- 1
- The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
- 2
- Jehovah, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear?
I cry out unto thee, Violence! and thou dost not save.
- 3
- Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance?
For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.
- 4
- Therefore the law is powerless, and justice doth never go forth;
for the wicked encompasseth the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted.
- 5
- See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously;
for [I] work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared [to you].
- 6
- For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marcheth through the breadth 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
- And their horses are swifter than the leopards, and are more agile than the evening wolves;
and their horsemen prance proudly, and their horsemen come from afar: they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour.
- 9
- They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.
- 10
- Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a scorn unto him;
he derideth every stronghold: for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it.
- 11
- Then will his mind change, and he will pass on, and become guilty: this his power is become his +god.
- 12
- — Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die. Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction.
- 13
- [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on mischief: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [and] keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a [man] more righteous than he?
- 14
- And thou makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them.
- 15
- He taketh up all of them with the hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag;
therefore he rejoiceth and is glad:
- 16
- therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag;
for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty.
- 17
- Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?
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