WELS Through my Bible in Three Years

Obadiah (EHV)

1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord God says about [1] Edom.

We have heard news from the Lord, and an envoy has been sent among the nations:

“Get up. Let us rise up against her in battle.”

2 Listen, I will make you insignificant among the nations. You will be completely despised.

3 You who live in the clefts of the rocky cliff, [2] the pride of your heart has deceived you. Your dwelling is so high that you say in your heart, “Who can bring me down to the ground?” 4 Even if you would soar as high as an eagle, and even if your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there, declares the Lord.

5 If thieves came to you, if robbers came by night—oh, what disaster awaits you!—wouldn’t they steal only until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some grapes for gleaning? 6 Oh, how completely Esau will be ransacked! His hidden treasures will be searched out and looted!

7 All your allies will push you back to your border.

Those who were at peace with you will deceive you and overpower you.

Those who eat bread with you will lay a trap for you.

There is no understanding left in Edom. [3]

8 Will I not destroy the wise men of Edom on that day, declares the Lord? Will I not take away from the mountain of Esau those who have understanding? 9 Your strong warrior, Teman, [4] will be shattered by terror, so that everyone from the mountain of Esau will be cut down by the massacre.

10 Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever. 11 On the day when you stood by and watched, on the day when strangers carried away Jacob’s wealth, [5] and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.

12 But do not look down on your brother on the day of his misfortune.

Do not rejoice over the people of Judah on the day when they are destroyed.

Do not speak proudly on the day of distress.

13 Do not enter the gate of my people on the day of their disaster.

Do not look down on their affliction on the day of their calamity.

Do not seize their wealth on the day of their disaster.

14 Do not stand in the crossroads to cut off those who have escaped.

Do not imprison his survivors on the day of distress.

15 Yes, the Day of the Lord is near for all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. 16 For just as you Edomites [6] have drunk on my holy mountain, so also all the nations will drink continually. Yes, they will drink and guzzle it down, and it will be as though the Edomites never existed.

17 But on Mount Zion, there will be some who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will recapture its territory. 18 The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau will be stubble. The Israelites [7] set them on fire and consume them. There will not be any survivors for the house of Esau.

Yes, the Lord has spoken.

19 People from the Negev [8] will take possession of the mountains of Esau, and those from the Shephelah [9] will take possession of the land of the Philistines. They will take possession of the territory [10] of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria. Benjamin will take possession of Gilead. 20 Those from the army of the people of Israel who have been exiles [11] will take possession of the territory of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, [12] and the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad [13] will take possession of the cities of the Negev. 21 Saviors [14] will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will belong to the Lord.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Habakkuk 3:16-19 (EHV)

16 When I hear about it, my stomach churns.

17 The fig tree may have no buds.

To the choir director. On my stringed instruments.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Habakkuk 3:1-15 (EHV)

1 This is the prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to shigionoth. [1]

2 O Lord, I have heard the report about you,

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Habakkuk 2:6-20 (EHV)

6 All these people will make up proverbs and mocking poems against him, won’t they? They will say, “Woe to the one who accumulates what is not his. (How long will this last?) Woe to the one who makes himself rich by foreclosing on collateral.” 7 Won’t your creditors rise up suddenly? Won’t those who cause you to tremble wake up? You will become plunder for them. 8 Because you robbed many countries, all those who are left among the nations will rob you. You have shed human blood and committed violence against the land, the cities, and all the people who live in them.

9 Woe to the person who piles up dishonest income for his household, in order to raise his nest up high, to deliver himself from disaster. 10 By wiping out many nations, you have planned shame for your own house. You have sinned against your own life. 11 So the stones in the walls will cry out, and the wooden rafters will answer, 12 “Woe to the one who builds a town with bloodshed and establishes a town with injustice.”

13 Be sure of this: The Lord of Armies has determined that the things for which the peoples of the world labor are only fuel for the fire, and that the nations tire themselves out with nothing to show for it. 14 So the earth will be as filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters that cover the sea.

15 Woe to the person who gives intoxicating drinks to his neighbors, forcing them to drink from his rage, [1] and making them drunk so that he can look at their nakedness. 16 You will be filled with shame instead of honor. Yes, you yourself will drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you, and complete disgrace will cover your glory.

