Peace and Security through Obedience

4 In days to come

the mountain of the Lord’s temple

shall be established as the highest of the mountains

and shall be raised up above the hills.

Peoples shall stream to it,*

2 and many nations shall come and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.*

3 He shall judge between many peoples

and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation;

neither shall they learn war any more;*

4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,

and no one shall make them afraid,

for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.*

5 For all the peoples walk,

each in the name of its god,

but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God

forever and ever.*

Restoration Promised after Exile

6 On that day, says the Lord,

I will assemble the lame

and gather those who have been driven away

and those whom I have afflicted.*

7 The lame I will make the remnant,

and those who were cast off, a strong nation,

and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion

now and forevermore.*

8 And you, O tower of the flock,

hill of daughter Zion,

to you it shall come,

the former dominion shall come,

the sovereignty of daughter Jerusalem.*

9 Now why do you cry aloud?

Is there no king in you?

Has your counselor perished,

that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?*

10 Writhe and groan,j O daughter Zion,

like a woman in labor,

for now you shall go forth from the city

and camp in the open country;

you shall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued;

there the Lord will redeem you

from the hands of your enemies.*

11 Now many nations

are assembled against you,

saying, “Let her be profaned,

and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”*

12 But they do not know

the thoughts of the Lord;

they do not understand his plan,

that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.*

13 Arise and thresh,

O daughter Zion,

for I will make your horn iron

and your hoofs bronze;

you shall beat in pieces many peoples

and shallk devote their gain to the Lord,

their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.*

5 lNow you are walled around with a wall;m

siege is laid against us;

with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel

upon the cheek.*

The Ruler from Bethlehem

2 nBut you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,

who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to rule in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

from ancient days.*

3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time

when she who is in labor has brought forth;

then the rest of his kindred shall return

to the people of Israel.*

4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great

to the ends of the earth,*

5 and he shall be the one of peace.

If the Assyrians come into our land

and tread upon our soil,o

we will raise against them seven shepherds

and eight rulers.*

6 They shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword

and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword;p

theyq shall rescue us from the Assyrians

if they come into our land

or tread within our border.*

The Future Role of the Remnant

7 Then the remnant of Jacob,

surrounded by many peoples,

shall be like dew from the Lord,

like showers on the grass,

which do not depend upon people

or wait for any mortal.*

8 And among the nations the remnant of Jacob,

surrounded by many peoples,

shall be like a lion among the animals of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which, when it goes through, treads down

and tears in pieces, with no one to deliver.*

9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,

and all your enemies shall be cut off.*

10 On that day, says the Lord,

I will cut off your horses from among you

and will destroy your chariots;*

11 and I will cut off the cities of your land

and destroy all your strongholds;*

12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,

and you shall have no more soothsayers;*

13 and I will cut off your images

and your pillars from among you,

and you shall bow down no more

to the work of your hands;

14 and I will uproot your sacred polesr from among you

and destroy your towns.*

15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance

on the nations that did not obey.*

God Challenges Israel

6 Hear what the Lord says:

Rise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your voice.*

2 Hear, you mountains, the case of the Lord,

and you enduring foundations of the earth,

for the Lord has a case against his people,

and he will contend with Israel.*

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?

In what have I wearied you? Answer me!*

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt

and redeemed you from the house of slavery,

and I sent before you Moses,

Aaron, and Miriam.*

5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,

what Balaam son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,

that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”*

What God Requires

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord

and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”*

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good,

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice and to love kindness

and to walk humbly with your God?*

Cheating and Violence to Be Punished

9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city

(and he shall save those who fear his names):

Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!t

10 Can I forgetu the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked

and the despicable false measure?*

11 Can I tolerate wicked scales

and a bag of dishonest weights?*

12 Yourv wealthy are full of violence;

yourw inhabitants speak lies

with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

13 Therefore I have begunx to strike you down,

making you desolate because of your sins.*

14 You shall eat but not be satisfied,

and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you;

you shall put away but not save,

and what you save, I will hand over to the sword.*

15 You shall sow but not reap;

you shall tread olives but not anoint yourselves with oil;

you shall tread grapes but not drink wine.*

16 For you have kept the statutes of Omriy

and all the works of the house of Ahab,

and you have followed their counsels.

