Habakkuk 1
1 The message seen by the prophet Habakkuk.
The burden that Habakkuk the prophet has seen:
2 How long, Lord, have I cried out and without you hearing me! I cry to you, “Violence!” but you do not help.
Until when, O YHWH, have I cried, And You do not hear? I cry to You, “Violence!” And You do 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 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,
4 Therefore the law is weak, and justice is never rendered; for the wicked surround the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
Therefore law ceases, And judgment does not go forth forever, For the wicked is surrounding the righteous, Therefore wrong judgment goes forth.
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 on nations, and behold and marvel greatly. For a work He is working in your days, You do not believe though it is declared.
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 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.
7 They bring fear and terror. They write their own rules.
He [is] terrible and fearful, His judgment and his excellence go forth from him.
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.
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.
9 They all come to do violence, a horde like a desert wind, they gather up captives like sand.
All for violence—he comes in, Their faces swallowing up the east wind, And he gathers a captivity 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 he scoffs at kings, And princes [are] a laughter to him, He laughs at every fortification, And he heaps up dust, and captures it.
11 Then they sweep on like the wind, Their strength is their god.
Then the spirit has passed on, Indeed, he transgresses, And [ascribes] this—his power—to 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 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.
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?
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,
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea, like reptiles that have no ruler.
And You make man as fishes of the sea, As a creeping thing [with] none ruling over him.
15 The wicked sweep them all into their nets, and gather them into their drag-nets, and rejoice and celebrate.
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.
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 makes incense to his dragnet, For by them [is] his portion fertile, and his food fat.
17 Will they empty their nets continually, slaughter nations unpityingly?
Does he therefore empty his net, And continually not spare to slay nations?