17 You will be overwhelmed by the violence you have committed against Lebanon. Your devastation of the animals will terrify you, [2] because you shed human blood and did violence to the land, to the town, and to its inhabitants.

18 What benefit is provided by a carved idol? It was hewn by its maker. What good is a cast statue? It teaches lies. Why would the maker trust his own creation? He makes useless gods that cannot speak. 19 Woe to him who says to a hunk of wood, “Wake up!” or who says, “Get up!” to a stone that cannot speak. Can that thing be your teacher? Although it is covered with gold and silver, there is no life in it at all.

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let the whole earth be silent before him.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Habakkuk 1 – 2:5 (EHV)

1 The threatening oracle which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help, but you do not listen?

5 Look at the nations and pay attention! Be completely dumbfounded, because I will do something in your lifetime that you will not believe, even though you are warned ahead of time. 6 Watch, I am raising up the Chaldeans, [2] that savage, reckless nation. They will sweep across the whole width of the earth, seizing lands and homes that do not belong to them. 7 They are frightening and terrifying. They invent their own standard of justice and their own values. 8 Their horses are quicker than leopards and fiercer than wolves that prowl at night. Their war horses come galloping. Their war horses come from far away. They fly like vultures [3] swooping down to devour. 9 All of them come to commit violence. Their hordes blow by like the desert wind [4] and sweep up prisoners like sand. 10 They mock kings, and rulers are subjected to scorn. They laugh at every fortified city. They heap up siege ramps and capture cities. 11 But then the wind blows and passes over them, [5] and they will bear their guilt—these men whose own strength is their god.

12 Are you not from ancient times, O Lord?

1 I will stand at my watch post and station myself on the city wall. I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer he will give to my complaint. [9]

2 Then the Lord answered me. He said:

Record the vision and write it plainly on tablets so that a herald may run with it.

3 Indeed, the vision is waiting for the appointed time. It longs for fulfillment and will not prove false. If it seems slow in coming, wait for it, because it will certainly come and will not be delayed.

4 Look, his soul is puffed up and is not righteous within him [10] —but the righteous one will live by his faith. [11] 5 Indeed, wine [12] betrays that arrogant and restless one, because he is as greedy as the grave, and like death he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations and collects all the peoples to himself.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Nahum 2 & 3 (EHV)

1 The enemy who will scatter you is advancing against you! Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Prepare for battle! Muster all your great strength! 2 For the Lord is about to restore the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, even though their enemies have plundered them completely and have destroyed their vines.

3 The shields of the mighty warriors are dyed red.

7 She is stripped and is led away.

8 Nineveh [5] was like a pool of water from her beginning, [6]

9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!

10 Destruction, devastation, and desolation!

11 What has become of the lions’ lair and the feeding place for young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion’s cub prowled with nothing to fear? 12 The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed and strangled prey to provide food for his lionesses. He filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

13 Beware! I am against you, declares the Lord of Armies. I will burn up your chariots in smoke. The sword will devour your young lions. You will no longer ravage the land. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.

1 Woe to the city of bloodshed! She is full of lies. She is filled with plunder. She is never without victims.

2 The crack of a whip! The clatter of wheels! Galloping horses and bouncing chariots! 3 Horsemen charging! Glittering swords! Flashing spears! Many wounded! Piles of carcasses! There is no end to the corpses—so many that people stumble over them.

4 All this is because of the many promiscuous deeds of the prostitute, a beautiful and pleasing mistress of all kinds of sorcery, [7] who sells nations into slavery with her promiscuity and clans of people with her sorcery.

5 Beware! I am against you, declares the Lord of Armies. I will strip off your clothes! I will expose your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms. 6 I will pelt you with filth. [8] I will treat you with contempt. I will make you a public spectacle. 7 Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust and say, “Nineveh has been devastated! Who will express grief for her? Where can I find someone to comfort you?”

