Bible Reading
December 23
The World English Bible
Dec.
23
Nahum
1-3
Nah
1:1 An oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the
Elkoshite.
Nah
1:2 Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full
of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains
wrath against his enemies.
Nah
1:3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no
means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nah
1:4 He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the
rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon
languishes.
Nah
1:5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The
earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in
it.
Nah
1:6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the
fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the
rocks are broken apart by him.
Nah
1:7 Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows
those who take refuge in him.
Nah
1:8 But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her
place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
Nah
1:9 What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end.
Affliction won't rise up the second time.
Nah
1:10 For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink,
they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
Nah
1:11 There is one gone forth out of you, who devises evil against
Yahweh, who counsels wickedness.
Nah
1:12 Thus says Yahweh: "Though they be in full strength, and
likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away.
Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
Nah
1:13 Now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your
bonds apart."
Nah
1:14 Yahweh has commanded concerning you: "No more descendants
will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off
the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for
you are vile."
Nah
1:15 Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for
the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.
Nah
2:1 He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the
fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power
mightily!
Nah
2:2 For Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency
of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed them, and ruined their
vine branches.
Nah
2:3 The 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.
Nah
2:4 The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in
the broad ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the
lightnings.
Nah
2:5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They
dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place.
Nah
2:6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
Nah
2:7 It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her
handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts.
Nah
2:8 But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they
flee away. "Stop! Stop!" they cry, but no one looks back.
Nah
2:9 Take the spoil of silver. Take the spoil of gold, for there is
no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture.
Nah
2:10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock
together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.
Nah
2:11 Where 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?
Nah
2:12 The 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.
Nah
2:13 "Behold, I am against you," says Yahweh of Armies,
"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."
Nah
3:1 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The
prey doesn't depart.
Nah
3:2 The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels,
prancing horses, and bounding chariots,
Nah
3:3 the 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,
Nah
3:4 because 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.
Nah
3:5 "Behold, I am against you," says Yahweh of Armies,
"and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the
nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
Nah
3:6 I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and
will set you a spectacle.
Nah
3:7 It 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?"
Nah
3:8 Are 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?
Nah
3:9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were
her helpers.
Nah
3:10 Yet 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.
Nah
3:11 You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will
seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
Nah
3:12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe
figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
Nah
3:13 Behold, 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.
Nah
3:14 Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into
the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.
Nah
3:15 There 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.
Nah
3:16 You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the
skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.
Nah
3:17 Your 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.
Nah
3:18 Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down.
Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to
gather them.
Nah
3:19 There 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?
Dec.
23
Revelation
7, 8
Rev
7:1 After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of
the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would
blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.
Rev
7:2 I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of
the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom
it was given to harm the earth and the sea,
Rev
7:3 saying, "Don't harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the
trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their
foreheads!"
Rev
7:4 I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred
forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of
Israel:
Rev
7:5 of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe
of Reuben twelve thousand, of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,
Rev
7:6 of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, of the tribe of Naphtali
twelve thousand, of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand,
Rev
7:7 of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, of the tribe of Levi
twelve thousand, of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,
Rev
7:8 of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, of the tribe of Joseph
twelve thousand, of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve
thousand.
Rev
7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude,
which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes,
peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
Rev
7:10 They cried with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation be to our
God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
Rev
7:11 All 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,
Rev
7:12 saying, "Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
Rev
7:13 One of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are
arrayed in white robes, who are they, and from where did they come?"
Rev
7:14 I told him, "My lord, you know." He said to me,
"These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They
washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb's blood.
Rev
7:15 Therefore 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.
Rev
7:16 They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither
will the sun beat on them, nor any heat;
Rev
7:17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shepherds them,
and leads them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes."
Rev
8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for
about half an hour.
Rev
8:2 I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets
were given to them.
Rev
8:3 Another 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.
Rev
8:4 The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went
up before God out of the angel's hand.
Rev
8:5 The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the
altar, and threw it on the earth. There followed thunders, sounds,
lightnings, and an earthquake.
Rev
8:6 The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves
to sound.
Rev
8:7 The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with
blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was
burnt up, and one third of the trees were burnt up, and all green
grass was burnt up.
Rev
8:8 The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning
mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood,
Rev
8:9 and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea
died. One third of the ships were destroyed.
Rev
8:10 The 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.
Rev
8:11 The 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.
Rev
8:12 The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck,
and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars; so that one
third of them would be darkened, and the day wouldn't shine for one
third of it, and the night in the same way.
Rev
8:13 I saw, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with
a loud voice, "Woe! Woe! Woe for those who dwell on the earth,
because of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, who
are yet to sound!"
