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- ¶ THE vision which Habakkuk the prophet saw:
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- O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear?
I cry to thee because of the plunderers, and thou wilt not deliver!
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- Why dost thou show me iniquity and deceit?
For I see violence and evil;
justice was on my side, but the judge accepted bribes.
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- Therefore the law is slacked, and justice never goes forth;
for the wicked surely does evil to the righteous;
thus justice goes forth perverted.
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- ¶ Behold, O you presumptuous, see, wonder, and be amazed!
for I will do a work in your days that you would not believe if a man should declare it to you.
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- For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that hasty and bitter nation, who shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.
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- They are mighty and dreadful;
their judgment and their notable doings proceed of themselves.
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- Their horses are swifter than eagles and more fierce than the evening wolves;
and their horsemen shall swoop down and shall come from afar;
they shall fly like an eagle that hastens to eat.
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- They all come for plunder;
the appearance of their faces is fearful, and they shall gather booty as the sand.
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- They scoff at kings, and princes they mock;
and they laugh at every stronghold;
for they heap up earth and capture it.
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- Then shall his wind change and pass away, and his army shall be found guilty before his god.
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- ¶ Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One?
Art thou without a law, O LORD?
For thou hast ordained them for judgment, and thou hast created us for chastisement.
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- Thine eyes are too pure, they do not behold evil, and thou canst not look on wicked men;
why dost thou look on presumptuous men, and art silent when the wicked devours the righteous man?
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- And thou didst make men as the fish of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.
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- They take up all of them with the hook, they catch them in a net, and gather them in their drag;
and when they gather them, they rejoice and are glad.
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- Therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag, because by them their portion is made rich, and their food dainty.
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- Therefore they cast their net continually, they slay peoples without pity.
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