Habacuque 1

¹ The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

² O Jehovah, how long shall I cry for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, Violence! But You do not save.

³ Why do You show me evil, and You cause me to look upon toil? For destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rises up.

⁴ On account of this the law has become feeble, and justice does not continue to go forth. For the wicked surrounds the righteous, so justice goes forth, perverted.

⁵ Look among the nations and see, and be amazed. Be astounded. For a work is working in your days which you will not believe, though it be told to you.

⁶ For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, the bitter and hasty nation which is proceeding into the breadth of the land, to possess dwellings that are not their own.

⁷ They are terrible and fearful; their judgment and their glory goes forth from themselves.

⁸ Their horses also are swifter than leopards and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen spread themselves; yea, their horsemen come from afar; they fly as the eagle hurrying to eat.

⁹ All of them shall come for violence; the eagerness of their faces is like the east wind; and they gather captives like the sand.

¹⁰ And they shall scoff against kings, and officials shall be a scorn to them. They shall scorn every fortress, and they shall heap up dirt and capture it.

¹¹ Then shall his mind change; and he shall pass over and be guilty, crediting this power of his to his god.

¹² Are You not from ancient times, Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die, Jehovah, for You have appointed them for judgment. And, my Rock, You have established them for correction.

¹³ You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and You are not able to look upon vexation. Why do you look on those who deal deceitfully? Will You be silent when the wicked swallows one more righteous than he?

¹⁴ For You make man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things with no ruler over them.

¹⁵ They take up all of them with the hook; they drag them with the net and gather them with the dragnet. On account of this they rejoice and exult.

¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet; because by them their portion is fat, and their food plentiful.

¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net, and shall they not spare to continually slay nations?