The LORD's Avenging Wrath

11 A report on the problem of Nineveh, the way God gave Nahum of Elkosh to see it:

2 God is serious business. He won't be trifled with. He avenges his foes. He stands up against his enemies, fierce and raging. 3 But God doesn't lose his temper. He's powerful, but it's a patient power. Still, no one gets by with anything. Sooner or later, everyone pays. Tornadoes and hurricanes are the wake of his passage, Storm clouds are the dust he shakes off his feet. 4 He yells at the sea: It dries up. All the rivers run dry. The Bashan and Carmel mountains shrivel, the Lebanon orchards shrivel. 5 Mountains quake in their roots, hills dissolve into mud flats. Earth shakes in fear of God. The whole world's in a panic. 6 Who can face such towering anger? Who can stand up to this fierce rage? His anger spills out like a river of lava, his fury shatters boulders. 7 God is good, a hiding place in tough times. He recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help, 8 No matter how desperate the trouble. But cozy islands of escape He wipes right off the map. No one gets away from God.

9 Why waste time conniving against God? He's putting an end to all such scheming. For troublemakers, no second chances. 10 Like a pile of dry brush, Soaked in oil, they'll go up in flames. A Think Tank for Lies 11 Nineveh's an anthill of evil plots against God, A think tank for lies that seduce and betray. 12 And God has something to say about all this: "Even though you're on top of the world, With all the applause and all the votes, you'll be mowed down flat. "I've afflicted you, Judah, true, but I won't afflict you again. 13 From now on I'm taking the yoke from your neck and splitting it up for kindling. I'm cutting you free from the ropes of your bondage." 14 God's orders on Nineveh: "You're the end of the line. It's all over with Nineveh. I'm gutting your temple. Your gods and goddesses go in the trash. I'm digging your grave. It's an unmarked grave. You're nothing - no, you're less than nothing!"

The Tidings of Nineveh's Fall

15 Look! Striding across the mountains - a messenger bringing the latest good news: peace! A holiday, Judah! Celebrate! Worship and recommit to God! No more worries about this enemy. This one is history. Close the books.

21 he juggernaut's coming! Post guards, lay in supplies. Get yourselves together, get ready for the big battle. 2 God has restored the Pride of Jacob, the Pride of Israel. Israel's lived through hard times. He's been to hell and back. 3 Weapons flash in the sun, the soldiers splendid in battle dress, Chariots burnished and glistening, ready to charge, A spiked forest of brandished spears, lethal on the horizon. 4 The chariots pour into the streets. They fill the public squares, Flaming like torches in the sun, like lightning darting and flashing. 5 The Assyrian king rallies his men, but they stagger and stumble. They run to the ramparts to stem the tide, but it's too late. 6 Soldiers pour through the gates. The palace is demolished. 7 Soon it's all over: Nineveh stripped, Nineveh doomed, Maids and slaves moaning like doves, beating their breasts. 8 Nineveh is a tub from which they've pulled the plug. Cries go up, "Do something! Do something!" but it's too late. Nineveh's soon empty - nothing. 9 Other cries come: "Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! A bonanza of plunder! Take everything you want!" 10 Doom! Damnation! Desolation! Hearts sink, knees fold, stomachs retch, faces blanch.

11 So, what happened to the famous and fierce Assyrian lion And all those cute Assyrian cubs? To the lion and lioness Cozy with their cubs, fierce and fearless? 12 To the lion who always returned from the hunt with fresh kills for lioness and cubs, The lion lair heaped with bloody meat, blood and bones for the royal lion feast?

The Utter Ruin of Nineveh

13 "Assyria, I'm your enemy," says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. "I'll torch your chariots. They'll go up in smoke. 'Lion Country' will be strewn with carcasses. The war business is over - you're out of work: You'll have no more wars to report, No more victories to announce. You're out of war work forever."

