Habakkuk 1

1 The message seen by the prophet Habakkuk.

The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

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

O Yhwh, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

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

Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.

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

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

5 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.

Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.

6 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.

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.

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

They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

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

Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

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

They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

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

And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

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

Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.

12 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.

Art thou not from everlasting, O Yhwh my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Yhwh, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

13 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?

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

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

And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

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

They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 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.

Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

17 Will they empty their nets continually, slaughter nations unpityingly?

Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?