Habakkuk 1

1 The word which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

The message seen by the prophet Habakkuk.

2 How long, O Lord, will your ears be shut to my voice? I make an outcry to you about violent behaviour, but you do not send salvation.

How long, Lord, have I cried out and without you hearing me! I cry to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not help.

3 Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes fixed on wrong? for wasting and violent acts are before me: and there is fighting and bitter argument.

Why do you make me look upon wickedness and behold trouble? Destruction and violence are before my eyes, and fighting and quarrelling.

4 For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers; because of which right is twisted.

Therefore the law is weak, and justice is never rendered; for the wicked surround the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

5 See among the nations, and take note, and be full of wonder: for in your days I am doing a work in which you will have no belief, even if news of it is given to you.

Look at the nations, look well, be shocked and amazed. For I am about to do a work in your days; you will not believe it when it is told.

6 For see, I am sending the Chaldaeans, that bitter and quick-moving nation; who go through the wide spaces of the earth to get for themselves living-places which are not theirs.

For I am about to raise up the Chaldeans, a nation grim and quick of action who sweep over the whole breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

7 They are greatly to be feared: their right comes from themselves.

They bring fear and terror. They write their own rules.

8 And their horses are quicker than leopards and their horsemen more cruel than evening wolves; they come from far away, like an eagle in flight rushing on its food.

Their horses are swifter than leopards, quicker than wolves hunting at dusk. From afar they come swooping down, like an eagle attacking its prey.

9 They are coming all of them with force; the direction of their faces is forward, the number of their prisoners is like the sands of the sea.

They all come to do violence, a horde like a desert wind, they gather up captives like sand.

10 He makes little of kings, rulers are a sport to him; all the strong places are to be laughed at; for he makes earthworks and takes them.

At kings they scoff, and princes are sport to them. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it.

11 Then his purpose will be changed, over-stepping the limit; he will make his strength his god.

Then they sweep on like the wind, Their strength is their god.

12 Are you not eternal, O Lord my God, my Holy One? for you there is no death. O Lord, he has been ordered by you for our punishment; and by you, O Rock, he has been marked out to put us right.

Are you not eternal, Lord, my holy one, who does not die? Lord you have appointed them to execute judgment, my rock, you have established them to punish.

13 Before your holy eyes sin may not be seen, and you are unable to put up with wrong; why, then, are your eyes on the false? why do you say nothing when the evil-doer puts an end to one who is more upright than himself?

Your eyes are too pure to look at evil, you cannot condone iniquity. So why do you regard the treacherous in silence, while the wicked swallows the upright?

14 He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the worms which have no ruler over them.

You have made people like the fish of the sea, like reptiles that have no ruler.

15 He takes them all up with his hook, he takes them in his net, getting them together in his fishing-net: for which cause he is glad and full of joy.

The wicked sweep them all into their nets, and gather them into their drag-nets, and rejoice and celebrate.

16 For this reason he makes an offering to his net, burning perfume to his fishing-net; because by them he gets much food and his meat is fat.

Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn offerings to their drag-net; for by their nets are their portions generous, and their food is rich.

17 For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no end to his destruction of the nations.

Will they empty their nets continually, slaughter nations unpityingly?