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Habakkuk 1
The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Yahweh, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you of violence, and you will not save. 3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look upon perverseness? For destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rises up. 4 Therefore the law is slacked, and justice does never go forth; for the wicked does compass about the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5 Behold you among the nations, and look, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told to you. 6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen press proudly on: yes, their horsemen come from far; they fly as an eagle that hastes to devour. 9 They come all of them for violence; the set of their faces is forwards; and they gather captives as the sand. 10 Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him; he derides every stronghold; for he heaps up dust, and takes it. 11 Then shall he sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over, and be guilty, even he whose might is his mighty one.
12 Are you not from everlasting, O Yahweh my Elohim, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Yahweh, you have ordained him for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established him for correction. 13 You that are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that cannot look on perverseness, why do you look upon them that deal treacherously, and hold your peace when the wicked swallow up the man that is more righteous than he; 14 and makes men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15 He takes up all of them with the hook, he catches them in his net, and gathers them in his drag: therefore he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his drag; because by them his portion is fat, and his food plenteous. 17 Shall he therefore empty his net, and spare not to kill the nations continually?
Habakkuk 2
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will speak with me, and what I shall answer concerning my complaint. 2 And Yahweh answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hastes toward the end, and shall not lie: though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay.4 Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; but the righteous shall live by his faith. 5 Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous, a haughty man, who stays not at home; who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers to him all nations, and heaps to him all peoples. 6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him who increases that which is not his! How long? And who burdens himself with pledges! 7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and awake that shall vex you, and you shall be for booty to them? 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all that dwell in it.
9 Woe to him that gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! 10 You have devised shame to your house, by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against your 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 builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of Yahweh of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity? 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe to him that gives his neighbor drink, to you that add your venom, and make him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness! 16 You are filled with shame, and not glory: you drink also, and be as one uncircumcised; the cup of Yahweh’s right hand shall come around to you, and foul shame shall be upon your glory. 17 For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover you, and the destruction of the beasts, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all that dwell in it.
18 What profits the carved image, that the maker of it has carved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he that fashions its form trusts in it, to make dumb idols? 19 Woe to him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the middle of it. 20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
Habakkuk 3
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to Shigionoth.
2 O Yahweh, I have heard the report of you, and am afraid:
O Yahweh, revive your work in the middle of the years;
In the middle of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.
3 Eloah came from Teman,
And the Holy One from mount Paran.
Selah’s glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of his praise.
4 And his brightness was as the light;
He had rays coming forth from his hand;
And there was the hiding of his power.
5 Before him went the pestilence,
And fiery bolts went forth at his feet.
6 He stood, and measured the earth;
He beheld, and drove apart the nations;
And the eternal mountains were scattered;
The everlasting hills bowed;
His goings were as of old.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
8 Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers?
Was your anger against the rivers,
Or your wrath against the sea,
That you rode upon your horses,
Upon your chariots of salvation?
9 Your bow was made quite bare;
The oaths to the tribes were a sure word.
Selah.
You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you, and were afraid;
The tempest of waters passed by;
The deep uttered its voice,
And lifted up its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation,
At the light of your arrows as they went,
At the shining of your glittering spear.
12 You did march through the land in indignation;
You did thresh the nations in anger.
13 You went forth for the salvation of your people,
For Yahshua your Messiah;
You wounded the head out of the house of the wicked man,
Laying bare the foundation even to the neck.
Selah
14 You did pierce with his own staves the head of his warriors:
They came as a whirlwind to scatter me;
Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
15 You did tread the sea with your horses,
The foaming of mighty waters.
16 I heard, and my body trembled,
My lips quivered at the voice;
Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place;
Because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble,
For the coming up of the people that invades us.
17 For though the fig-tree shall not flourish,
Neither shall fruit be in the vines;
The labor of the olive shall fail,
And the fields shall yield no food;
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 Elohim of my salvation.
19 Yahweh, the Sovereign, is my strength;
And he makes my feet like hinds’ feet,
And will make me to walk upon my high places.
For the Chief Musician stringed on my instrument.
