Habakkuk 1-3
1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.
The Prophet Complains of Injustice
2 How long, O Lord, shall I cry out to You, and You will not hear me? Being wronged I cry out to You; You will not save. 3 Why have You shown me hardship and suffering, to look upon misery and ungodliness? Judgment is before me, and the judge takes bribes. 4 Therefore the law is disregarded and justice is done ineffectually, for the ungodly oppress the righteous; therefore justice shall go forth perverted.
The Lord Answers
5 “Behold, you scoffers, take notice; look and be amazed and be gone, for I am working a work in your days which you would not believe even if someone told it to you. 6 For behold, I am raising up against you the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation that marches through the breadth of the earth to take possession of dwellings that are not theirs. 7 He is terrible and awesome. His judgment and dignity proceeds from himself. 8 Their horses bound more swiftly than leopards, and they are more fierce than the wolves of Arabia. His horsemen will ride out far away. They will spread out from afar, and they will fly as an eagle eager for its food. 9 Destruction will come upon the ungodly, opposing their advances from the opposite side, and like sand will he gather the captivity. 10 And he will revel in kings, and princes will be his plaything; he shall mock every fortified city and put up a siege mound and capture it. 11 Then he will change his spirit, and he will pass through and he will make an atonement saying, ‘This strength is from my god.’ ”
A Further Complaint of Injustice
12 Are You not from everlasting, O Lord God, my Holy One? O Lord, surely we shall not die. O Lord, You have ordered it for judgment; He has formed me to reprove for His instruction. 13 His eye is too pure to see evil, and You are not able to look upon affliction. Why then do You pay attention to those who scoff and keep silence when the ungodly swallow up the just? 14 And will you make men to be like the fish of the sea and as the reptiles with no one leading them? 15 He has brought up destruction with a fishhook, drawn it with his casting net, and gathered it in his dragnets. Because of this he will be glad, and his heart will rejoice. 16 On account of this he will sacrifice to his dragnet and burn incense to his casting net. For by them he has enriched his portion, and his foods are choice. 17 Therefore, he will throw out his casting net, and he will not spare to kill all the nations.
The Lord Answers the Prophet’s Complaints
1 I will stand on my watch, mounted upon the rock, and see what He shall say to me, and what might I answer when I am reproved?
2 And the Lord answered me and said, “Write the vision distinctly upon a tablet, that he who reads it may flee. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it will come up at the end, and it will not be in vain; if he should tarry, wait for him, for he will surely come, and he will not tarry.
4 “If any man should shrink back, My soul will not be well pleased in him; but the righteous shall live by My faith. 5 But the one who is drunk and the scoffer, the man who boasts, shall accomplish nothing; he widened his soul as the grave, and as death he is never satisfied, and he will gather to himself all the nations and will take to himself all the peoples. 6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him and a proverb for his history? And they shall say, ‘Woe to him who multiplies to himself possessions which are not his. How long will this continue? And who heavily presses down his yoke?’ 7 For suddenly those biting at him shall rise up, and they who plot against you will sober up, and you shall be as plunder to them. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the people who remain shall plunder you, because of the men’s blood and the sins of the land, and of the city and all who dwell in it.
9 “Woe to him who takes advantage of evil gain for his own house, so that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil. 10 You counseled shame to your house, and you wiped out many peoples, and your soul sinned. 11 Therefore, the stones will cry out from the wall, and the beetle will speak out of wood.
12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, who establishes a city by wrongdoing. 13 Are not these things from the Lord Almighty? And many a people have utterly perished in fire, and many nations have been disheartened. 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord; it shall cover them as water.
15 “Woe to him who gives clouded and intoxicating drink to his neighbor, that he might look upon his private parts. 16 Drink to the fullness of the dishonor of your glory. Quake and tremble! The cup in the right hand of the Lord has surrounded you, and it has gathered disgrace upon your glory. 17 For the ungodliness of Lebanon shall cover you, and the distress of wild beasts will terrify you, because of the blood of men and the ungodliness of the land and all who dwell in it.
18 “What benefit is a graven image, since men carve it? They have formed it into a molten image, a false image. For the one who made the thing trusts in that which is formed by him, to make idols that cannot speak.
