1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 How long, O Jehovah, shall I cry And You do not hear? I cry out to You, Violence! And You do not save.
3 Why do You cause me to see iniquity And look upon wrong? Indeed destruction and violence are before me; And there is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is ineffective, And justice never goes forth; For the wicked encompasses the righteous, Therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5 Look among the nations, and see, And be amazed, utterly amazed. For I am doing a work in your days Which you would not believe if it were told you.
6 For I am about to raise up the Chaldeans, That bitter and hasty nation That marches through the breadth of the earth To possess habitations that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their authority issue from themselves.
8 And their horses are swifter than leopards And more agile than the wolves of evening. And their horsemen prance about; Indeed their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle that hastens to devour.
9 All of them come to do violence; The set of their faces is forward, And they gather captives like sand.
10 Indeed they scoff at kings, And potentates are a derision to them; They deride every fortress, For they heap up dirt and take it.
11 Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass over And thus become guilty; this - their strength - is their god.
12 Are You not from everlasting, O Jehovah, My God, my Holy One? We will not die. O Jehovah, You have appointed them for judgment; And You, O Rock, have established them for correction.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil And who cannot look upon wrong, Why do You look upon them who deal treacherously And keep silent when the wicked man swallows up him who is more righteous than he?
14 And You make man like the fish of the sea, Like the creeping things, who have no one to rule for them.
15 They take all of them up with a hook; They drag them off in their net And gather them into their seine; So they rejoice and exult.
16 Therefore they offer sacrifices to their net And burn incense to their seine, For by them their portion is fat And their food is plenteous.
17 Will they then empty their net And continually slay the nations without sparing?
1 I will stand at my watch And station myself on the fortress, And I will watch to see what He will speak to me And what I will reply concerning my complaint.
2 Then Jehovah answered and said, Write the vision, and render it plainly upon tablets, That even he who runs by may read it.
3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, And it hastens toward the end and will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will surely come; it will not delay.
4 See, he who is puffed up, his soul is not upright within him, But the righteous one will live by his faith.
5 Furthermore his wine is treacherous:A boasting man, he does not abide at home, He who enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And is like death and cannot be satisfied, But gathers to himself all the nations And collects for himself all the peoples.
6 Will not all of these take up a parable against him, Indeed a mocking song and a riddle against him, and say, Woe to him who increases what is not his (For how long?) And who loads himself with the burden of pledges?
7 Will not those who bite you rise up suddenly, And those who shake you awake, And you will become booty to them?
8 Because you have plundered many nations; All the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, Because of the bloodshed of men and the violence done to the land, To the city, and to all the inhabitants in it.
9 Woe to him who by violence takes evil gain for his house, So as to place his nest on high That he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
10 You have devised shame against your own house By cutting off many peoples, And have sinned against your own soul.
11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer from the timber.
12 Woe to him who builds a city by bloodshed And establishes a town by iniquity!
13 Indeed is it not of Jehovah of hosts That the peoples toil for the fire And the nations weary themselves for vanity?
14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah As water covers the sea.
15 Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink, Adding in his poison, And also making him drunk In order to look at their nakedness!
16 You are sated with shame, not glory. You also, drink and be shown to be uncircumcised! The cup of Jehovah's right hand will come around to you, And disgrace will be upon your glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, As well as the destruction of the beasts which frightened them, Because of the bloodshed of men and the violence done to the land, To the city, and to all the inhabitants in it.
18 What profit is the graven idol that its maker should engrave it, Or the molten idol, even the teacher of lies, That he who forms its form depends on it To make dumb idols?
19 Woe to him who says to wood, Awake! And, Arise! to silent stone. Will it teach him? Behold, it is set in gold and silver, And there is no breath at all within it.
20 But Jehovah is in His holy temple:Be silent before Him, all the earth!
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet in shigionoth.
2 O Jehovah, I have heard the report concerning You and am afraid. O Jehovah, revive Your work In the midst of the years; In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember compassion.
3 God comes from Teman, Even the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is filled with His praise.
4 And His brightness is like the light:Rays come forth from His hand, And the hiding of His power is there.
5 Before Him goes pestilence, And the fire bolt comes forth at His feet.
6 He stands and measures the earth; He looks and startles the nations; And the ancient mountains are shattered into dust, And the everlasting hills sink down; His goings are as of old.
7 I see the tents of Cushan Under affliction; The tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.
8 Is it against the rivers, O Jehovah, Against the rivers that Your anger is kindled? Is Your overflowing wrath against the sea That You ride upon Your horses, Upon Your chariots of salvation?
9 Your bow is bared utterly; The rods of discipline are sworn according to Your word. You cleave the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains see you; they writhe; The tempest of water passes by; The deep utters its voice, It lifts its hands high.
11 The sun and the moon stand still in their high abode At the light of Your arrows going forth, At the brightness of Your glittering spear.
12 In wrath You march through the earth, In anger You thresh the nations.
13 You go forth for the salvation of Your people, For the salvation of Your anointed one, You strike the head from the house of the wicked one, Laying bare the foundation, even to the neck.
14 You pierce, with his own staves, The heads of his warriors. They come out like a whirlwind to scatter me; Their exultation is as if to devour the poor in secret.
15 You tread the sea with Your horses, The heap of mighty waters.
16 I heard and my body trembled; My lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered my bones, And I tremble in my place, Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, When he who attacks comes up against the people.
17 For the fig tree will not sprout, And there will be no yield on the vines; The labor on the olive tree will fail, And the fields will make no food; The flock will be cut off from the fold, And there will be no herd in the stalls.
18 Yet I will exult in Jehovah; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
19 Jehovah the Lord is my strength; And He makes my feet like hinds' feet And will cause me to walk on my high places. For the choir director, with my stringed instruments.