Habakkuk 1
1 The word which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
THE BURDEN which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2 How long, O Lord, will your ears be shut to my voice? I make an outcry to you about violent behaviour, but you do not send salvation.
How long, O LORD, shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save.
3 Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes fixed on wrong? for wasting and violent acts are before me: and there is fighting and bitter argument.
Why dost Thou show me iniquity, and beholdest mischief? And why are spoiling and violence before me? so that there is strife, and contention ariseth.
4 For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers; because of which right is twisted.
Therefore the law is slacked, and right doth never go forth; for the wicked doth beset the righteous; therefore right goeth forth perverted.
5 See among the nations, and take note, and be full of wonder: for in your days I am doing a work in which you will have no belief, even if news of it is given to you.
Look ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for, behold, a work shall be wrought in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told you.
6 For see, I am sending the Chaldaeans, that bitter and quick-moving nation; who go through the wide spaces of the earth to get for themselves living-places which are not theirs.
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7 They are greatly to be feared: their right comes from themselves.
They are terrible and dreadful; their law and their majesty proceed from themselves.
8 And their horses are quicker than leopards and their horsemen more cruel than evening wolves; they come from far away, like an eagle in flight rushing on its food.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the wolves of the desert; and their horsemen spread themselves; yea, their horsemen come from far, they fly as a vulture that hasteth to devour.
9 They are coming all of them with force; the direction of their faces is forward, the number of their prisoners is like the sands of the sea.
They come all of them for violence; their faces are set eagerly as the east wind; and they gather captives as the sand.
10 He makes little of kings, rulers are a sport to him; all the strong places are to be laughed at; for he makes earthworks and takes them.
And they scoff at kings, and princes are a derision unto them; they deride every stronghold, for they heap up earth, and take it.
11 Then his purpose will be changed, over-stepping the limit; he will make his strength his god.
Then their spirit doth pass over and transgress, and they become guilty: even they who impute their might unto their god.
12 Are you not eternal, O Lord my God, my Holy One? for you there is no death. O Lord, he has been ordered by you for our punishment; and by you, O Rock, he has been marked out to put us right.
Art not Thou from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, Thou hast ordained them for judgment, and Thou, O Rock, hast established them for correction.
13 Before your holy eyes sin may not be seen, and you are unable to put up with wrong; why, then, are your eyes on the false? why do you say nothing when the evil-doer puts an end to one who is more upright than himself?
Thou that art of eyes too pure to behold evil, and that canst not look on mischief, wherefore lookest Thou, when they deal treacherously, and holdest Thy peace, when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he;
14 He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the worms which have no ruler over them.
And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 He takes them all up with his hook, he takes them in his net, getting them together in his fishing-net: for which cause he is glad and full of joy.
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 exult.
16 For this reason he makes an offering to his net, burning perfume to his fishing-net; because by them he gets much food and his meat is fat.
Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and offer unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their food plenteous.
17 For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no end to his destruction of the nations.
Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?
