1:1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
1:2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
1:3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
1:4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
1:5 “Look at the nations and watch–and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
1:6 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own.
1:7 They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.
1:8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour;
1:9 they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.
1:10 They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and capture them.
1:11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on–guilty men, whose own strength is their god.”
1:12 O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
1:14 You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler.
1:15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad.
1:16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.
1:17 Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?
1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
1:2 How long, O Jehovah, shall I cry / And You do not hear? / I cry out to You, Violence! / And You do not save.
1:3 Why do You cause me to see iniquity / And look upon wrong? / Indeed destruction and violence are before me; / And there is strife, and contention arises.
1:4 Therefore the law is ineffective, / And justice never goes forth; / For the wicked encompasses the righteous, / Therefore justice goes forth perverted.
1:5 Look among the nations, and see, / And be amazed, utterly amazed. / For I am doing a work in your days / Which you would not believe if it were told you.
1:6 For I am about to raise up the Chaldeans, / That bitter and hasty nation / That marches through the breadth of the earth / To possess habitations that are not theirs.
1:7 They are terrible and dreadful; / Their judgment and their authority issue from themselves.
1:8 And their horses are swifter than leopards / And more agile than the wolves of evening. / And their horsemen prance about; / Indeed their horsemen come from afar; / They fly like an eagle that hastens to devour.
1:9 All of them come to do violence; / The set of their faces is forward, / And they gather captives like sand.
1:10 Indeed they scoff at kings, / And potentates are a derision to them; / They deride every fortress, / For they heap up dirt and take it.
1:11 Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass over / And thus become guilty; this ? their strength ? is their god.
1:12 Are You not from everlasting, O Jehovah, / My God, my Holy One? We will not die. / O Jehovah, You have appointed them for judgment; / And You, O Rock, have established them for correction.
1:13 You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil / And who cannot look upon wrong, / Why do You look upon them who deal treacherously / And keep silent when the wicked man swallows up him who is more / righteous than he?
1:14 And You make man like the fish of the sea, / Like the creeping things, who have no one to rule for them.
1:15 They take all of them up with a hook; / They drag them off in their net / And gather them into their seine; / So they rejoice and exult.
1:16 Therefore they offer sacrifices to their net / And burn incense to their seine, / For by them their portion is fat / And their food is plenteous.
1:17 Will they then empty their net / And continually slay the nations without sparing?