19 “Woe to him saying to the wood, ‘Awake and rise up,’ and to the dumb stone, ‘Be exalted.’ It is a merely a fantasy, being but a hammered piece of gold and silver. There is no living breath in it at all. 20 But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be reverent before Him.”
The Prophet’s Prayer
1 The prayer of the prophet Habakkuk, with an ode.
2 Lord, I have heard Your report and was afraid;
I considered Your works and was greatly astonished.
You shall be known between the two living creatures;
In the approaching years You shall be acknowledged;
You will be revealed when the time comes.
When my soul is troubled,
You will in wrath remember mercy.
3 God will come from Teman,
The Holy One from the mount of shaded leafy trees. Pause.
His excellence covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
4 His brightness will be like the light;
Horns will be in His hand,
And He established a mighty love of His strength.
5 Before His face a word will go forth;
It will go out by the shoes of His feet.
6 The earth stood and was shaken to and fro;
He looked and the nations melted away.
The mountains were shattered by force;
The everlasting hills wasted away.
7 In the place of distresses, I saw His eternal ways.
The tents of the Ethiopians will be dismayed,
Even the tents of the land of Midian.
8 Were you angry, O Lord, with the rivers?
Or was Your wrath against the rivers,
Or was Your fury against the sea,
That You will mount on Your horses,
And Your chariot is salvation?
9 “You will stretch your bow against scepters,” says the Lord. Pause.
The land of rivers shall be torn asunder.
10 Many peoples will see you and be in travail,
Dispersing waters from its course.
The abyss uttered its voice;
Raising its form on high.
11 The sun arose, and the moon stood in its course;
At the light of Your arrows they went forth,
At the flashing of Your gleaming weapons.
12 You will bring low the land with threatening;
You will break the nations in wrath.
13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
To save Your anointed ones.
You brought death upon the heads of the lawless;
You brought bonds upon their neck. Pause.
14 You cut off the heads of rulers in amazement;
They shall tremble in it.
They will break their bridles
Like a poor man eating secretly.
15 You ran your horses into the sea,
Churning up the many waters.
16 I kept watch, and my belly trembled
From the sound of the prayer of my lips;
And trembling penetrated into my bones.
And my very frame of mind was troubled.
I shall rest in the day of tribulation
To go up to the people of my sojourn.
17 For though the fig tree will not bear fruit
And there be no grapes on the vines;
The labor of the olive tree fail
And the fields yield no food;
Though the sheep have no pasture
And there be no oxen in the cribs;
18 Yet I will glory in the Lord;
I will rejoice in God my Savior.
19 The Lord God is my strength;
He will direct my feet to the end;
He will set me upon high places,
So to conquer by His song.
Psalm 93:16–23
16 Who will rise up for me against evildoers,
Or who will side with me against the workers of lawlessness?
17 If the Lord had not helped me,
My soul would have almost sojourned in Hades.
18 If I said, “My foot slipped,”
Your mercy, O Lord, helped me.
19 O Lord, according to the abundance of grief in my heart,
Your encouragements consoled my soul.
20 Shall a throne of lawlessness be present with You,
A throne that frames trouble by an ordinance?
21 They shall hunt for the soul of a righteous man
And shall condemn innocent blood.
22 And the Lord has become a place of refuge for me,
And my God, the helper of my hope;
23 And repay their lawlessness to them,
And according to their wickedness,
The Lord our God shall destroy them.
Proverbs 20:11–15
11 A portion gained hastily in the beginning
Will not be blessed at the end.
12 Do not say, “I will avenge myself on the enemy,”
But wait on the Lord, that you may be helped.
13 A weight, great and small, and a double standard,
Both are also unclean before the Lord.
14 And the one who uses these things in his pursuits will be entangled;
But a young man with holiness, his road is straight.
15 The ear hears and the eye sees;
Both are also works of the Lord.
1 Timothy 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
No Other Doctrine
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.
5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk,
7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,
9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
Glory to God for His Grace
(cf. Acts 8:1–3; 9:1–19)
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Fight the Good Fight
18 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,
20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.