Habakkuk
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
“Until when, Yahweh, will I cry aloud, but you will not listen?
I cry out to you ‘Violence!’ but you do not save.
Why do you make me see iniquity, and {why} do you behold trouble?
And destruction and violence {are} to the front of me, and {there} is strife, and contention arises.
Therefore the law weakens, and justice does not go forth to perpetuity.
For the wicked surrounds the righteous, therefore justice goes forth perverted.”
“See among the nations and consider, and be amazed, be amazed!
For I am working a work in your days {that} you will not believe when it is recounted.
For behold me, raising up the Chaldeans, the bitter and hastening nation,
the one going through the breadths of the earth to seize dwellings not to him.
He {is} dreadful and terrifying;
from him goes forth his justice and his dignity.
And his horses are swifter than leopards,
and they are fiercer than wolves of the evening.
And his horsemen spread out, and his horsemen come from a distance,
they fly like an eagle rushing to devour.
All of them will come for violence.
The direction of their faces {is} eastward, and he gathers captives like the sand.
And he, he mocks at kings, and rulers {are} laughter to him.
He, he laughs at every fortress, for he piles up dirt and captures it.
Then he sweeps by {like} the wind and goes on.
But he will become guilty, this {one} whose might {is} his god.”
“{Are} you not from ancient times, Yahweh my God, my Holy One?
We will not die.
Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment,
and Rock, you have established him for correcting.
Your eyes are pure from seeing evil, and you are not able to look at trouble.
Why do you look at treacherous ones,
keep silent when the wicked devours {one} more righteous than him?
And you make man like the fish of the sea,
like a creeping thing {with} no ruler over it.
All of them, he brings up with a hook.
He drags him with his net,
and he gathers him with his dragnet.
Therefore he rejoices and exults.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by them his portion {is} fat and his food is rich.
Therefore will he empty his net,
and will he not spare to slay the nations continually?”
I shall stand at my watchpost
and shall station myself on the watchtower,
and I will watch to see what he will say to me
and what I will respond concerning my complaint.
Then Yahweh answered me and said, “Write the vision, and make {it} plain on the tablets,
so that the one reading it may run.
For the vision {is} still for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end and will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it.
For coming, it will come; it will not delay.
Behold! His soul is puffed up;
it is not upright within him,
but the righteous will live by his faithfulness.
And moreover wine deceives the arrogant warrior;
and he will not rest,
who enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
and he {is} like death and is never satisfied.
And he gathers to himself all of the nations
and collects for himself all of the peoples.
Will not these, all of them, take up a proverb against him,
and ridicule, a riddle about him, so that it says,
‘Woe to the one increasing {what is} not his’—until when?
‘and loading onto himself pledges’!
Will not your biters suddenly rise up,
and the ones shaking you awaken?
Then you will become spoils for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
all of the remainder of the peoples will plunder you,
from the bloodshed of man and the violence of the land,
the city, and all the dwellers in it.
‘Woe to the one gaining an evil gain for his house,
to set his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of evil.’
You have counseled shame for your house,
cutting off many peoples, and sinning against your soul.
For a stone will cry out from the wall,
and a beam from the wood will answer it,
‘Woe to the one building a city with bloodshed,
and {who} establishes a town with injustice.’
Behold, {is it} not from Yahweh of armies
that peoples labor for fire and nations become weary for emptiness?
For the earth will be filled with knowing the glory of Yahweh,
as the waters cover over the sea.
‘Woe to the one causing his neighbor to drink,
pouring out your wineskin, and even making {him} drunk,
in order to look upon their nakedness.
You have become full {of} shame instead of glory.
Drink, you also, and be uncircumcised!
The cup of the right hand of Yahweh will come around to you,
and disgrace upon your glory.
For the violence of Lebanon will cover you
and the destruction of beasts will terrify them,
from the bloodshed of man and the violence of the land,
the city, and all the dwellers in it.’
What does a carved image profit when its fashioner has carved it,
a molten idol and a teacher of lies?
For the one forming its form has trusted in it,
to make mute idols.
‘Woe to the one saying to the wood, Awake,
to the silent stone, Arise!’
It teaches!
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
but there is not any breath within it.
But Yahweh is in the temple of his holiness!
Hush, all the earth from his face!”
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on shigyonoth.
Yahweh, I have heard your report;
I feared, Yahweh, your work.
In the midst of the years, revive it;
in the midst of the years, make it known.
In wrath, remember compassion.
God came from Teman,
and the Holy One, from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
and his praise filled the earth.
And {his} brightness was like the light;
his rays {came} from his hand,
and there {was} the hiding of his strength.
Before his face plague went,
and fiery bolts went out at his feet.
He stood, and he measured the earth.
He looked, and he made the nations spring apart.
The eternal mountains were shattered;
the everlasting hills sank down.
His goings {are} everlasting.
Under trouble I saw the tents of Cushan;
the curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
Was it against the rivers that Yahweh burned?
Or {was} your nose against the rivers?
Or {was} your fury against the sea,
that you rode on your horses,
your chariots of salvation?
Your bow was completely bared;
the oaths {sworn} to the staffs {were} a word. Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw you; they writhed.
A torrent of waters swept past.
The deep gave its voice;
it lifted its hands on high.
The sun {and} moon stood still in their habitation,
at the light of your arrows as they flew,
at the gleam of the lightning of your spear.
In indignation you marched through the earth;
in anger you threshed the nations.
You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed one.
You struck the head from the house of the wicked,
laying bare the foundation to the neck. Selah
You pierced with his own staffs the head of his warriors.
They stormed to scatter me;
their exultation {was} as if to devour the afflicted in secret.
You trod the sea with your horses,
{through} the heap of great waters.
I heard, and my belly trembled;
at the sound, my lips quivered.
Decay entered into my bones,
and in my place I trembled.
Yet I may rest for the day of distress,
to come up against the people who attack us.
Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and {there} is no produce on the vines,
the work of the olive has been deceptive,
and the fields have not produced food,
the flock has been cut off from the fold,
and {there} are no cattle in the stalls—
yet I, I will exult in Yahweh;
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
Yahweh the Lord {is} my strength,
and he made my feet like deer,
and on my high places he makes me tread.
To the chief musician, on my stringed instruments.
