1:1 The word which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
1:2 How long, O Lord, will your ears be shut to my voice? I
make
an outcry to you
about violent behaviour, but you do not send
salvation.
1:3 Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes
fixed
on wrong? for wasting
and violent acts are before me: and there
is fighting and
bitter argument.
1:4 For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not
effected: for the
upright man is circled round by evil-doers;
because of which
right is twisted.
1:5 See among the nations, and take note, and be full of
wonder:
for in your days I am
doing a work in which you will have no
belief, even if news
of it is given to you.
1:6 For see, I am sending the Chaldaeans, that bitter and
quick-moving nation;
who go through the wide spaces of the
earth to get for
themselves living-places which are not theirs.
1:7 They are greatly to be feared: their right comes from
themselves.
1:8 And their horses are quicker than leopards and their
horsemen more cruel
than evening wolves; they come from far
away, like an eagle
in flight rushing on its food.
1:9 They are coming all of them with force; the direction of
their faces is
forward, the number of their prisoners is like
the sands of the sea.
1:10 He makes little of kings, rulers are a sport to him;
all
the strong places are
to be laughed at; for he makes earthworks
and takes them.
1:11 Then his purpose will be changed, over-stepping the
limit;
he will make his
strength his god.
1:12 Are you not eternal, O Lord my God, my Holy One? for
you
there is no death. O
Lord, he has been ordered by you for our
punishment; and by
you, O Rock, he has been marked out to put
us right.
1:13 Before your holy eyes sin may not be seen, and you are
unable to put up with
wrong; why, then, are your eyes on the
false? why do you say
nothing when the evil-doer puts an end to
one who is more
upright than himself?
1:14 He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the
worms
which have no ruler
over them.
1:15 He takes them all up with his hook, he takes them in
his
net, getting them
together in his fishing-net: for which cause
he is glad and full
of joy.
1:16 For this reason he makes an offering to his net,
burning
perfume to his
fishing-net; because by them he gets much food
and his meat is fat.
1:17 For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no
end to
his destruction of
the nations.
2:1 I will take my position and be on watch, placing myself
on
my tower, looking out
to see what he will say to me, and what
answer he will give
to my protest.
2:2 And the Lord gave me an answer, and said, Put the vision
in
writing and make it
clear on stones, so that the reader may go
quickly.
2:3 For the vision is still for the fixed time, and it is
moving
quickly to the end,
and it will not be false: even if it is
slow in coming, go on
waiting for it; because it will certainly
come, it will not be
kept back.
2:4 As for the man of pride, my soul has no pleasure in him;
but
the upright man will
have life through his good faith.
2:5 A curse on the cruel and false one! the man full of
pride,
who never has enough;
who makes his desires wide as the
underworld! he is
like death; he is never full, but he makes
all nations come to
him, getting all peoples together to
himself.
2:6 Will not all these take up a word of shame against him
and a
bitter saying against
him, and say, A curse on him who goes on
taking what is not
his and is weighted down with the property
of debtors!
2:7 Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you,
and
your troublers get up
from their sleep, and you will be to them
like goods taken in
war?
2:8 Because you have taken their goods from great nations,
all
the rest of the
peoples will take your goods from you; because
of men's blood and
violent acts against the land and the town
and all who are
living in it.
2:9 A curse on him who gets evil profits for his family, so
that
he may put his
resting-place on high and be safe from the hand
of the wrongdoer!
2:10 You have been a cause of shame to your house by cutting
off
a number of peoples,
and sinning against your soul.
2:11 For the stone will give a cry out of the wall, and it
will
be answered by the
board out of the woodwork.
2:12 A curse on him who is building a place with blood, and
basing a town on
evil-doing!
2:13 See, is it not the pleasure of the Lord of armies that
the
peoples are working
for the fire and using themselves up for
nothing?
2:14 For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the
glory of
the Lord as the sea
is covered by the waters.
2:15 A curse on him who gives his neighbour the wine of his
wrath, making him
overcome with strong drink from the cup of
his passion, so that
you may be a witness of their shame!
2:16 You are full of shame in place of glory: take your part
in
the drinking, and let
your shame be uncovered: the cup of the
Lord's right hand will
come round to you and your glory will be
covered with shame.
2:17 For the violent acts against Lebanon will come on you,
and
the destruction of
the cattle will be a cause of fear to you,
because of men's
blood and the violent acts against the land
and the town and all
who are living in it.
2:18 What profit is the pictured image to its maker? and as
for
the metal image, the
false teacher, why does its maker put his
faith in it, making
false gods without a voice?
2:19 A curse on him who says to the wood, Awake! to the
unbreathing stone,
Up! let it be a teacher! See, it is plated
with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all inside it.
2:20 But the Lord is in his holy Temple: let all the earth
be
quiet before him.
3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, put to Shigionoth.
3:2 O Lord, word of you has come to my ears; I have seen
your
work, O Lord; when
the years come near make it clear; in wrath
keep mercy in mind.
3:3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
Selah. The heavens
were covered with his glory, and the earth
was full of his
praise.
3:4 He was shining like the light; he had rays coming out
from
his hand: there his
power was kept secret.
3:5 Before him went disease, and flames went out at his
feet.
3:6 From his high place he sent shaking on the earth; he saw
and
nations were suddenly
moved: and the eternal mountains were
broken, the
unchanging hills were bent down; his ways are
eternal.
3:7 The curtains of Cushan were troubled, and the tents of
Midian were shaking.
3:8 Was your wrath burning against the rivers? were you
angry
with the sea, that
you went on your horses, on your
war-carriages of
salvation?
3:9 Your bow was quite uncovered. Selah. By you the earth
was
cut through with
rivers.
3:10 The mountains saw you and were moved with fear; the
clouds
were streaming with
water: the voice of the deep was sounding;
the sun did not come
up, and the moon kept still in her place.
3:11 At the light of your arrows they went away, at the
shining
of your polished
spear.
3:12 You went stepping through the land in wrath, crushing
the
nations in your
passion.
3:13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the
salvation of the one
on whom your holy oil was put; wounding
the head of the
family of the evil-doer, uncovering the base
even to the neck.
Selah.
3:14 You have put your spears through his head, his horsemen
were sent in flight
like dry stems; they had joy in driving
away the poor, in
making a meal of them secretly.
3:15 The feet of your horses were on the sea, on the mass of
great waters.
3:16 Hearing it, my inner parts were moved, and my lips were
shaking at the sound;
my bones became feeble, and my steps were
uncertain under me: I
gave sounds of grief in the day of
trouble, when his
forces came up against the people in bands.
3:17 For though the fig-tree has no flowers, and there is no
fruit on the vine,
and work on the olive comes to nothing, and
the fields give no
food; and the flock is cut off from its
resting-place, and
there is no herd in the cattle-house:
3:18 Still, I will be glad in the Lord, my joy will be in
the
God of my salvation.
3:19 The Lord God is my strength, and he makes my feet like
roes' feet, guiding
me on my high places. For the chief
music-maker on corded instruments.