A Hymn of Praise

¹Lord, you are my God; I will honor you and praise your name. You have done amazing things; you have faithfully carried out the plans you made long ago.

²You have turned cities into ruins and destroyed their fortifications. The palaces which our enemies built are gone forever.

³The people of powerful nations will praise you; you will be feared in the cities of cruel nations.

⁴The poor and the helpless have fled to you and have been safe in times of trouble. You give them shelter from storms and shade from the burning heat. Cruel enemies attack like a winter storm,

⁵like drought in a dry land. But you, Lord, have silenced our enemies; you silence the shouts of cruel people, as a cloud cools a hot day.

God Prepares a Banquet

⁶Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world—a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine.

⁷Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations.

⁸The Sovereign Lord will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord himself has spoken.

⁹When it happens, everyone will say, “He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is the Lord! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us.”

God Will Punish Moab

¹⁰The Lord will protect Mount Zion, but the people of Moab will be trampled down the way straw is trampled in manure.

¹¹They will reach out their hands as if they were trying to swim, but God will humiliate them, and their hands will sink helplessly.

¹²He will destroy the fortresses of Moab with their high walls and bring them tumbling down into the dust.

God Will Give His People Victory

¹A day is coming when the people will sing this song in the land of Judah: Our city is strong! God himself defends its walls!

²Open the city gates and let the faithful nation enter, the nation whose people do what is right.

³You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever; he will always protect us.

⁵He has humbled those who were proud; he destroyed the strong city they lived in, and sent its walls crashing into the dust.

⁶Those who were oppressed walk over it now and trample it under their feet.

⁷Lord, you make the path smooth for good people; the road they travel is level.

⁸We follow your will and put our hope in you; you are all that we desire.

⁹At night I long for you with all my heart; when you judge the earth and its people, they will all learn what justice is.

¹⁰Even though you are kind to the wicked, they never learn to do what is right. Even here in a land of righteous people they still do wrong; they refuse to recognize your greatness.

¹¹Your enemies do not know that you will punish them. Lord, put them to shame and let them suffer; let them suffer the punishment you have prepared. Show them how much you love your people.

¹²You will give us prosperity, Lord; everything that we achieve is the result of what you do.

¹³Lord our God, we have been ruled by others, but you alone are our Lord.

¹⁴Now they are dead and will not live again; their ghosts will not rise, for you have punished them and destroyed them. No one remembers them any more.

¹⁵Lord, you have made our nation grow, enlarging its territory on every side; and this has brought you honor.

¹⁶You punished your people, Lord, and in anguish they prayed to you.

¹⁷You, Lord, have made us cry out, as a woman in labor cries out in pain.

¹⁸We were in pain and agony, but we gave birth to nothing. We have won no victory for our land; we have accomplished nothing.

¹⁹Those of our people who have died will live again! Their bodies will come back to life. All those sleeping in their graves will wake up and sing for joy. As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth, so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead.

Judgment and Restoration

²⁰Go into your houses, my people, and shut the door behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until God's anger is over.

²¹The Lord is coming from his heavenly dwelling place to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The murders that were secretly committed on the earth will be revealed, and the ground will no longer hide those who have been killed.

¹On that day the Lord will use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monster that lives in the sea.

²On that day the Lord will say of his pleasant vineyard,

³“I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it.

⁴I am no longer angry with the vineyard. If there were thorns and briers to fight against, I would burn them up completely.

⁵But if the enemies of my people want my protection, let them make peace with me. Yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶In the days to come the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, will take root like a tree, and they will blossom and bud. The earth will be covered with the fruit they produce.

⁷Israel has not been punished by the Lord as severely as its enemies nor lost as many people.

⁸The Lord punished his people by sending them into exile. He took them away with a cruel wind from the east.

⁹But Israel's sins will be forgiven only when the stones of pagan altars are ground up like chalk, and no more incense altars or symbols of the goddess Asherah are left.

¹⁰The fortified city lies in ruins. It is deserted like an empty wilderness. It has become a pasture for cattle, where they can rest and graze.

¹¹The branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.

¹²On that day, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, the Lord will gather his people one by one, as threshing separates the wheat from the chaff.

¹³When that day comes, a trumpet will be blown to call back from Assyria and Egypt all the Israelites who are in exile there. They will come and worship the Lord in Jerusalem, on his sacred hill.

A Prayer of Habakkuk

¹This is a prayer of the prophet Habakkuk:

²O Lord, I have heard of what you have done, and I am filled with awe. Now do again in our times the great deeds you used to do. Be merciful, even when you are angry.

³God is coming again from Edom; the holy God is coming from the hills of Paran. His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise.

⁴He comes with the brightness of lightning; light flashes from his hand, there where his power is hidden.

⁵He sends disease before him and commands death to follow him.

⁶When he stops, the earth shakes; at his glance the nations tremble. The eternal mountains are shattered; the everlasting hills sink down, the hills where he walked in ancient times.

⁷I saw the people of Cushan afraid and the people of Midian tremble.

⁸Was it the rivers that made you angry, Lord? Was it the sea that made you furious? You rode upon the clouds; the storm cloud was your chariot, as you brought victory to your people.

⁹You got ready to use your bow, ready to shoot your arrows. Your lightning split open the earth.

¹⁰When the mountains saw you, they trembled; water poured down from the skies. The waters under the earth roared, and their waves rose high.

¹¹At the flash of your speeding arrows and the gleam of your shining spear, the sun and the moon stood still.

¹²You marched across the earth in anger; in fury you trampled the nations.

¹³You went out to save your people, to save your chosen king. You struck down the leader of the wicked and completely destroyed his followers.

¹⁴Your arrows pierced the commander of his army when it came like a storm to scatter us, gloating like those who secretly oppress the poor.

¹⁵You trampled the sea with your horses, and the mighty waters foamed.

¹⁶I hear all this, and I tremble; my lips quiver with fear. My body goes limp, and my feet stumble beneath me. I will quietly wait for the time to come when God will punish those who attack us.

¹⁷Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty,

¹⁸I will still be joyful and glad, because the Lord God is my savior.

¹⁹The Sovereign Lord gives me strength. He makes me sure-footed as a deer and keeps me safe on the mountains.

⁵Honesty makes a good person's life easier, but the wicked will cause their own downfall.

⁶Righteousness rescues those who are honest, but those who can't be trusted are trapped by their own greed.

⁷When the wicked die, their hope dies with them. Confidence placed in riches comes to nothing.

⁸The righteous are protected from trouble; it comes to the wicked instead.