Nahum 3, Zephaniah 1, Acts 18 - 19, Psalm 90

Woe to Nineveh

3^aWoe to the city of ¹bloodshed, completely full of deception and pillage;Her prey never departs.²The ^asound of the whip,And the sound of the rumbling of the wheel,Galloping horses,And ¹bounding chariots!³Horsemen charging,And swords flaming, and ^aspears flashing,^bMany slain, a mass of corpses,And ^cthere is no end to dead bodies—They stumble over ¹the dead bodies!⁴All because of the ^amany harlotries of the harlot,The charming one, the ^bmistress of sorceries,Who ^csells nations by her harlotriesAnd families by her sorceries.⁵“Behold, ^aI am against you,” declares Yahweh of hosts;“And I will ^buncover your skirts over your faceAnd ^cshow to the nations your nakednessAnd to the kingdoms your disgrace.⁶“I will ^athrow detestable filth on youAnd ^bdisplay you as a wicked foolAnd set you up as a ^cspectacle.⁷“And it will be that all who see youWill flee from you and say,‘Nineveh is devastated!^aWho will console her?’Where will I seek comforters for you?”⁸Are you better than ¹^,^aNo-amon,Which sits along the ^bwaters of the Nile,With water surrounding her,Whose rampart was ²the sea,Whose wall consisted of ³the sea?⁹¹^,^aEthiopia was her might,And Egypt too, without end.^bPut and ^cLubim were among ²her helpers.¹⁰Yet she ^abecame an exile;She went into captivity;Also her ^binfants were dashed to pieces^cAt the head of every street;They ^dcast lots for her honorable men,And all her great men were bound with fetters.¹¹You too will become ^adrunk;You will be ^bhidden.You too will search for a strong defense from the enemy.¹²All your fortifications are ^afig trees with ¹^,^bripe fruit—When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth.¹³Behold, your people are ^awomen in your midst!The gates of your land are ^bopened wide to your enemies;Fire consumes your gate bars.¹⁴^aDraw for yourself water for the siege!^bStrengthen your fortifications!Go into the clay and tread the mortar!¹Take hold of the brick mold!¹⁵There, ^afire will consume you;The sword will cut you down;It will ^bconsume you as the locust does.Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.¹⁶You have increased your ^atraders more than the stars of heaven—The creeping locust ¹strips and flies away.¹⁷Your ¹^,^aguardsmen are like the swarming locust.Your ^bmarshals are like a locust-swarmEncamping in the stone walls on a cold day.The sun rises, and they flee,And the place where they are is not known.¹⁸Your shepherds are ^asleeping, O ^bking of Assyria;Your ^cmighty ones are ¹lying down.Your people are ^dscattered on the mountains,And there is no one to regather them.¹⁹There is ^ano relief for your breakdown,Your ^bwound is incurable.All who hear the report about youWill ^cclap their hands over you,For on whom has not your evil passed continually?

Yahweh Will End All Things

1The word of ¹Yahweh which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of ^aJosiah son of ^bAmon, king of Judah:

²“I will completely ^aend all thingsFrom the face of the ground,” declares Yahweh.³“I will end ^aman and beast;I will end the ^bbirds of the skyAnd the fish of the seaAnd the ¹^,^cruins along with the wicked;And I will cut off man from the face of the ground,” declares Yahweh.⁴“So I will ^astretch out My hand against JudahAnd against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.And I will ^bcut off the remnant of Baal from this place,And the names of the ^cidolatrous priests along with the priests,⁵And those who worship on the ^ahousetops the host of heaven,And those who worship and ^bswear to Yahweh and yet swear by ¹^,^cMilcom,⁶And those who have ^aturned back from following Yahweh,And those who have ^bnot sought Yahweh or inquired of Him.”

