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  Habakkuk

1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. ²O Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out unto you of violence, and you will not save. ³Why do you show me iniquity, and look upon perverseness? for destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rising up. ⁴Therefore the law is slacked, and justice does never go forth; for the wicked does compass about the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.

⁵Behold you among the nations, and look, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it be told you. ⁶For, lo, I raise up the Chal-de-ans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs. ⁷They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. ⁸Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen press proudly on: yes, their horsemen come from afar; they fly as an eagle that hastens to devour. ⁹They come all of them for violence; the set of their faces is forward; and they gather captives as the sand. ¹⁰Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision unto him; he derides every stronghold; for he heaps up dust, and takes it. ¹¹Then shall he sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over, and be guilty, even he whose might is his god.

¹²Art not you from everlasting, O Jehovah my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O Jehovah, you have ordained him for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established him for correction. ¹³You that are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that cannot look on perverseness, why do you look upon them that deal treacherously, and hold your peace when the wicked swallows up the man that is more righteous than he; ¹⁴and make men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? ¹⁵He takes up all of them with the hook, he catches them in his net, and gathers them in his drag: therefore he rejoices and is glad. ¹⁶Therefore he sacrifies unto his net, and burns incense unto his drag; because by them his portion is fat, and his food plenteous. ¹⁷Shall he therefore empty his net, and spare not to slay the nations continually?

2 I will stand upon my watch, and set upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will speak with me, and what I shall answer concerning my complaint. ²And Jehovah answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads it. ³For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hastens toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay. ⁴Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; but the righteous shall live by his faith.

⁵Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous, a haughty man, that keeps not at home; who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and heaps unto him all peoples. ⁶Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increases that which is not his! how long? and that burdens himself with pledges! ⁷Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and awake that shall vex you, and you shall be for booty unto them? ⁸Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all that dwell therein. ⁹Woe to him that gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! ¹⁰You have devised shame to your house, by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against your soul. ¹¹For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. ¹²Woe to him that builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity! ¹³Behold, is it not of Jehovah of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity? ¹⁴For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, to you that adds your venom, and make him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness! ¹⁶You are filled with shame, and not glory: drink you also, and be as one uncircumcised; the cup of Jehovah’s right hand shall come round unto you, and foul shame shall be upon your glory. ¹⁷For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover you, and the destruction of the beasts, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all that dwell therein. ¹⁸What profits the graven image, that the maker thereof has graven it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he that fashions its form trusts therein, to make dumb idols? ¹⁹Woe unto him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. ²⁰But Jehovah is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to Shigionoth. ²O Jehovah, I have heard the report of 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 mercy.

³God came from Teman, And the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise. ⁴And his brightness was as the light; He had rays coming forth from his hand; And there was the hiding of his power. ⁵Before him went the pestilence, And fiery bolts went forth at his feet. ⁶He stood, and measured the earth; He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; And the eternal mountains were scattered; The everlasting hills did bow; His goings were as of old. ⁷I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. ⁸Was Jehovah displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers, Or your wrath against the sea, That you did ride upon your horses, Upon your chariots of salvation? ⁹Your bow was made quite bare; The oaths to the tribes were a sure word. Selah. you did cleave the earth with rivers. ¹⁰The mountains saw you, and were afraid; The tempest of waters passed by; The deep uttered its voice, And lifted up its hands on high. ¹¹The sun and moon stood still in their habitation, At the light of your arrows as they went, At the shining of your glittering spear. ¹²You did march though the land in indignation; you did thresh the nations in anger. ¹³You went forth for the salvation of your people, For the salvation of your anointed; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked man, Laying bare the foundation even unto the neck. Selah. ¹⁴You did pierce with his own staves the head of his warriors: They came as a whirlwind to scatter me; Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. ¹⁵You did tread the sea with your horses, The heap of mighty waters.