— select-a-version↑ 1.
1The oracle of God which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
5Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6For lo, I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize habitations not their own.
7Dread and terrible are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Yea, their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9They all come for violence;
terror of them goes before them.
They gather captives like sand.
10At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they heap up earth and take it.
11Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!
12Are you not from everlasting,
O Yahweh my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Yahweh, you have ordained them as a judgment;
and you, O Rock, have established them for chastisement.
13You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil
and can not look on wrong,
why do you look on faithless men,
and are silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14For you make men like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15He brings all of them up with a hook,
he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
so he rejoices and exults.
16Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his seine;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
17Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
and mercilessly slaying nations for ever?
6Shall not all these take up their taunt against him,
in scoffing derision of him, and say,
"Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own -
for how long? -
and loads himself with pledges!"
7Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
and those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be booty for them.
8Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of men and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell therein.
9Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
to set his nest on high,
to be safe from the reach of harm!
10You have devised shame to your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
11For the stone will cry out from the wall,
and the beam from the woodwork respond.
12Woe to him who builds a town with blood,
and founds a city on iniquity!
13Behold, is it not from Yahweh of hosts
that peoples labour only for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nought?
14For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,
as the waters cover the sea.
15Woe to him who makes his neighbours drink
of the cup of his wrath,
and makes them drunk,
to gaze on their shame!
16You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.
Drink, yourself, and stagger!
The cup in Yahweh's right hand
will come around to you,
and shame will come upon your glory!
17The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you;
the destruction of the beasts will terrify you,
for the blood of men and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell therein.
18What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For the workman trusts in his own creation
when he makes dumb idols!
19Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a dumb stone, Arise!
Can this give revelation?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
20But Yahweh is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.
↑ 3.
1A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 2 O Yahweh, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Yahweh, do I fear.
In the midst of the years renew it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
3God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
Selah
4His brightness was like the light,
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
5Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed close behind.
6He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered,
the everlasting hills sank low.
His ways were as of old.
7I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8Was your wrath against the rivers, O Yahweh?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode upon your horses,
upon your chariot of victory?
9You stripped the sheath from your bow,
and put the arrows to the string.
Selah.
You clove the earth with rivers.
10The mountains saw you, and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice,
it lifted its hands on high.
11The sun and moon stood still in their habitation
at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
12You bestrode the earth in fury,
You trampled the nations in anger.
13You went forth for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah
14You pierced with your shafts the head of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15You trampled the sea with your horses,
the surging of mighty waters.
16I hear, and my body trembles,
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones,
my steps totter beneath me.
I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
17Though the fig tree do not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in Yahweh,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19GOD, Yahweh, is my strength;
he makes my feet like hinds' feet,
he makes me tread upon my high places.To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.