Habakkuk 2:6

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

Wealth gained dishonestly dwindles away, but he who gathers by hand makes it grow.

As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.

Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.

Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.

A faithful man is rich with blessings; but one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished.

Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves, walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have exhausted themselves, and profit nothing. You will be ashamed of your fruits, because of Yahweh’s fierce anger.”

“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and shake his head.

Yahweh of Armies says: “The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they will be weary.”

“ ‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “ ‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”

Whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace the same hour.”

You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also?

Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”

“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.

and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;

not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.

You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

He took up his parable, and said, “Balaam the son of Beor says, the man whose eyes are open says;

because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward.

that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?

The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.

For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings.

The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,

Getting treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death.

Don’t exploit the poor, because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court;

Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn’t know that poverty waits for him.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish.

You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name,

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.

“Edom will become an astonishment. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and will hiss at all its plagues.

and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’

An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes.

While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from the sky, saying, “O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: ‘The kingdom has departed from you.

For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.

The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold, “The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks.

Tyre built herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver like the dust, and fine gold like the mire of the streets.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints:

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving,

Pray without ceasing.

that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance:

Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;

He took up his parable, and said, “From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.

If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight in transgressing his covenant,

You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.

Job again took up his parable, and said,

Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,

Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;

The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word.

I will weep and wail for the mountains, and lament for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone.

I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

Because of Yahweh’s wrath she won’t be inhabited, but she will be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

You will die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers; for I have spoken it,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”

They will not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

Then these men were bound in their pants, their tunics, and their mantles, and their other clothes, and were cast into the middle of the burning fiery furnace.

I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’ ”

Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established;

He took up his parable, and said, “Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.

Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff.

When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed.

Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

Yahweh, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?

An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning, won’t be blessed in the end.

Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city.

He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.

A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;’

The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword.

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.

Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?

He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’

But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.