HABAKKUK
Habakkuk 1
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2 O Yahweh, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! [even]
cry out unto Thee [of] violence, and Thou wilt not save!
3 Why dost Thou shew me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence [are] before me: and there are
[that] raise up strife and contention.
4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the
wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for [I] will work a work in your days,
[which] ye will not believe, though it be told [you].
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, [that] bitter and hasty nation, which
shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces
[that are] not theirs.
7 They [are] terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall
proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more
fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves,
and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle [that] hasteth to eat.
9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up [as] the east
wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto
them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take
it.
11 Then shall [his] mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, [imputing]
this his power unto his god.
12 [Art] Thou not from everlasting, O Yahweh my God, mine Holy One, Who diest not? O Yahweh, Thou hast ordained them for judgment;
and, O mighty God, Thou hast established them for correction.
13 [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:
wherefore lookest Thou upon them that deal
treacherously, [and] holdest Thy tongue when the
wicked devoureth [the man that is] more righteous
than he?
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the
creeping things, [that have] no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch
them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and
are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag;
because by them their portion [is] fat, and their meat plenteous.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the
nations?
1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to
see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
2 And Yahweh answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make [it] plain upon
tables, that he may run that readeth it.
3 For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak,
and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will
not tarry.
4 Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just
shall live by his faith.
5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, [he is]
a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and [is] as death, and cannot
be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and
heapeth unto him all people:
6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb
against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth
[that which is] not his! how long? and
to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!
7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and
awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?
8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall
spoil thee; because of men's blood, and [for] the violence of the land, of the
city, and of all that dwell therein.
9 Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to
his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he
may be delivered from the power of evil!
10 Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast
sinned [against] thy soul.
11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber
shall answer it.
12 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
13 Behold, [is it] not of Yahweh of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary
themselves for very vanity?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as
the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that
puttest thy bottle to [him], and makest
[him] drunken also, that thou mayest look on their
nakedness!
16 Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin
be uncovered: the cup of Yahweh's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and
shameful spewing [shall be] on thy glory.
17 For the violence of
18 What profiteth the graven image that the maker
thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies,
that the maker of his work trusteth therein,
to make dumb idols?
19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it
shall teach! Behold, it [is] laid over with gold and silver, and [there is] no
breath at all in the midst of it.
20 But Yahweh [is] in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before
Him.
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet
upon Shigionoth.
2 O Yahweh, I have heard Thy speech, [and] was afraid: O Yahweh, revive Thy
work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath
remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from
4 And [His] brightness was as the light; He had horns [coming] out of His hand:
and there [was] the hiding of His power.
5 Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet.
6 He stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the nations;
and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: His
ways [are] everlasting.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: [and] the
curtains of the
8 Was Yahweh displeased against the rivers? [was] Thine anger against the rivers? [was]
Thy wrath against the sea, that Thou didst ride upon
Thine horses [and] Thy chariots of salvation?
9 Thy bow was made quite naked, [according] to the oaths of the tribes, [even
Thy] word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw Thee, [and] they trembled: the overflowing of the water
passed by: the deep uttered his voice, [and] lifted up his hands on high.
11 The sun [and] moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of Thine
arrows they went, [and] at the shining of Thy glittering spear.
12 Thou didst march through the land in indignation,
Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.
13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy
people, [even] for salvation with Thine anointed; Thou woundedst
the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the
neck. Selah.
14 Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they
came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing [was] as to devour the
poor secretly.
15 Thou didst walk through the sea with Thine horses, [through] the heap of great
waters.
16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness
entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day
of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will
invade them with his troops.
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither [shall] fruit [be] in the
vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the
fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and
[there shall be] no herd in the stalls:
18 Yet I will rejoice in Yahweh, I
will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 Yahweh God [is] my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' [feet],
and He will make me to walk upon mine high places.
To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.