Habakkuk,
chapter 1
1: The oracle of God which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2: O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and Thou wilt not hear?
Or cry to Thee "Violence!" and Thou wilt not save?
3: Why dost Thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
4: So the law is slacked and justice never goes forth. For the
wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.
5: Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For
I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.
6: For lo, I am rousing the Chalde'ans, that bitter and hasty
nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize habitations
not their own.
7: Dread and terrible are they; their justice and dignity proceed
from themselves.
8: Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the
evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their horsemen
come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9: They all come for violence; terror of them goes before them.
They gather captives like sand.
10: At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They
laugh at every fortress, for they heap up earth and take it.
11: Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose
own might is their god!
12: Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We
shall not die. O Lord, Thou hast ordained them as a judgment; and Thou,
O Rock, hast established them for chastisement.
13: Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not
look on wrong, why dost Thou look on faithless men, and art silent when
the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
14: For Thou makes men like the fish of the sea, like crawling
things that have no ruler.
15: He brings all of them up with a hook, he drags them out with
his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults.
16: Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his
seine; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.
17: Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and mercilessly
slaying nations for ever?
Habakkuk,
chapter 2
1: I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the
tower, and look forth to see what He will say to me, and what I will
answer concerning my complaint.
2: And the Lord answered me: "Write the vision; make it
plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it.
3: For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end --
it will not lie. If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it
will not delay.
4: Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but
the righteous shall live by his faith.
5: Moreover, wine is treacherous; the arrogant man shall not
abide. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He
gathers for himself all nations, and collects as his own all
peoples."
6: Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, in
scoffing derision of him, and say, "Woe to him who heaps up what is
not his own -- for how long? -- and loads himself with pledges!"
7: Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will
make you tremble? Then you will be booty for them.
8: Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of
the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of men and violence to the
earth, to cities and all who dwell therein.
9: Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest
on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!
10: You have devised shame to your house by cutting off many
peoples; you have forfeited your life.
11: For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from
the woodwork respond.
12: Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and founds a city on
iniquity!
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13:
Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor only for
fire, and nations weary themselves for naught?
14: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
15: Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink of the cup of his
wrath, and makes them drunk, to gaze on their shame!
16: You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink,
yourself, and stagger! The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around
to you, and shame will come upon your glory!
17: The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; the
destruction of the beasts will terrify you, for the blood of men and
violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell therein.
18: What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal
image, a teacher of lies? For the workman trusts in his own creation
when he makes dumb idols!
19: Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a dumb
stone, Arise! Can this give revelation? Behold, it is overlaid with gold
and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
20: But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep
silence before him.
Habakkuk,
chapter 3
1: A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigion'oth.
2: O Lord, I have heard the report of Thee, and Thy work O Lord
do I fear. In the midst of the years renew it; in the midst of the years
make it known; in wrath remember mercy.
3: God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His
glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
4: His brightness was like the light, rays flashed from His hand;
and there He veiled his power.
5: Before Him went pestilence, and plague followed close behind.
6: He stood and measured the earth; He looked and shook the
nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting
hills sank low. His ways were as of old.
7: I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the
land of Mid'ian did tremble.
8: Was Thy wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was Thy anger
against the rivers, or Thy indignation against the sea, when Thou did
ride upon Thy horses, upon Thy chariot of victory?
9: Thou didst strip the sheath from Thy bow, and put the arrows
to the string. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
10: The mountains saw Thee, and writhed; the raging waters swept
on; the deep gave forth its voice, it lifted its hands on high.
11: The sun and moon stood still in their habitation at the light
of Thine arrows as they sped, at the flash of Thy glittering spear.
12: Thou didst bestride the earth in fury, Thou didst trample the
nations in anger.
13: Thou went forth for the salvation of Thy people, for the
salvation of Thy anointed. Thou didst crush the head of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck.
14: Thou didst pierce with Thy shafts the head of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the
poor in secret.
15: Thou didst trample the sea with Thy horses, the surging of
mighty waters.
16: I hear, and my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones, my steps totter beneath me. I will
quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
17: Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the
vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the
flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
18: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation.
19: God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like hinds'
feet, He makes me tread upon my high places.
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