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Micah

Micah 5

1 Now you will be devastated, you daughter of a robber. They have placed a blockade against us, with a rod they will strike the jaw of the judge of Israel.

2 And you, Bethlehem Ephrata, are a little one among the thousands of Judah. From you will go forth he who shall be the ruler in Israel, and his landing place has been set from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

3 Because of this, he will provide for them, even until the time in which she who bears him gives birth. And the remnant of his brothers will be converted to the sons of Israel.

4 And he will stand firm and feed on the strength of the Lord, according to the sublime name of the Lord his God. And they will be converted, for now he will be magnified, even to the ends of the earth.

5 And this man will be our peace, when the Assyrian will come into our land, and when he will trample on our houses; and we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men.

6 And they will graze on the land of Assur with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with its spears; and he will free us from Assur, when he will come into our land, and when he will trample our borders.

7 And there will be a remnant of Jacob in the midst of many peoples, like a dew from the Lord and like drops upon the grass, which awaits no man and does not stand before the sons of men.

8 And there will be a remnant of Jacob within the Gentiles, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forests, and like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, when he will pass through and trample down and seize, there is none who can rescue.

9 Your hand will be exalted over your enemies, and all your adversaries will pass away.

10 And it will be in that day, says the Lord: I will take away your horses from your midst, and I will utterly ruin your four-horse chariots.

11 And I will destroy the cities of your land, and I will pull down all your fortifications, and I will take away evil-doing from your hand, and there will be no divinations among you.

12 And I will cause your graven images to perish, and your statues, from your midst. And you will no longer adore the works of your hands.

13 And I will root out your sacred groves from your midst, and I will crush your cities.

14 And I will exact vengeance, in fury and in indignation, among all the nations which have not listened.

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Micah

Micah 6

1 Listen to what the Lord says: Rise, contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

2 Let the mountains listen to the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of the earth. For the judgment of the Lord is with his people, and he will enter into judgment with Israel.

3 My people, what have I done to you, or how have I assailed you? Respond to me.

4 For I led you out of the land of Egypt, and I freed you from the house of servitude, and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam.

5 My people, remember, I ask you, what Balak the king of Moab planned, and how Balaam the son of Beor responded to him, from Shittim even to Gilgal, so that you may know the justice of the Lord.

6 What worthy thing might I offer to the Lord, as I bend the knee before God on high? How could I offer holocausts to him, and one year-old calves?

7 Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat he-goats? How could I give up my firstborn because of my evil deed, the fruit of my womb because of the sin of my soul?

8 I will reveal to you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires from you, and how to act with judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God.

9 The voice of the Lord cries out to the city, “Listen, you tribes,” and who will confirm it? And salvation will be for those who fear your name.

10 Nevertheless, there is a fire in the house of the impious, the treasury of iniquity, and a small measure, filled with wrath.

11 Shall I justify unfaithful balances, and the deceitful weighing of a small bag?

12 By this, her wealthy have been filled with iniquity, and her inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue was deceitful in their mouth.

13 And I, therefore, began to strike you with perdition because of your sins.

14 You will consume and not be satisfied, and your humiliation will be in your midst. And you will take hold, and not save, and those whom you will save, I will deliver to the sword.

15 You will sow, and not reap. You will tread the olives, and not be anointed with oil, and crush the grapes, and not drink the wine.

16 For you have kept the precepts of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab. And you have walked according their wills, so that I should give you over to perdition and its hissing inhabitants, and you would carry the disgrace of my people.

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Micah

Micah 7

1 Woe to me, for I have become just like one who gleans the clusters of the vintage in autumn. There is no cluster of grapes to consume; my soul desired figs out of season.

2 The holy ones pass away from the land, and there is no one righteous among men. All wait in ambush for blood; a man hunts his brother to death.

3 The evil of their hands, they call good. The leader is demanding, and the judge is yielding, and the great is speaking the desire of his soul, and they have confused it.

4 Whoever is best among them is like a thorny plant, and he who is righteous is like a thorny hedge. The day of your inspection, your visitation, arrives. Now will be their ruination.

