Habakkuk 1
1 The message seen by the prophet Habakkuk.
The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 How long, Lord, have I cried out and without you hearing me! I cry to you, “Violence!” but you do not help.
O Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and thou will not hear? I cry out to thee of violence, and thou will 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 do thou show me iniquity, and look upon perverseness? For destruction and violence are before me, and there is strife, and contention rises up.
4 Therefore the law is weak, and justice is never rendered; for the wicked surround the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
Therefore the law is slacked, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked man surrounds the righteous man, therefore justice goes 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.
Behold ye scoffers, and look, and wonder marvelously. For I am working a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it be 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 raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7 They bring fear and terror. They write their own rules.
They are fearful and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
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.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their horsemen come from far. They fly as an eagle that hastens to devour.
9 They all come to do violence, a horde like a desert wind, they gather up captives like sand.
They come all of them for violence. The set of their faces is forwards, 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.
Yea, he scoffs at kings, and rulers are a derision to him. He derides every stronghold, for he heaps up dust, and takes it.
11 Then they sweep on like the wind, Their strength is their god.
Then he shall sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over, and be guilty; he whose might is his 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.
Are not thou from everlasting, O Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Jehovah, thou have ordained him for judgment, and thou, O Rock, have established him for correction.
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 are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and who cannot look on perverseness, why do thou look upon those who deal treacherously, and hold thy peace when the wicked man swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea, like reptiles that have no ruler.
and makes 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.
He takes all of them up with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his drag. Therefore he rejoices 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 sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his drag, because by them his portion is fat, and his food plentiful.
17 Will they empty their nets continually, slaughter nations unpityingly?
Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to kill the nations continually?
