Habakkuk 1

1 The burden that Habakkuk the prophet has seen:

2 Until when, O YHWH, have I cried, And You do not hear? I cry to You, “Violence!” And You do not save.

3 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause [me] to behold perversity? And spoiling and violence [are] before me, And there is strife, and contention lifts [itself] up,

4 Therefore law ceases, And judgment does not go forth forever, For the wicked is surrounding the righteous, Therefore wrong judgment goes forth.

5 “Look on nations, and behold and marvel greatly. For a work He is working in your days, You do not believe though it is declared.

6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, The bitter and hasty nation, That is going to the broad places of earth, To occupy dwelling places not his own.

7 He [is] terrible and fearful, His judgment and his excellence go forth from him.

8 His horses have been swifter than leopards, And sharper than evening wolves, And his horsemen have increased, Even his horsemen from afar come in, They fly as an eagle, hastening to consume.

9 All for violence—he comes in, Their faces swallowing up the east wind, And he gathers a captivity as the sand.

10 And he scoffs at kings, And princes [are] a laughter to him, He laughs at every fortification, And he heaps up dust, and captures it.

11 Then the spirit has passed on, Indeed, he transgresses, And [ascribes] this—his power—to his god.”

12 Are You not of old, O YHWH, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O YHWH, You have appointed him for judgment, And, O Rock, You have founded him for reproof.

13 Purer of eyes than to behold evil, You are not able to look on perverseness, Why do You behold the treacherous? You keep silent when the wicked Swallow the more righteous than he,

14 And You make man as fishes of the sea, As a creeping thing [with] none ruling over him.

15 He has brought up each of them with a hook, He catches it in his net, and gathers it in his dragnet, Therefore he delights and rejoices.

16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, And makes incense to his dragnet, For by them [is] his portion fertile, and his food fat.

17 Does he therefore empty his net, And continually not spare to slay nations?