5 Do not be willing to believe a friend. And do not be willing to confide in a commander. From her, who sleeps in your bosom, keep the doors of your mouth closed.

6 For the son acts with contempt for the father, and the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies are those of his own household.

7 But I will look towards the Lord. I will wait for God, my Savior. My God will hear me.

8 You, my enemy, should not rejoice over me because I have fallen. I will rise up, when I sit in darkness. The Lord is my light.

9 I will carry the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he may judge my case and execute judgment for me. He will lead me into the light. I will behold his justice.

10 And my enemy will look, and she will be covered with confusion, she who says to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will look upon her. Now she will be trampled under foot like the mud of the streets.

11 The day that your walls will be rebuilt, in that day the law will be far away.

12 In that day also, they will come towards you even from Assur, and even to the fortified cities, and from the fortified cities even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

13 And the land will be in desolation, because of its inhabitants and because of the fruit of their intentions.

14 With your rod, pasture your people, the flock of your inheritance, living alone in the narrow forest, in the midst of Carmel. They will graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the ancient days.

15 As in the days of your departure from the land of Egypt, I will reveal miracles to him.

16 The nations will look, and they will be confounded at the strength of them all. They will place hand over mouth; their ears will be deaf.

17 They will lick the dust like serpents, and, like the creeping things of the earth, they will be disturbed in their houses. They will dread the Lord our God, and they will fear you.

18 What God is like you, who takes away iniquity and passes over the sin of the remnant of your inheritance? No longer will he send forth his fury, because he is willing to be merciful.

19 He will turn back and have mercy on us. He will put away our iniquities, and he will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

20 You will give the truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, which you swore to our fathers from the ancient days.

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Nahum

Nahum 1

1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 God is a rival, and the Lord is avenging. The Lord is avenging, and one who applies wrath. The Lord is avenging with his enemies, and he becomes angry with his adversaries.

3 The Lord is patient and great in strength, and those who are not clean, he makes innocent. The Lord is in a tempest, and his way is a whirlwind, and the clouds are dust at his feet.

4 He is the one who rebukes the sea, and who dries it up, and who leads all the rivers to the desert. Basan has been weakened, and also Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon has languished.

5 The mountains have trembled before him, and the hills have become desolate, and the earth has quaked before his face, both the world and all that dwells in it.

6 Who can stand firm before the face of his indignation? And who can continue against the fury of his wrath? His indignation has broken out like a fire, and the rocks have been dissolved before him.

7 The Lord is good, and a comforter in the day of tribulation, and he knows those who hope in him.

8 And in the flood that passes over, he brings to consummation the end of his place. And darkness shall pursue his adversaries.

9 What are you thinking up against the Lord? He will accomplish the consummation. There shall not rise up a double tribulation.

10 For just as thorns entwine one another, so also, while they are feasting and drinking together, they will be consumed like stubble that is completely dry.

11 Out of you will go forth one who thinks up evil against the Lord, dragging betrayals through his mind.

12 Thus says the Lord: If they had been perfect, and many of them so, yet still they would be pruned, and it will cross through them. I have afflicted you, and I shall afflict you no more.

13 And now I will shatter his rod from your back, and I will break open your bonds.

14 And the Lord will place a commandment over you; nothing more from your name will be sown. From the house of your God, I will order destroyed the graven image and the molten image. I will prepare your grave, because you are not honorable.

15 Behold, over the mountains, the feet of the Evangelizer and the Announcer of peace. Judah, celebrate your festivals and keep your vows. For Belial will never again pass through you; he has completely passed away.

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Nahum

Nahum 2

1 He ascends, who would scatter before your eyes, who would maintain the blockade. Contemplate the way, fortify your back, reinforce virtue greatly.

2 For the Lord has repaid the arrogance of Jacob, just like the arrogance of Israel. For the despoilers have scattered them, and they have corrupted their procreation.

3 The shield of his strong ones is fire, the men of war are in scarlet. The reins of the chariot are fiery in the day of his preparation, and the drivers have been drugged.

4 They have become confused on their journey. The four-horse chariots have collided in the streets. Their appearance is like torches, like lightning dashing around.