31 Doom to Murder City - full of lies, bursting with loot, addicted to violence! 2 Horns blaring, wheels clattering, horses rearing, chariots lurching, 3 Horsemen galloping, brandishing swords and spears, Dead bodies rotting in the street, corpses stacked like cordwood, Bodies in every gutter and alley, clogging every intersection! 4 And whores! Whores without end! Whore City, Fatally seductive, you're the Witch of Seduction, luring nations to their ruin with your evil spells. 5 "I'm your enemy, Whore Nineveh - I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! I'll strip you of your seductive silk robes and expose you on the world stage. I'll let the nations get their fill of the ugly truth of who you really are and have been all along. 6 I'll pelt you with dog dung and place you on a pedestal: 'Slut on Exhibit.' 7 Everyone who sees you will gag and say, 'Nineveh's a pigsty: What on earth did we ever see in her? Who would give her a second look? Ugh!'" Past the Point of No Return

8 Do you think you're superior to Egyptian Thebes, proudly invincible on the River Nile, Protected by the great River, walled in by the River, secure? 9 Ethiopia stood guard to the south, Egypt to the north. Put and Libya, strong friends, were ready to step in and help. 10 But you know what happened to her: The whole city was marched off to a refugee camp, Her babies smashed to death in public view on the streets, Her prize leaders auctioned off, her celebrities put in chain gangs. 11 Expect the same treatment, Nineveh. You'll soon be staggering like a bunch of drunks, Wondering what hit you, looking for a place to sleep it off. 12 All your forts are like peach trees, the lush peaches ripe, ready for the picking. One shake of the tree and they fall straight into hungry mouths. 13 Face it: Your warriors are wimps. You're sitting ducks. Your borders are gaping doors, inviting your enemies in. And who's to stop them? 14 Store up water for the siege. Shore up your defenses. Get down to basics: Work the clay and make bricks. 15 Sorry. Too late. Enemy fire will burn you up. Swords will cut you to pieces. You'll be chewed up as if by locusts. Yes, as if by locusts - a fitting fate, for you yourselves are a locust plague. 16 You've multiplied shops and shopkeepers - more buyers and sellers than stars in the sky! A plague of locusts, cleaning out the neighborhood and then flying off. 17 Your bureaucrats are locusts, your brokers and bankers are locusts. Early on, they're all at your service, full of smiles and promises, But later when you return with questions or complaints, you'll find they've flown off and are nowhere to be found. 18 King of Assyria! Your shepherd-leaders, in charge of caring for your people, Are busy doing everything else but. They're not doing their job, And your people are scattered and lost. There's no one to look after them. 19 You're past the point of no return. Your wound is fatal. When the story of your fate gets out, the whole world will applaud and cry "Encore!" Your cruel evil has seeped into every nook and cranny of the world. Everyone has felt it and suffered.

Habakkuk Complains of Injustice

11 The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it: 2 God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen? How many times do I have to yell, "Help! Murder! Police!" before you come to the rescue? 3 Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day? Anarchy and violence break out, quarrels and fights all over the place. 4 Law and order fall to pieces. Justice is a joke. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung and stand justice on its head. God Says, "Look!"

The Chaldeans Will Punish Judah

5 "Look around at the godless nations. Look long and hard. Brace yourself for a shock. Something's about to take place and you're going to find it hard to believe. 6 I'm about to raise up Babylonians to punish you, Babylonians, fierce and ferocious - World-conquering Babylon, grabbing up nations right and left, 7 A dreadful and terrible people, making up its own rules as it goes. 8 Their horses run like the wind, attack like bloodthirsty wolves. A stampede of galloping horses thunders out of nowhere. They descend like vultures circling in on carrion. 9 They're out to kill. Death is on their minds. They collect victims like squirrels gathering nuts. 10 They mock kings, poke fun at generals, Spit on forts, and leave them in the dust. 11 They'll all be blown away by the wind. Brazen in sin, they call strength their god." Why Is God Silent Now?

Habakkuk Remonstrates with the LORD

12 God, you're from eternity, aren't you? Holy God, we aren't going to die, are we? God, you chose Babylonians for your judgment work? Rock-Solid God, you gave them the job of discipline? 13 But you can't be serious! You can't condone evil! So why don't you do something about this? Why are you silent now? This outrage! Evil men swallow up the righteous and you stand around and watch! 14 You're treating men and women as so many fish in the ocean, Swimming without direction, swimming but not getting anywhere. 15 Then this evil Babylonian arrives and goes fishing. He pulls in a good catch. He catches his limit and fills his creel - a good day of fishing! He's happy! 16 He praises his rod and reel, piles his fishing gear on an altar and worships it! It's made his day, and he's going to eat well tonight! 17 Are you going to let this go on and on? Will you let this Babylonian fisherman Fish like a weekend angler, killing people as if they're nothing but fish?

