicked
6 Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them,
“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?(U)
7 Will not your own creditors suddenly rise
and those who make you tremble wake up?
Then you will be plunder for them.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
all who survive of the peoples shall plunder you—
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who live in them.(V)
9 “Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
setting your nest on high
to be safe from the reach of harm!”(W)
10 You have devised shame for your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.(X)
11 The very stones will cry out from the wall,
and the rafter will respond from the woodwork.
12 “Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed
and found a city on iniquity!”(Y)
13 Is it not from the Lord of hosts
that peoples labor only to feed the flames
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14 But the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.(Z)
15 “Alas for you who make your neighbors drink,
pouring out your wrath until they are drunk,
in order to gaze on their nakedness!”(AA)
16 You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.
Drink, you yourself, and stagger![e]
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will come around to you,
and shame will come upon your glory!(AB)
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you;
the destruction of the animals will terrify you—[f]
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who live in them.(AC)
18 What use is an idol
once its maker has shaped it—
a cast image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in what has been made,
though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!(AD)
19 Alas for you who say to the wood, “Wake up!”
to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!”
Can it teach?
See, it is gold and silver plated,
and there is no breath in it at all.(AE)
20 But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him!(AF)
3 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk according to Shigionoth.
The Prophet’s Prayer
2 O Lord, I have heard of your renown,
and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.
In our own time revive it;
in our own time make it known;
in wrath may you remember mercy.(AG)
3 God came from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.(AH)
4 The brightness was like the sun;
rays came forth from his hand,
where his power lay hidden.(AI)
5 Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed close behind.(AJ)
6 He stopped and shook the earth;
he looked and made the nations tremble.
The eternal mountains were shattered;
along his ancient pathways
the everlasting hills sank low.(AK)
7 I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction;
the tent curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
8 Was your wrath against the rivers,[g] O Lord,
or your anger against the rivers[h]
or your rage against the sea,[i]
when you drove your horses,
your chariots to victory?(AL)
9 You brandished your naked bow;
sated[j] were the arrows at your command.[k] Selah
You split the earth with rivers.(AM)
10 The mountains saw you and writhed;
a torrent of water swept by;
the deep gave forth its voice.
The sun raised high its hands;(AN)
11 the moon stood still in its exalted place,
at the light of your arrows speeding by,
at the gleam of your flashing spear.(AO)
12 In fury you marched on the earth;
in anger you trampled nations.(AP)
13 You came forth to save your people,
to save your anointed.
You crushed the head of the wicked house,
laying it bare from foundation to roof.[l] Selah(AQ)
14 You pierced with their[m] own arrows the head of his warriors,[n]
who came like a whirlwind to scatter us,[o]
gloating as if ready to devour the poor who were in hiding.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
churning the mighty waters.(AR)
16 I hear, and I tremble within;
my lips quiver at the sound.
Rottenness enters into my bones,
and my steps tremble[p] beneath me.
I wait quietly for the day of calamity
to come upon the people who attack us.(AS)
Trust and Joy in the Midst of Trouble
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
and there is no herd in the stalls,(AT)
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.(AU)
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer
and makes me tread upon the heights.[q]
9 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit;(A) 2 he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.(B) 3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth.(C) 4 They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.(D) 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months but not to kill them, and the agony suffered was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings someone.(E) 6 And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.(F)
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,(G) 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;(H) 9 they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.(I) 10 They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,[a] and in Greek he is called Apollyon.[b](J)
12 The first woe has passed. There are still two woes to come.(K)
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the horns[c] of the golden altar before God,(L) 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great River Euphrates.”(M) 15 So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of humankind. 16 The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number.(N) 17 And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire[d] and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.(O) 18 By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of the horses’[e] mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, with heads, and with them they inflict harm.
20 The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.(P) 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their prostitution or their thefts.
Psalm 137
Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem
1 By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down, and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.(A)
2 On the willows[a] there
we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”(B)
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy.(C)
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
Down to its foundations!”(D)
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator![b]
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!(E)
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!(F)
10 Do not slander a servant to a master,
lest the servant curse you, and you be held guilty.(A)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.