5 He will call to mind his strong ones; they will destroy along their journey. They will quickly ascend its walls, and a shelter will be prepared.

6 The gates of the rivers have been opened, and the temple has been pulled down to the ground.

7 And the foot soldier has been led away captive, and her handmaids were driven away, mourning like doves, murmuring in their hearts.

8 And Nineveh, her waters are like a fish pond. Yet truly, they have fled away: “Stand, stand!” But there is no one who will turn back.

9 Despoil the silver, despoil the gold. And there is no end to all the riches of desirable equipment.

10 She has been scattered, and cut, and torn apart. And the heart melts, and the knees buckle, and weakness is in every temperament. And the faces of them all are like a black kettle.

11 Where is the dwelling place of the lions, and the feeding ground of the young lions, to which the lion went, so as to open a way for the young lion, and so that there would be none to make them afraid?

12 The lion seized enough for his young, and killed enough for his lionesses, and he filled his caves with prey, and his den with spoils.

13 Behold, I will come to you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots even to smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. And I will exterminate your prey from the land, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

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Nahum

Nahum 3

1 Woe to the city of blood, filled with all manner of lies and violence. Crime shall not depart from you:

2 the voice of the whip, and the voice of the turning wheels, and of the neighing horse, and the burning chariot, and the horsemen who ride,

3 and of the flashing sword and the shining spear, and of a multitude executed and a grievous ruination. Neither is there an end to the dead bodies, and they will fall down upon their dead bodies.

4 Because of the multitude of fornications of the kept woman, beautiful and pleasing and practicing evil deeds, who sold nations by her fornications, and families by her evil doing:

5 behold, I will come to you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will reveal your shame to your face, and I will show your nakedness to the Gentiles, and your disgrace to kingdoms.

6 And I will cast abominations over you, and I will afflict you with abuse, and I will make an example of you.

7 And this shall be: everyone who sees you, will recoil from you, and he will say: “Nineveh has been devastated.” Who will shake his head over you? Where might I seek consolation for you?

8 Are you better than the populous Alexandria, which dwells along the rivers? Waters encircle it: the sea, with its riches. The waters are its walls.

9 Ethiopia and Egypt were its strength, and there is no limit. Africa and Northern Africa have been your helpers.

10 Nevertheless, she has been led away with the transmigration into captivity. Her little ones have been dashed in pieces at the top of every street, and they have cast lots over her celebrities, and all her elite have been fastened together in shackles.

11 Therefore, you also will become inebriated, and you will be despised, and you will seek help from the opposition.

12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with their green figs. If they are shaken violently, they will fall into the mouth of the one who devours.

13 Behold, women are at the center of your people. The gates of your land will be opened wide for your enemies; fire will devour your bars.

14 Draw in water because of the blockade; build up your fortresses. Go into the clay and tread; work it to make brick.

15 There, fire will devour you. You will perish by the sword; it will devour you like the beetle. Gather together like the beetle. Multiply like the locust.

16 You have made more negotiations than there are stars in the sky. The beetle has spread out and flown away.

17 Your guardians are like locusts, and your little ones are like locusts among locusts, which alight on hedges on a cold day. The sun rose up, and they flew away, and there was no way to know the place where they had been.

18 Your shepherds have become drowsy, king Assur. Your princes will be buried. Your people have remained hidden in the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.

19 Your destruction is not hidden; your wound is grievous. All who have heard of your fame have clenched their hands over you, because over whom has your wickedness not trampled continually?

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Habakkuk

Habakkuk 1

1 The burden that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not heed? Shall I shout to you while suffering violence, and you will not save?

3 Why have you revealed to me iniquity and hardship, to see plunder and injustice opposite me? And there has been judgment, but the opposition is more powerful.

4 Because of this, the law has been torn apart, and judgment does not persevere to its conclusion. For the impious prevail against the just. Because of this, a perverse judgment is issued.

5 Gaze among the nations, and see. Admire, and be astounded. For a work has been done in your days, which no one will believe when it is told.

6 For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift people, marching across the width of the earth, to possess tabernacles not their own.

