1The message that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 How long, O Lord, will I cry aloud, and you will not listen? After being wronged, I will cry to you, and you will not save? 3 For what purpose did you show me troubles and toils, to look upon distress and impiety? A judgment has come from opposite me, and the judge is receiving. 4 On account of this, the law has been rejected, and judgment is not brought to an end, because an impious person oppresses the righteous; for this reason the judgment will come forth perverted. 5 “Look, you who are despisers, and observe! And marvel at the wonders, and be destroyed! Because I am working a work in your days, which you would not believe if someone were telling you.[1] 6 Because behold, I am awakening the Chaldeans, the cruel and speedy nation that goes over the breadth of the land to possess dwelling places not his own. 7 He is fearful and notable, his judgment will be from himself, and his profit will come from himself. 8 And his horses will leap over leopards, and they are swifter than the wolves of Arabia; and his horsemen will ride out and attack from a distance, and they will fly like an eagle eager to eat. 9 Consummation will come for sacrilegious people who set their faces from opposite, and they will gather captives like sand. 10 And he will delight in kings, and tyrants will be his toys; and he will mock at every fortress, and throw up a mound and conquer it. 11 Then the spirit will have a change and pass through and will make atonement. This is the strength of my God.” 12 Are you not from the beginning, O Lord, my holy God? And we will not die. O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment, and he formed me to decide his chastisement. 13 A clean eye is not to see evil things and to look upon the afflictions of pain. For what purpose do you look upon those acting contemptuously? Will you turn a blind eye to the wicked swallowing the righteous? 14 And you will make humans like the fish of the sea and like the reptiles that have no leader. 15 He pulled up the consummation with a fishhook, and dragged it with a casting net, and collected it in his large dragnet. 16 On account of this, his heart will enjoy itself and rejoice. Because of this he will sacrifice to his large dragnet and will burn incense to his net, because by them he made fat his portion and his choice meat. 17 On account of this he will cast his net and will always not refrain from killing nations.
2I will stand firm on my watch, and I will go upon a rock, and I will keep watch to see what he will say to me and what I should answer against my rebuke. 2 And the Lord answered me and said, “Write a vision, and clearly in a tablet, in order that the one who reads might pursue the things. 3 Because there is still a vision for the time, and he will appear at an end, and not in vain; if he is late, wait for him, because one coming will be present, and he will not tarry. 4 If he draws back, my life does not find pleasure in it, but the righteous one will live by my faith.[2] 5 The scorner, being conceited, may achieve nothing; he who widened his spirit like Hades, even this one, like death, not being satisfied, will also collect on himself all the nations and will gather to himself all the peoples. 6 Will not all these things take up a parable about him and a riddle for his tale? They will say, ‘Woe to the one who is increasing for himself the things that are not his —until when?—even making his bond heavy harshly. 7 Because suddenly they will arise as they bite him, and those who are plotting against you will sober up, and you will be as plunder to them. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remaining peoples will plunder you, on account of the bloodshed of humans and impieties of the earth, and of the city and of all the ones who dwell in it. 9 Oh, you who has too much wicked greed for his house, so that he might set his nest on high, so that he might be pulled out of the hand of wicked ones. 10 You have resolved on shame for your house; you have finished off many peoples, and your spirit has sinned. 11 Because a stone from a wall will cry out, and a dung beetle will speak things out of wood. 12 Woe to you who are building a city with blood and who prepares himself a city with injustice. 13 Are not these things from the Lord Almighty? Many peoples came to an end by fire, and many nations were disheartened. 14 Because the earth shall be filled with knowing the glory of the Lord; like water it will cover them. 15 Oh, the one who gives drink to his neighbor with a turbid upset, and intoxicates him in order that he might look upon their caves. 16 Drink, you also, an excess of dishonor from glory; shake in the heart and stagger; a cup in the right hand of the Lord has encircled against you, and dishonor has been gathered against your glory. 17 Because the impiety of Lebanon will cover you, and the misery of wild animals will terrify you, on account of the bloodshed of humans and impieties of the earth, and of the city and of all the ones who dwell in it. 18 What use is a carved image, because they carved it? He molded it as a molten image, a deceptive imagination, because the one who has formed it trusts in his handiwork, in order to make deaf and mute idols. 19 Woe to the one who says to the wood, ‘Sober up! Awaken!’ And to the stone, ‘Be exalted!’ Even it is an imagination; this is a beaten-out piece of gold and of silver, and there is no spirit in it. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth do reverence before his face.”
3A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk with a song. 2 O Lord, I have heard news of you, and I was afraid; I observed your works, and they amazed me. In the midst of two living beings, you will be known; when the years approach, you will be recognized; when the time is present, you will be manifested; when my spirit is stirred in anger, you will remember mercies.[3] 3 God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Pharan, shaded densely with trees. Musical interlude His virtue covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. 4 And his splendor will be like a light; horns are in his hands. And he has established a strong love of his strength. 5 A word will go before his face, and it will come out into the plain at his feet. 6 He stood firm, and the earth was shaken; he looked, and nations melted. The mountains were broken in pieces with force; eternal hills were melted at his eternal journey. 7 Because of troubles, I looked at the tents of the Ethiopians; the tents of the land of Midian will also be terrified. 8 Were you angry with the rivers, O Lord? Or was your wrath at the rivers, or your fury against the sea? Because you will mount on your horses, and your horsemanship is deliverance. 9 “By stretching tightly, you stretched your bow against scepters,” says the Lord. Musical interlude A land of rivers will be broken up. 10 Peoples will see you and be in pain as you are scattering waters of motion. The abyss offered her sound, the height of her appearance. 11 The sun was lifted up, and the moon stopped in its appointed place. Your javelins will go into the light, into the splendor of the lightning of your weapons. 12 In anger you will diminish the earth, and in wrath you will reduce the nations. 13 You came out for the deliverance of your people, to save your anointed; you threw death on the heads of the lawless; you lifted bonds to the neck. 14 You cut through, with astonishment, the heads of the mighty ones. They will quake at this. They will open their bridles like a poor person secretly eating. 15 And you make your horses ride into the sea, thus stirring up much water. 16 I kept watch, and my belly was terrified from the sound of the prayer from my lips, and quivering entered into my bones, and from underneath me my body was stirred. I will take rest on a day of oppression, in order to go up to the people of my sojourning. 17 Since the fig tree will not bear fruit, and produce will not be on the vines; the work of the olive tree will lie, and the plains will not produce food; sheep have run away from food, and cows are not at their mangers. 18 But I will rejoice in the Lord. I will rejoice in God, my Savior. 19 The Lord God is my strength, and he will set my feet to an end. He will cause me to ride upon the high places, so that I might conquer with his song.