14 verses
1If you listen diligently to Yahweh your God's voice, observing to do all his commandments which I command you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh your God's voice. 3You'll be blessed in the city, and you'll be blessed in the country. 4You'll be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the offspring of your livestock, and the young of your flock. 5Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. 6You'll be blessed when you come in, and you'll be blessed when you go out. 7Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways. 8Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you. 9If you keep Yahweh your God's commandments, and walk in his ways, Yahweh will establish you as a holy people, [just] as he has sworn to you. 10All the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by Yahweh's name, and they'll be afraid of you. 11Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. 12Yahweh will open his good treasure in the sky to you, to give the rain for your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You'll lend to many nations, and won't borrow. 13Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will only be above, and you won't be below, if you listen to Yahweh your God's commandments which I command you today, to observe and to do [them], 14and don't turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
28 verses
1The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2Yahweh, 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 in front of me. There is strife, and contention rises up. 4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out 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, see, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the width 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 [set their] faces eastward. They gather prisoners like sand. 10Yes, they scoff at kings, and princes are a derision to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they build up an earthen ramp and take it. 11Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. They are indeed guilty, whose strength is their god."
12Aren't you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed them 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?
1I will stand at my watch and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
2Yahweh answered me, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. 3For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won't prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won't delay. 4Look, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. 5Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous: an arrogant man who doesn't stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol; he is like death and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations and heaps to himself all peoples.
6Won't all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases what isn't his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?' 7Won't your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim? 8Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it.
9Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! 10You have devised shame to your house by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against your soul. 11For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.
18 verses
11All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before his throne, and worshiped God, 12saying, "Absolutely! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Absolutely."
13One of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?"
14I told him, "My Lord, you know." He said to me, "These are those who came out of the great oppression. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb's blood. 15Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. 16They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won't beat on them, nor any heat; 17for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
1When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
3Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. 4The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand. 5The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it on the earth. Thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake occurred.
6The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was burned up, and one third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
8The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood, 9and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed.
10The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of the waters. 11The name of the star is called "Wormwood." One third of the waters became wormwood. Many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.