Therefore I will make you a desolation and yourz inhabitants an object of hissing,

so you shall bear the scorn of my people.*

The Total Corruption of the People

7 Woe is me! For I have become like one who,

after the summer fruit has been gathered,

after the vintage has been gleaned,

finds no cluster to eat;

there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.*

2 The faithful have disappeared from the land,

and there is no one left who is upright;

they all lie in wait for blood,

and they hunt each other with nets.*

3 Their hands are skilled to do evil;

the official and the judge ask for a bribe,

and the powerful dictate what they desire;

thus they pervert justice.a,*

4 The best of them is like a brier,

the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of theirb sentinels, of theirc punishment, has come;

now their confusion is at hand.*

5 Put no trust in a friend;

have no confidence in a loved one;

guard the doors of your mouth

from her who lies in your embrace,

6 for the son treats the father with contempt,

the daughter rises up against her mother,

the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

your enemies are members of your own household.*

7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord;

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

my God will hear me.*

Penitence and Trust in God

8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemies;d

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the Lord will be a light to me.*

9 I must bear the indignation of the Lord

because I have sinned against him,

until he takes my side

and executes judgment for me.

He will bring me out to the light;

I shall see his vindication.*

10 Then my enemiese will see,

and shame will cover thosef who said to me,

“Where is the Lord your God?”

My eyes will see theirg downfall;h

now theyi will be trodden down

like the mire of the streets.*

A Prophecy of Restoration

11 A day for the building of your walls!

On that day the boundary shall be far extended.*

12 On that day they will come to you

from Assyria toj Egypt

and from Egypt to the River,

from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.*

13 But the earth will be desolate

because of its inhabitants,

for the fruit of their doings.*

14 Shepherd your people with your staff,

the flock that belongs to you,

which lives alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

show usk marvelous things.*

16 The nations shall see and be ashamed

of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

their ears shall be deaf;*

17 they shall lick dust like a snake,

like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall come trembling out of their fortresses;

they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,

and they shall stand in fear of you.*

God’s Compassion and Steadfast Love

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over the transgression

of the remnant of his possession?

He does not retain his anger forever

because he delights in showing steadfast love.*

19 He will again have compassion upon us;

he will tread our iniquities under foot.

You will cast all ourl sins

into the depths of the sea.*

20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and steadfast love to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our ancestors

from the days of old.*

Nahum

1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.*

The Consuming Wrath of God

2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and prolongs it against his enemies.*

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.*

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,

and he dries up all the rivers;

Bashan and Carmel wither,

and the bloom of Lebanon fades.

5 The mountains quake before him,

and the hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who live in it.*

6 Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.*

7 The Lord is good,

a stronghold in a day of trouble;

he protects those who take refuge in him,

8 even in a rushing flood.

He will make a full end of his adversariesa

and will pursue his enemies into darkness.*

9 Why do you plot against the Lord?

He will make an end;

no adversary will rise up twice.*

10 Like thorns they are entangled;

like drunkards they are drunk;

they are consumed like dry straw.*

11 From you one has gone out

who plots evil against the Lord,

one who counsels wickedness.*

Good News for Judah

12 Thus says the Lord:

Though they are at full strength and many,b

they will be cut off and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.*

13 And now I will break off his yoke from you

and snap the bonds that bind you.*

14 The Lord has commanded concerning you:

Your name shall be perpetuated no longer;

from the house of your gods I will cut off

the carved image and the cast image.

I will prepare your grave, for you are worthless.*

15 cLook! On the mountains the feet of one

who brings good tidings,

who proclaims peace!

Celebrate your festivals, O Judah;

fulfill your vows,

for never again shall the wicked invade you;

they are utterly cut off.*