chapter 1

1 the burden which Habakkuk the Prophet saw:

2 How long, Jehovah, shall I cry, And thou wilt not hear? And cry aloud to thee of violence, And thou wilt not save?

3 Why showest thou me iniquity, And makest me to see trouble? And why are violence and plunder in my sight, And he who excites strife and contention? (19)

4 Therefore dissolved is the law, And judgment does not continually go forth; For the wicked surrounds the just, Therefore go forth does perverted judgment. (21)

5 Look ye among the Gentiles and see, And be astonished, be astonished; For a work will I work in your days, Which ye will not believe, though it be told you:

6 For behold, I will rouse the Chaldeans—A nation bitter and hasty, Which shall march through the breadths of the earth, To possess habitations not its own:

7 Terrible and fearful shall it be, From itself shall its judgment and its dignity proceed:

8 And swifter than leopards shall be its horses, And fiercer than the evening wolves; And numerous shall be its horsemen; And its horsemen from far shall come, They shall fly as an eagle hastening to devour: (30)

9 The whole of it for booty shall come; The aspect of their faces will be like the east-wind; And he will gather captives like the sand:

10 And at kings he will laugh, And princes shall be a scorn to him: Every fortress he will scorn, He will gather dust and take it:

11 Then will he change his spirit, And pass through and act impiously, Ascribing this his power to his god. (37)

12 Art not thou, Jehovah, from the beginning, my God? My holy One! we shall not die: Thou, Jehovah, for judgment hast set him; And thou strong One, for correction hast established him.

13 Pure art thou of eyes, so as not to behold evil, And on trouble thou canst not look:—Why lookest thou on transgressors, And takest no notice, when the ungodly devours One more righteous than himself?

14 Thou makest man like the fish of the sea, Like the reptile, which is without a leader: (46)

15 The whole by his hook will he draw up, Collect into his drag, and gather into his net; He will therefore rejoice and exult: (48)

16 Hence sacrifice will he to his drag, And incense will he offer to his net; For through them fat will be his portion, And his meat will be rich.—

17 Shall he therefore extend his drag, And continue to slay the nations, so as not to spare them?