Habakkuk 1
1 The message seen by the prophet Habakkuk.
The prophecy which Habakkuk the prophet foresaw.
2 How long, Lord, have I cried out and without you hearing me! I cry to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not help.
How long, O Lord, have I entreated [thee], and thou wouldst not hear? [how long] shall I cry out unto thee [because of] violence, and thou wilt not save?
3 Why do you make me look upon wickedness and behold trouble? Destruction and violence are before my eyes, and fighting and quarrelling.
Why wilt thou let me see wickedness, and wilt look on trouble, and the robbery and violence [that are] before me: while there is strife, and contention lifteth up [its head]?
4 Therefore the law is weak, and justice is never rendered; for the wicked surround the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
Therefore is the law powerless, and justice cometh not forth victorious; for the wicked encompasseth about the righteous; therefore doth justice come forth perverted.
5 Look at the nations, look well, be shocked and amazed. For I am about to do a work in your days; you will not believe it when it is told.
Look ye about among the nations, and behold and be astonished and astounded; for [God] will fulfill a work in your days, ye would not believe it, if it were only told you.
6 For I am about to raise up the Chaldeans, a nation grim and quick of action who sweep over the whole breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
For, lo, I will raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, that march to the wide spaces of the earth to conquer dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7 They bring fear and terror. They write their own rules.
Terrible and dreadful are they: from themselves go forth their judicial laws and their dignity.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, quicker than wolves hunting at dusk. From afar they come swooping down, like an eagle attacking its prey.
And swifter than leopards are their horses, and fiercer than the evening wolves; and their horsemen spread themselves abroad: and their horsemen will come from afar; they will fly like the eagle hastening to eat.
9 They all come to do violence, a horde like a desert wind, they gather up captives like sand.
They all will come for violence: the front of their faces is like the east wind, and they gather captives as the sand.
10 At kings they scoff, and princes are sport to them. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it.
And they will make sport with kings, and princes will be a play unto them: at every strong-hold will they laugh, and they will cast up earth-mounds and capture it.
11 Then they sweep on like the wind, Their strength is their god.
Then doth their spirit become arrogant, and they are surpassingly proud, and offend, [imputing] this their power unto their god.
12 Are you not eternal, Lord, my holy one, who does not die? Lord you have appointed them to execute judgment, my rock, you have established them to punish.
Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O Protector, thou hast appointed them to correct [nations].
13 Your eyes are too pure to look at evil, you cannot condone iniquity. So why do you regard the treacherous in silence, while the wicked swallows the upright?
Thou, who art too pure of eyes to behold evil, and canst not look on trouble, wherefore wilt thou look upon those that deal treacherously, be silent when the wicked swalloweth up him that is more righteous than he?
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea, like reptiles that have no ruler.
And [why] makest thou men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 The wicked sweep them all into their nets, and gather them into their drag-nets, and rejoice and celebrate.
All of them he bringeth up with the angle, he draggeth them up in his net, and gathereth them in his drag: therefore he rejoiceth and is glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn offerings to their drag-net; for by their nets are their portions generous, and their food is rich.
Therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; because through them is his portion fat, and his food marrowy.
17 Will they empty their nets continually, slaughter nations unpityingly?
Shall he therefore [always] empty his net, and continually slay nations without sparing?
