Today's Reading

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

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

³The 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹¹Where 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?

¹²The 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.

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."

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

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

³the 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,

⁴because 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.

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.

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

⁷It 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?"

⁸Are 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?

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

¹⁰Yet 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.

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

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

¹³Behold, 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.

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

¹⁵There 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.

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

¹⁷Your 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.

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

¹⁹There 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?

¹The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

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

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

⁴Therefore 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.

⁶For, 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.

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

⁸Their 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.

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

¹⁰Yes, 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.

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

¹²Aren'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.

¹³You 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,

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

¹⁵He 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.

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

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

¹"And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: "He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars says these things: "I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

²Wake up, and keep the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.

³Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If therefore you do not wake up, I will come as a thief, and you won't know what hour I will come to you.

⁴Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

⁵He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

⁷"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: "These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens:

⁸"I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and did not deny my name.

⁹Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

¹⁰Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

¹¹I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown.

¹²He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.

¹³He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

¹⁴"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: "The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Head of God's creation, says these things:

¹⁵"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

¹⁷Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;

¹⁸I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to put on your eyes, that you may see.

¹⁹As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

²⁰Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.

²¹He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.

²²He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

¹Do not be envious of evil men; neither desire to be with them:

²for their hearts plot violence, and their lips talk about mischief.

³Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established;

⁴by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure.

⁵A wise man has great power; and a knowledgeable man increases strength;

⁶for by wise guidance you wage your war; and victory is in many advisors.

⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool: he doesn't open his mouth in the gate.

⁸One who plots to do evil will be called a schemer.

⁹The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men.

¹⁰If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.

¹¹Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!

¹²If you say, "Behold, we did not know this;" doesn't he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn't he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?

¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good; the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:

¹⁴so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul; if you have found it, then there will be a reward, your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Do not destroy his resting place:

¹⁶for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.

¹⁷Do not rejoice when your enemy falls. Do not let your heart be glad when he is overthrown;

¹⁸lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

¹⁹Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; neither be envious of the wicked:

²⁰for there will be no reward to the evil man; and the lamp of the wicked shall be snuffed out.

²¹My son, fear the Lord and the king. Do not join those who are rebellious:

²²for their calamity will rise suddenly; the destruction from them both-who knows?

²³These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

²⁴He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous;" peoples shall curse him, and nations shall abhor him-

²⁵but it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and a rich blessing will come on them.

²⁶An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.

²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹Do not say, "I will do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work."

³⁰I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;

³¹Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.

³²Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction:

³³a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep;

³⁴so your poverty will come as a robber, and your want as an armed man.