The Day of Yahweh Is Near

⁷¹^,^aBe silent before Lord Yahweh!For the ^bday of Yahweh is near,For Yahweh has prepared a ^csacrifice;He has ^dset apart His guests.⁸“Then it will be on the day of Yahweh’s sacrificeThat I will ^apunish the princes, the king’s sons,And all who clothe themselves with ^bforeign garments.⁹“And I will punish on that day all who leap on the temple threshold,Who fill the house of their ¹Lord with ^aviolence and deceit.¹⁰“And it will be in that day,” declares Yahweh,“That there will be the sound of a cry from the ^aFish GateAnd a wail from the ¹^,^bSecond QuarterAnd a great destruction from the ^chills.¹¹“Wail, O inhabitants of the ¹Mortar,For all the ²people of ^aCanaan will be silenced;All who weigh out ^bsilver will be cut off.¹²“And it will be at that timeThat I will ^asearch Jerusalem with lamps,And I will punish the menWho are ¹^,^bstagnant in spirit,Who say in their hearts,‘Yahweh will ^cnot do good or evil!’¹³“And it will be that their wealth will become ^aspoilAnd their houses desolate;Indeed, ^bthey will build houses but not inhabit them,And plant vineyards but not drink their wine.”¹⁴Near is the ^agreat ^bday of Yahweh,Near and coming very quickly;O the sound, the day of Yahweh!¹In it the mighty man ^ccries out bitterly.¹⁵A day of fury is that day,A day of ^atrouble and distress,A day of destruction and desolation,A day of ^bdarkness and thick darkness,A day of clouds and dense gloom,¹⁶A day of ^atrumpet and loud shoutingAgainst the ^bfortified citiesAnd the high corner towers.¹⁷I will bring ^adistress on menSo that they will walk ^blike the blindBecause they have sinned against Yahweh;And their ^cblood will be poured out like dustAnd their ^dflesh like dung.¹⁸Neither their ^asilver nor their goldWill be able to deliver themOn the day of the fury of Yahweh;And ^ball the earth will be devouredIn the fire of His jealousy,For He will ^cmake a complete destruction,Indeed a terrifying one,Of all the inhabitants of the earth.

In Corinth

18After these things he departed ^aAthens and went to ^bCorinth. ²And he found a Jew named ^aAquila, a native of ^bPontus, and his wife ^cPriscilla, who recently came from ^dItaly because ^eClaudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, ³and because he was of the same trade, he was staying with them and ^athey were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. ⁴And he was reasoning ^ain the synagogue every ^bSabbath and trying to persuade both ^cJews and Greeks.

⁵But when ^aSilas and Timothy ^bcame down from ^cMacedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly ^dbearing witness to the Jews that ^eJesus is the ¹Christ. ⁶But when they resisted and blasphemed, he ^ashook out his garments and said to them, “Your ^bblood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go ^cto the Gentiles.” ⁷Then he left there and went to the house of a man named ¹Titius Justus, a ^aGod-fearer, whose house was next to the synagogue. ⁸^aAnd Crispus, ^bthe leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord ^cwith all his household, and many of the ^dCorinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. ⁹And the Lord said to Paul in the night by ^aa vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent; ¹⁰for I am with you, and no man will lay a hand on you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” ¹¹And he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²But while Gallio was ^aproconsul of ^bAchaia, ^cthe Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before ^dthe judgment seat, ¹³saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to ^athe law.” ¹⁴But when Paul was about to ^aopen his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; ¹⁵but if there are ^aquestions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I am not willing to be a judge of these matters.” ¹⁶And he drove them away from ^athe judgment seat. ¹⁷And they all took hold of ^aSosthenes, ^bthe leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of ^cthe judgment seat. But Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.

Priscilla, Aquila, and Apollos

¹⁸And Paul, having remained many days longer, ^atook leave of ^bthe brothers and put out to sea for ^cSyria, and with him were ^dPriscilla and ^eAquila. In ^fCenchreae ¹he ^ghad his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow. ¹⁹And they arrived at ^aEphesus, and he left them there. Now he himself entered ^bthe synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. ²⁰When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent, ²¹but ^ataking leave of them and saying, “I will return to you again ^bif God wills,” he set sail from ^cEphesus.

²²And when he had landed at ^aCaesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and went down to ^bAntioch. ²³And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the ^aGalatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

²⁴Now a Jew named ^aApollos, an ^bAlexandrian by birth, ¹an eloquent man, arrived at ^cEphesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. ²⁵This man had been instructed in ^athe way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with ^bthe baptism of John; ²⁶and ¹he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when ^aPriscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him ^bthe way of God more accurately. ²⁷And when he wanted to go across to ^aAchaia, ^bthe brothers encouraged him and wrote to ^cthe disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly ¹helped those who had believed through grace, ²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating ^aby the Scriptures that ^bJesus is the ¹Christ.

Paul in Ephesus

19Now it happened that while ^aApollos was at ^bCorinth, Paul passed through the ^cupper regions and came to ^dEphesus and found some disciples. ²And he said to them, “^aDid you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, ^bwe have not even heard if the Holy Spirit is being received.” ³And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “^aInto John’s baptism.” ⁴Then Paul said, “^aJohn baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people ^bto believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” ⁵And when they heard this, they were ^abaptized ¹in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶And when Paul had ^alaid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began ^bspeaking with tongues and ^cprophesying. ⁷Now there were in all about twelve men.

