Bible Reading
December 24
The World English Bible
Dec.
24
Habakkuk
1-3
Hab
1:1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Hab
1:2 Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to
you "Violence!" and will you not save?
Hab
1:3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For
destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and
contention rises up.
Hab
1:4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth;
for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth
perverted.
Hab
1:5 "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.
Hab
1:6 For, 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.
Hab
1:7 They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity
proceed from themselves.
Hab
1:8 Their 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.
Hab
1:9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He
gathers prisoners like sand.
Hab
1:10 Yes, 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.
Hab
1:11 Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed
guilty, whose strength is his god."
Hab
1:12 Aren't you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We
will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock,
have established him to punish.
Hab
1:13 You 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,
Hab
1:14 and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping
things, that have no ruler over them?
Hab
1:15 He 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.
Hab
1:16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his
dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good.
Hab
1:17 Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the
nations without mercy?
Hab
2:1 I 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.
Hab
2:2 Yahweh answered me, "Write the vision, and make it plain on
tablets, that he who runs may read it.
Hab
2:3 For 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.
Hab
2:4 Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the
righteous will live by his faith.
Hab
2:5 Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. A haughty man who doesn't
stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death,
and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps
to himself all peoples.
Hab
2:6 Won't all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting
proverb against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases that which is
not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?'
Hab
2:7 Won't your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make
you tremble, and you will be their victim?
Hab
2:8 Because 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.
Hab
2:9 Woe 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!
Hab
2:10 You have devised shame to your house, by cutting off many
peoples, and have sinned against your soul.
Hab
2:11 For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the
woodwork will answer it.
Hab
2:12 Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city
by iniquity!
Hab
2:13 Behold, isn't it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for
the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
Hab
2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of
Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
Hab
2:15 "Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your
inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their
naked bodies!
Hab
2:16 You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink,
and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh's right hand will come around to
you, and disgrace will cover your glory.
Hab
2:17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the
destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men's
blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to
those who dwell in them.
Hab
2:18 "What value does the engraved image have, that its maker
has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he
who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?
Hab
2:19 Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone,
'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and
silver, and there is no breath at all in its midst.
Hab
2:20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent
before him!"
Hab
3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, set to victorious music.
Hab
3:2 Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds,
Yahweh. Renew your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of
the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.
Hab
3:3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His
glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth.
Hab
3:4 His splendor is like the sunrise. Rays shine from his hand,
where his power is hidden.
Hab
3:5 Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.
Hab
3:6 He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations
tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills
collapsed. His ways are eternal.
Hab
3:7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the
land of Midian trembled.
Hab
3:8 Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against
the rivers, or your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your
horses, on your chariots of salvation?
Hab
3:9 You uncovered your bow. You called for your sworn arrows. Selah.
You split the earth with rivers.
Hab
3:10 The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters
passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
Hab
3:11 The sun and moon stood still in the sky, at the light of your
arrows as they went, at the shining of your glittering spear.
Hab
3:12 You marched through the land in wrath. You threshed the nations
in anger.
Hab
3:13 You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the
salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the land of
wickedness. You stripped them head to foot. Selah.
Hab
3:14 You pierced the heads of his warriors with their own spears.
They came as a whirlwind to scatter me, gloating as if to devour the
wretched in secret.
Hab
3:15 You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters.
Hab
3:16 I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice.
Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place, because I
must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the
people who invade us.
Hab
3:17 For though the fig tree doesn't flourish, nor fruit be in the
vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the
flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls:
Hab
3:18 yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my
salvation!
Hab
3:19 Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like deer's
feet, and enables me to go in high places. For the music director, on
my stringed instruments.
Dec.
24
Revelation
9, 10
Rev
9:1 The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had
fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to
him.
Rev
9:2 He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the
pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were
darkened because of the smoke from the pit.
Rev
9:3 Then out of the smoke came forth locusts on the earth, and power
was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev
9:4 They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth,
neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who
don't have God's seal on their foreheads.
Rev
9:5 They were given power not to kill them, but to torment them for
five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when
it strikes a person.
Rev
9:6 In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find
it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
Rev
9:7 The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On
their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were
like people's faces.
Rev
9:8 They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like those
of lions.
Rev
9:9 They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of
their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing
to war.
Rev
9:10 They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their
tails they have power to harm men for five months.
Rev
9:11 They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in
Hebrew is "Abaddon," but in Greek, he has the name
"Apollyon."
Rev
9:12 The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming
after this.
Rev
9:13 The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the
golden altar which is before God,
Rev
9:14 saying to the sixth angel who had one trumpet, "Free the
four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!"
Rev
9:15 The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour
and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of
mankind.
Rev
9:16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred
million. I heard the number of them.
Rev
9:17 Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them,
having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow;
and the heads of lions. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and
sulfur.
Rev
9:18 By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the
fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths.
Rev
9:19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their
tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with
them they harm.
Rev
9:20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues,
didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship
demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of
stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.
Rev
9:21 They didn't repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries,
nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.
Rev
10:1 I saw a mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a
cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his
feet like pillars of fire.
Rev
10:2 He had in his hand a little open book. He set his right foot on
the sea, and his left on the land.
Rev
10:3 He cried with a loud voice, as a lion roars. When he cried, the
seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev
10:4 When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I
heard a voice from the sky saying, "Seal up the things which the
seven thunders said, and don't write them."
Rev
10:5 The angel who I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted
up his right hand to the sky,
Rev
10:6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven
and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in
it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will no
longer be delay,
Rev
10:7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is
about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he declared
to his servants, the prophets.
Rev
10:8 The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me,
said, "Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel
who stands on the sea and on the land."
Rev
10:9 I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. He
said to me, "Take it, and eat it up. It will make your stomach
bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey."
Rev
10:10 I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up.
It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. When I had eaten it, my stomach
was made bitter.
Rev
10:11 They told me, "You must prophesy again over many peoples,
nations, languages, and kings."