7 It is dreadful and terrible. From themselves, judgment and their burden will issue.

8 Their horses are more nimble than leopards and swifter than wolves in the evening; their horsemen will spread out. And then their horsemen will approach from far away; they will fly like the eagle, hurrying to devour.

9 They will all approach towards the prey; their face is like a burning wind. And they will gather captives together like sand.

10 And concerning kings, he will triumph, and sovereign rulers will be his laughingstock, and he will laugh over every fortress, and he will transport a rampart and seize it.

11 Then his spirit will be altered, and he will cross over and fall. Such is his strength from his god.

12 Have you not existed from the beginning, Lord my God, my holy one, and so we shall not die? Lord, you have stationed him for judgment, and you have establish that his strength will be swept away.

13 Your eyes are pure, you do not behold evil, and you cannot look towards iniquity. Why do you look upon the agents of iniquity, and remain silent, while the impious is devouring one who is more just than himself?

14 And you will make men like the fish of the sea and like the creeping things that have no ruler.

15 He lifted up everything with his hook. He drew them in with his dragnet, and gathered them into his netting. Over this, he will rejoice and exult.

16 For this reason, he will offer victims to his dragnet, and he will sacrifice to his netting. For through them, his portion has been made fat, and his meals elite.

17 Because of this, therefore, he expands his dragnet and will not be lenient in continually putting to death the peoples.

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Habakkuk

Habakkuk 2

1 I will stand firm during my watch, and fix my position over the fortification. And I will observe carefully, to see what might be said to me and what I might respond to my opponent.

2 And the Lord responded to me and said: Write the vision and explain it on tablets, so that he who reads it may run through it.

3 For as yet the vision is far off, and it will appear in the end, and it will not lie. If it expresses any delay, wait for it. For it is arriving and it will arrive, and it will not be hindered.

4 Behold, he who is unbelieving, his soul will not be right within himself; but he who is just shall live in his faith.

5 And in the manner that wine deceives the heavy drinker, so will the arrogant man be deceived, and he will not be honored. He has enlarged his life like hellfire, and himself like death, and he is never fulfilled. And he will gather to himself all nations, and he will amass for himself all peoples.

6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and an enigmatic utterance about him? And it will be said, “Woe to him who increases what is not his own.” How long, then, will he lay down dense clay against himself?

7 Shall they not suddenly rise up, who would bite you, and be stirred up, who would tear you, so that you will be a prey for them?

8 Because you have despoiled many peoples, all those who are left of the people shall despoil you, because of the blood of men, and the iniquity of the earth, of the city and all who dwell therein.

9 Woe to him who gathers together an evil greed for his house, so that his nest may be exalted, and thinking that he might free himself from the hand of evil.

10 You have devised confusion for your house, you have cut to pieces many peoples, and your soul has sinned.

11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the wood that is between the joints of the building will respond.

12 Woe to him who builds a town with blood and prepares a city by iniquity.

13 Are not these things before the Lord of hosts? For the people will labor amid a great fire, and the nations will labor in emptiness, and they will fail.

14 For the earth shall be filled, that they might know the glory of the Lord, like the waters spreading over the sea.

15 Woe to anyone who gives a drink to a friend, releasing a drug and inebriating, so as to look upon their nakedness.

16 You are filled with disgrace in place of glory. So then, drink and fall fast asleep, for the cup of the right hand of the Lord will surround you, and a disgraceful vomit will cover your glory.

17 For the iniquity of Lebanon will cover you, and the devastation of animals which will deter them from the blood of men, and the iniquity of the earth and the city, and of all who dwell therein.

18 Of what benefit is the graven image? For its maker has formed it, a molten and imaginary deception. For its maker has hoped in a figment of his own creation, so as to make a dumb likeness.

19 Woe to him who says to wood, “Awaken,” to the silent stone, “Arise.” Is it able to teach? Behold, it has been entirely covered with gold and silver; and there is no spirit at all in its inner workings.

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple. May all the earth be silent before his face.

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Habakkuk

Habakkuk 3

1 A Prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet on Behalf of Those Who Are Ignorant.

2 Lord, I heard what has been said about you, and I was afraid. Lord, your work, in the midst of years, revive it. In the midst of years, you will make it known. When you have become angry, you will remember mercy.