The LORD's Answer to Habakkuk

21 What's God going to say to my questions? I'm braced for the worst. I'll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I'll wait to see what God says, how he'll answer my complaint. 2 And then God answered: "Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. 3 This vision-message is a witness pointing to what's coming. It aches for the coming - it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time. 4 "Look at that man, bloated by self-importance - full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive.

5 "Note well: Money deceives. The arrogant rich don't last. They are more hungry for wealth than the grave is for cadavers. Like death, they always want more, but the 'more' they get is dead bodies. They are cemeteries filled with dead nations, graveyards filled with corpses.

Woes on the Unrighteous

6 Don't give people like this a second thought. Soon the whole world will be taunting them: "'Who do you think you are - getting rich by stealing and extortion? How long do you think you can get away with this?' 7 Indeed, how long before your victims wake up, stand up and make you the victim? 8 You've plundered nation after nation. Now you'll get a taste of your own medicine. All the survivors are out to plunder you, a payback for all your murders and massacres. 9 "Who do you think you are - recklessly grabbing and looting, Living it up, acting like king of the mountain, acting above it all, above trials and troubles? 10 You've engineered the ruin of your own house. In ruining others you've ruined yourself. You've undermined your foundations, rotted out your own soul. 11 The bricks of your house will speak up and accuse you. The woodwork will step forward with evidence. 12 "Who do you think you are - building a town by murder, a city with crime? 13 Don't you know that God-of-the-Angel-Armies makes sure nothing comes of that but ashes, Makes sure the harder you work at that kind of thing, the less you are? 14 Meanwhile the earth fills up with awareness of God's glory as the waters cover the sea.

15 "Who do you think you are - inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties, Giving them too much to drink, roping them into your sexual orgies? 16 You thought you were having the time of your life. Wrong! It's a time of disgrace. All the time you were drinking, you were drinking from the cup of God's wrath. 17 You'll wake up holding your throbbing head, hung over - hung over from Lebanon violence, Hung over from animal massacres, hung over from murder and mayhem, From multiple violations of place and people. 18 "What's the use of a carved god so skillfully carved by its sculptor? What good is a fancy cast god when all it tells is lies? What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker who makes gods that can't even talk? 19 Who do you think you are - saying to a stick of wood, 'Wake up,' Or to a dumb stone, 'Get up'? Can they teach you anything about anything? There's nothing to them but surface. There's nothing on the inside. 20 "But oh! God is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone - a holy silence. Listen!"

Habakkuk's Prayer

31 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk, with orchestra: 2 God, I've heard what our ancestors say about you, and I'm stopped in my tracks, down on my knees. Do among us what you did among them. Work among us as you worked among them. And as you bring judgment, as you surely must, remember mercy.

3 God's on his way again, retracing the old salvation route, Coming up from the south through Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Skies are blazing with his splendor, his praises sounding through the earth, 4 His cloud-brightness like dawn, exploding, spreading, forked-lightning shooting from his hand - what power hidden in that fist! 5 Plague marches before him, pestilence at his heels! 6 He stops. He shakes Earth. He looks around. Nations tremble. The age-old mountains fall to pieces; ancient hills collapse like a spent balloon. The paths God takes are older than the oldest mountains and hills. 7 I saw everyone worried, in a panic: Old wilderness adversaries, Cushan and Midian, were terrified, hoping he wouldn't notice them. 8 God, is it River you're mad at? Angry at old River? Were you raging at Sea when you rode horse and chariot through to salvation? 9 You unfurled your bow and let loose a volley of arrows. You split Earth with rivers. 10 Mountains saw what was coming. They twisted in pain. Flood Waters poured in. Ocean roared and reared huge waves. 11 Sun and Moon stopped in their tracks. Your flashing arrows stopped them, your lightning-strike spears impaled them. 12 Angry, you stomped through Earth. Furious, you crushed the godless nations. 13 You were out to save your people, to save your specially chosen people. You beat the stuffing out of King Wicked, Stripped him naked from head to toe, 14 Set his severed head on his own spear and blew away his army. Scattered they were to the four winds - and ended up food for the sharks! 15 You galloped through the Sea on your horses, racing on the crest of the waves.

16 When I heard it, my stomach did flips. I stammered and stuttered. My bones turned to water. I staggered and stumbled. I sit back and wait for Doomsday to descend on our attackers. 17 Though the cherry trees don't blossom and the strawberries don't ripen, Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, 18 I'm singing joyful praise to God. I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. 19 Counting on God's Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I'm king of the mountain! (For congregational use, with a full orchestra.)