Bible Reading for December 23 and 24
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.
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. 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!"
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."