3 God will come from the south, and the Holy One from mount Pharan. His glory has covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise.

4 His brightness shall be like the light; horns are in his hands. There, his strength has been hidden.

5 Death will go forth before his face. And the devil shall depart before his feet.

6 He stood, and measured the earth. He looked, and dissolved the Gentiles. And the mountains of ages past have been shattered. The hills of the world became curved by the journeys of his eternity.

7 I saw the tents of Ethiopia for their iniquity; the tent-skins of the land of Midian will be thrown into confusion.

8 Could you have been angry with the rivers, Lord? Or was your fury within the rivers, or your indignation in the sea? He will ascend upon your horses, and your four-horse chariots are salvation.

9 Being stirred up, you will take up your bow, the oaths you have spoken to the tribes. You will split apart the Rivers of the earth.

10 They saw you, and the mountains grieved. The great body of waters crossed over. The abyss uttered its voice. The pinnacle lifted up its hands.

11 The sun and the moon have stood firm in their dwelling place; with the light of your arrows, they shall go forth in the splendor of your flashing spear.

12 With a roar, you will trample the earth. In your fury, you will cause the nations to be stupefied.

13 You have gone forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your Christ. You struck the head of the house of the impious. You have laid bare his foundation all the way to the neck.

14 You have cursed his scepters, the head of his warriors, those who approached like a whirlwind so as to scatter me. Their exultation was like one who devours the poor in secret.

15 You made a way in the sea for your horses, in the mud of great waters.

16 I heard, and my stomach became troubled. My lips trembled at the voice. Let decay enter into my bones and gush forth from within me. Then I may rest in the day of tribulation, so that I may ascend to our people well-prepared.

17 For the fig tree will not flower, and there will be no bud on the vines. The labor of the olive tree will be misleading, and the farmland will produce no food. The sheep will be cut off from the sheepfold, and there will be no herd at the manger.

18 But I will rejoice in the Lord; and I will exult in God my Jesus.

19 The Lord God is my strength. And he will set my feet like those of the stag. And he, the victor, will lead me beyond my high places while singing psalms.

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Zephaniah

Zephaniah 1

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

2 While gathering, I will gather together all things from the face of the earth, says the Lord.

3 I will gather man and cattle; I will gather the flying things of the air and the fish of the sea. And the impious will be a catastrophe. And I will disperse men before the face of the earth, says the Lord.

4 And I will extend my hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will disperse from this place the remnant of Baal, and the names of the administrators along with the priests,

5 and those who adore the military campaign over the ceiling of the sky, both those who adore and swear by the Lord, and those who swear by Melchom,

6 both those who turn aside from following after the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord, nor inquired about him.

7 Be silent before the face of the Lord God. For the day of the Lord is near; for the Lord has prepared a victim, he has sanctified those he has called.

8 And this shall be: in the day of the victim of the Lord, I will visit upon the leaders, and upon the sons of the king, and upon all who have been clothed with strange garments.

9 And I will visit upon all who enter arrogantly over the threshold in that day, those who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit.

10 And this shall be in that day, says the Lord: the voice of an outcry from the fish gate, and a howling from the Second, and a great contrition from the hills.

11 Howl, inhabitants of the Pillar. All the people of Canaan have fallen silent. All were ruined who had been wrapped in silver.

12 And this shall be in that time: I will scrutinize Jerusalem with lamps, and I will visit upon the men who have become stuck in the dregs, who say in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil.”

13 And their strength will be in plundering, and their houses in the desert. And they will build houses and not dwell in them, and they will plant vineyards and not drink their wine.

14 The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and exceedingly swift. The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter; the strong will be tested there.

15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and anguish, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and whirlwinds,

16 a day of the trumpet and the trumpet blast over fortified cities and over exalted ramparts.

17 And I will trouble men, and they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. And their blood will be poured out like soil, and their bodies like manure.

18 Neither their silver, nor their gold, will be able to free them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. All the land will be devoured in the fire of his zeal, for with all speed, he will bring to consummation every inhabitant of the land.