Habakkuk 1
1 The burden that Habakkuk the prophet has seen:
The word which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 Until when, O YHWH, have I cried, And You do not hear? I cry to You, “Violence!” And You do not save.
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.
3 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause [me] to behold perversity? And spoiling and violence [are] before me, And there is strife, and contention lifts [itself] up,
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.
4 Therefore law ceases, And judgment does not go forth forever, For the wicked is surrounding the righteous, Therefore wrong judgment goes forth.
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.
5 “Look on nations, and behold and marvel greatly. For a work He is working in your days, You do not believe though it is declared.
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.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, The bitter and hasty nation, That is going to the broad places of earth, To occupy dwelling places not his own.
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.
7 He [is] terrible and fearful, His judgment and his excellence go forth from him.
They are greatly to be feared: their right comes from themselves.
8 His horses have been swifter than leopards, And sharper than evening wolves, And his horsemen have increased, Even his horsemen from afar come in, They fly as an eagle, hastening to consume.
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.
9 All for violence—he comes in, Their faces swallowing up the east wind, And he gathers a captivity as the sand.
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.
10 And he scoffs at kings, And princes [are] a laughter to him, He laughs at every fortification, And he heaps up dust, and captures it.
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.
11 Then the spirit has passed on, Indeed, he transgresses, And [ascribes] this—his power—to his god.”
Then his purpose will be changed, over-stepping the limit; he will make his strength his god.
12 Are You not of old, O YHWH, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O YHWH, You have appointed him for judgment, And, O Rock, You have founded him for reproof.
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.
13 Purer of eyes than to behold evil, You are not able to look on perverseness, Why do You behold the treacherous? You keep silent when the wicked Swallow the more righteous than he,
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?
14 And You make man as fishes of the sea, As a creeping thing [with] none ruling over him.
He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the worms which have no ruler over them.
15 He has brought up each of them with a hook, He catches it in his net, and gathers it in his dragnet, Therefore he delights and rejoices.
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.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, And makes incense to his dragnet, For by them [is] his portion fertile, and his food fat.
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.
17 Does he therefore empty his net, And continually not spare to slay nations?
For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no end to his destruction of the nations.