⁸And after he entered ^athe synagogue, he continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them ^babout the kingdom of God. ⁹But when ^asome were becoming hardened and were not believing, speaking evil of ^bthe Way before the multitude, he left them and took away ^cthe disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. ¹⁰This took place for ^atwo years, so that all who lived in ¹^,^bAsia heard ^cthe word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Miracles in Ephesus

¹¹And God was doing ^aextraordinary ¹miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹²^aso that cloths or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and ^bthe evil spirits went out. ¹³But also some of the Jewish ^aexorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I implore you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴Now seven sons of one named Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them, subdued all of them, and utterly prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in ^aEphesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. ¹⁸Also, many of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. ¹⁹And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and were burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand ¹^,^apieces of silver. ²⁰So ¹^,^athe word of the Lord ^bwas growing mightily and prevailing.

Riots in Ephesus

²¹Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the ¹Spirit to ^ago to Jerusalem ^bafter he had passed through ^cMacedonia and ^dAchaia, saying, “After I have been there, ^eI must also see Rome.” ²²And having sent into ^aMacedonia two of ^bthose who ministered to him, ^cTimothy and ^dErastus, he himself stayed in ¹^,^eAsia for a while.

²³Now about that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning ^athe Way. ²⁴For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of ¹Artemis, ^awas bringing no little ²business to the craftsmen; ²⁵these he gathered together with the workers of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is from this business. ²⁶“And you see and hear that not only in ^aEphesus, but in almost all of ^bAsia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable crowd, saying that ^cthings made with hands are not gods. ²⁷“And not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess ¹Artemis be considered as worthless and that she, whom all of ^aAsia and ^bthe ²world worship, is even about to be brought down from her majesty.”

²⁸When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, “Great is ¹Artemis of the ^aEphesians!” ²⁹And the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed ¹with one accord into the theater, dragging along ^aGaius and ^bAristarchus, Paul’s traveling ^ccompanions from ^dMacedonia. ³⁰And when Paul wanted to go into the ¹assembly, ^athe disciples would not let him. ³¹Also some of the ¹Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to ²venture into the theater. ³²^aSo then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the ¹meeting was in confusion and the majority did not know ²for what reason they had come together. ³³And some of the crowd ¹concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having ^amotioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the ²assembly. ³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single cry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ³⁵Now after calming the crowd, the city clerk *said, “Men of ^aEphesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven? ³⁶“So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. ³⁷“For you have brought these men here who are neither ^arobbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸“So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are in session and ¹^,^aproconsuls are available; let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹“But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the ¹lawful meeting. ⁴⁰“For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no cause for which we can give as an account for this disorderly gathering.” ⁴¹After saying this he dismissed the meeting.

BOOK 4

From Everlasting to Everlasting, You Are God

A Prayer of ¹Moses, the man of God.

Lord, You have been our ²^,^adwelling place from generation to generation.²Before ^athe mountains were born¹Or You ^bbrought forth the earth and the world,Even ^cfrom everlasting to everlasting, You are God.³You ^aturn man back into dustAnd say, “Return, O sons of men.”⁴For ^aa thousand years in Your sightAre like ^byesterday when it passes by,¹Or as a ^cwatch in the night.⁵You ^ahave ¹swept them away like a flood, they ²^,^bfall asleep;In the morning they are like ^cgrass which ³sprouts anew.⁶In the morning it ^ablossoms and ¹sprouts anew;Toward evening it ^bwithers away and ^cdries up.⁷For we have been ^aconsumed by Your angerAnd by Your wrath we have been ¹dismayed.⁸You have ^aset our iniquities before You,Our ^bsecret sins in the light of Your presence.⁹For ^aall our days have declined in Your fury;We have finished our years like a ¹sigh.¹⁰As for the days of our ¹life, ²they contain seventy years,Or if due to might, ^aeighty years,Yet their pride is but ^blabor and wickedness;For soon it is gone and we ^cfly away.¹¹Who knows the ^apower of Your angerAnd Your fury, according to the ^bfear ¹that is due You?¹²¹So ^ateach us to number our days,That we may ²^,^bpresent to You a heart of wisdom.¹³^aReturn, O Yahweh; ^bhow long will it be?And ¹be ^csorry for Your slaves.¹⁴O ^asatisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,That we may ^bsing for joy and be glad all our days.¹⁵^aMake us glad ¹according to the days You have afflicted us,And the ^byears we have seen ²evil.¹⁶Let Your ^awork appear to Your slavesAnd Your ^bmajesty ¹to their sons.¹⁷Let the ^afavor of the Lord our God be upon us;And ^bestablish for us the work of our hands;Establish the work of our hands.