Habakkuk 1

1 The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.

The message seen by the prophet Habakkuk.

2 How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? shall I cry out to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt not save?

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

3 Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice before me? and there is a judgment, but opposition is more powerful.

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

4 Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment cometh not to the end: because the wicked prevaileth against the just, therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.

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

5 Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told.

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 behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not their own.

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 dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.

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

8 Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.

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 shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.

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

10 And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.

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

11 Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.

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

12 Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.

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 Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more just 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 And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.

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

15 He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in his drag, and gathered them into his net: for this he will be glad and rejoice.

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

16 Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he will sacrifice to his net: because through them his portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.

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 therefore he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually to slay the nations.

Will they empty their nets continually, slaughter nations unpityingly?