8 Are you better [9] than Thebes? [10] She was located on the banks of the Nile. The waters surrounded her. Her strength was the sea, and her walls were the water. 9 Cush and Egypt had limitless strength. Put and the Libyans were among her allies. 10 Yet even she went into exile. Even her infants were smashed to pieces on every street corner. They cast lots to win her dignitaries. All her great men were bound with chains.

11 You too will be drunk and will hide yourself. You too will seek refuge from the enemy.

12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees with ripe fruit. If they are shaken, their figs will fall right into the mouth of the one who eats them. 13 Look! The troops among you are women in the face of your enemies. [11] The gates of your land will be wide open. Fire will consume the bars of your gates.

14 Draw water to prepare yourselves for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!

15 There the fire will consume you. There the sword will cut you down. It will devour you as a swarm of grasshoppers would, even if you heap up your numbers like swarms of grasshoppers and locusts. 16 You have increased your merchants so that they are more than the stars of heaven! But they are like grasshoppers, which spread out and fly away. 17 Your courtiers are like locusts. Your field marshals are like swarming locusts! They camp in the walls on a cold day. Yet when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.

18 King of Assyria, your shepherds are drowsy! Your powerful men slumber! Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there are none left to gather together. [12]

19 There is no healing for your wound. Your injury is fatal! All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy, for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty!

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Nahum 1 (EHV)

1 A threatening oracle against Nineveh.

The book of the vision of Nahum from Elkosh.

2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

    He marches out in the whirlwind and in the storm.

7 The Lord is good.

9 No matter what you plot against the Lord, he will destroy your plot completely. Disaster will not need to strike them twice, 10 because like tangled thorns, like the liquor of drunkards, like fully dried stubble, they will be consumed.

11 Someone who plots evil against the Lord has gone out from you, but his wicked plans are worthless. 12 This is what the Lord says. Even though they are at full strength and are numerous, nevertheless they are sure to be cut off, and they will disappear. Even though I have humbled you, I will not humble you any longer. 13 Now I will break their yoke from your neck. I will tear apart the shackles that are on you.

14 The Lord has issued a decree against you: There will be no descendants to carry on your name. I will put an end to the carved idols and molten images in the temple of your gods. I will dig your grave because you are cursed. [1]

15 Look! A herald is coming over the mountain to proclaim this good news:

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Zephaniah 3:8 – 3:20 (EHV)

8 So wait for me, declares the Lord, until the day that I rise up to plunder. For I am determined to gather the nations, to assemble the kingdoms, and to pour out my indignation upon them and all my furious anger. All the earth will be consumed with the fire of my zeal.

9 I will purify the lips of the people so that they all call on the name of the Lord and serve him side by side. 10 From beyond the rivers of Cush, [1] my worshippers, my scattered people, will bring offerings to me. 11 In that day you will no longer bear the shame of your rebellions against me. Then I will remove the proud boasters from among you, and you will never again be arrogant on my holy hill. 12 But I will leave among you the people who are humble and weak. They will seek refuge in the name of the Lord. 13 The Israelites who remain will no longer act unjustly. They will not lie, and a deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth. Instead, they will graze peacefully like sheep and lie down. No one will terrify them.

14 Sing out, daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, you daughter of Jerusalem. 15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you. He has turned back your enemy. Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst! You no longer need to fear disaster. 16 In that day Jerusalem will be told, “Do not be afraid, O Zion. Do not give up. 17 The Lord your God is with you as a hero who will save you. He takes great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. [2] He will rejoice over you with singing.”

18 I will bring back those among you who grieve over the loss of the appointed feasts, those for whom the loss was a burden and a disgrace. [3] 19 Look, at that time I will deal with those who mistreated you. I will rescue the lame and gather together the scattered. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they were put to shame. 20 At that time I will bring you in. At that time I will gather you. I will give you a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, declares the Lord.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Zephaniah 2:1 – 3:7 (EHV)

1 Gather yourselves together; yes, gather together, you shameless [1] nation, 2 before the decree takes effect, before the day blows by like chaff, before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you. 3 Seek the Lord, all you humble people of the earth who have carried out his commands. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. Maybe then you will be sheltered in the day of the Lord’s anger.

