Habakkuk 1
1 The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.
This is the message that Habakkuk saw in vision.
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?
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Watch! I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and brutal people who will march across the world to seize other lands.
7 They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.
They are fearsome and terrifying, and so proud of themselves that they set 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 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.
9 They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.
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.
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.
They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh in scorn at fortresses—they pile up earth ramps and capture them.
11 Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.
Then they sweep on by like the wind and are gone. They are guilty because their own 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.
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.
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 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?
14 And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.
You make people become like fish in the sea, or like crawling insects, 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.
They drag everyone up with hooks, they pull them out with nets, catching them in dragnets. Then they happily 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.
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.
17 For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually to slay the nations.
Will they keep on unsheathing their swords forever, killing nations without mercy?
