Habakkuk 1

1 This is the message that Habakkuk saw in vision.

The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

2 Lord, how long do I have to cry out for help and you don't listen? I cry out, “Violence!” but you don't save us from it.

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 force me to see this wickedness and suffering? Why do you just observe such destruction and violence? Arguments and fighting happen right in front of me!

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 As a result the law is paralyzed, and justice never wins. The wicked crowd out those who do right so that the course of 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 around at the nations, watch and be surprised and amazed. Something is going to happen in your time that you wouldn't believe even if you were 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 Watch! I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and brutal people who will march across the world to seize other lands.

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 are fearsome and terrifying, and so proud of themselves that they set their own rules.

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

8 Their horses are faster than leopards and fiercer than hungry wolves. Their cavalry charges, racing in from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to eat their 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 Here they come, all intent on violence. Their armies advance in frontal assault as rapidly as the desert wind, capturing so many prisoners they are 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 They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh in scorn at fortresses—they pile up earth ramps and capture them.

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 by like the wind and are gone. They are guilty because their own strength is their god.

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

12 Haven't you existed from eternity past? You are Lord my God, my Holy One, you do not die. Lord, you appointed them to execute judgment; God our Rock, you sent them to punish us.

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 upon evil; you cannot stand the sight of wrong. So why do you put up with untrustworthy people? Why are you silent when the wicked destroy those who do less evil than they do?

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 make people become like fish in the sea, or like crawling insects, that have no ruler.

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

15 They drag everyone up with hooks, they pull them out with nets, catching them in dragnets. Then they happily 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 They worship their nets as if they were gods, making sacrifices and burning incense to them, because by their nets they live in luxury, eating rich food.

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 keep on unsheathing their swords forever, killing nations without mercy?

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