4 Yes, Gaza will be deserted, and Ashkelon will be desolate. Ashdod’s people will be driven out by noon, and Ekron will be uprooted. 5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Kerethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines. I will destroy you so that no one is left alive! 6 The seacoast will become pastureland, with shelters for shepherds and sheep pens for flocks. 7 It will become the possession of those who remain from the house of Judah. Their flocks will pasture there. In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening, because the Lord their God will take care of them. He will restore their fortunes.

8 I have heard the taunts from Moab and the insults from the Ammonites as they have taunted my people and made proud claims against their territory. 9 Therefore as I live, declares the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, Moab will become like Sodom, and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah, a patch of ground overgrown with weeds and a salt pit [2] that is desolate forever. The surviving remnant of my people will plunder them, and the remnant of my nation will take possession of their land. 10 This is what they will get for their pride, because they have taunted and talked arrogantly against the people of the Lord of Armies. 11 The Lord will be terrifying to them, when he will starve [3] all the gods of the earth. Then all the distant nations will bow down to him, each of them in their own country.

12 You Cushites, [4] you also will die by my sword.

13 Then he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria. He will make Nineveh desolate, dry like the wilderness. 14 Flocks and herds will lie down there, with all sorts of other creatures. Screech owls and hedgehogs [5] will live among its columns. Owls will hoot through the windows. Rubble will cover the thresholds. Even the cedar beams will be exposed. 15 This was the smug city that lived securely, that said to herself, “I am all there is. There are none that compare to me.” What a heap of ruins she has become, a place for wild animals to lie down! Everyone who passes by taunts her and shakes his fist.

3 Woe to the filthy, [6] foul city, the city of oppressors. 2 She does not listen. She does not accept correction. She does not even trust the Lord or draw near to her God. 3 The officials within her are like roaring lions. Her judges are like hungry wolves in the evening that completely devour their prey by morning. 4 Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men. Her priests have profaned what is holy. They have committed violence against the law.

5 The Lord in her midst is just. He does no wrong. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He does not fail. But those who are unjust are shameless.

6 I have cut off nations. Their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate, with no one passing by. Their cities are laid waste, with no one living there. 7 I said, “Certainly you will fear me. You will accept correction so that your dwelling place will not be destroyed by everything I have threatened.” But they eagerly sinned in everything they did.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Zephaniah 1 (EHV)

1 This is the word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

2 I will completely sweep away everything from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. 3 I will take away man and beast. I will take away the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the stumbling blocks [1] of the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth, declares the Lord.

4 I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, as well as the name of the pagan priests, along with the regular priests. [2] 5 I will also cut off those who worship on their rooftops, bowing down to the armies in the heavens, [3] and those who worship by swearing to the Lord, and yet they also swear by Milcom. [4] 6 I will also cut off those who turn away from following the Lord, those who have not sought the Lord or inquired of him.

7 Keep silent before the Lord God, for the Day of the Lord is at hand. Yes, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated those who will attend it. 8 This is what will take place on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice: I will deal with the officials and the king’s sons and with all those who wear foreign clothing. 9 In the same day I will also deal with all who leap over the threshold, [5] who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit.

10 On that day, declares the Lord, there will be crying from the Fish Gate and wailing from the Second Quarter and the sound of a great crashing from the hills. 11 Wail, you who sit in the marketplace, [] for all the merchants are destroyed. All those who weigh out silver will be cut off.

12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, to deal with the men who are complacent, like wine resting on its dregs, who say in their hearts, “The Lord will not do anything good. Neither will he do anything bad.” 13 Therefore their wealth will become plunder, and their houses a ruin. They will build houses but never live in them. They will plant vineyards, but they will not drink the wine.

14 The great Day of the Lord is near. It is near and coming very quickly. Listen! The sound of the Day of the Lord! The cry of the warrior is bitter. [7] 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and total destruction, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 a day for the ram’s horn and for the battle cry against the fortified cities and against the high towers.

17 I will bring distress upon all people, so that they walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. That is why their blood will be poured out like dust, and their bowels will be spread like manure. 18 Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. Instead, the whole earth will be consumed by the fire of his jealousy, because he will make an end—yes, a terrifying end of all who dwell on the earth.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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