Habakkuk 1:1–2:20
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Yahweh, how long shall I cry for help
and you will not listen?
How long will I cry out to you, “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you cause me to see evil
while you look at trouble?
Destruction and violence happen before me;
contention and strife arise.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice does not go forth perpetually.a
For the wicked surround the righteous;
therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5 “Look among the nations and see;
be astonished and astounded.
For a work is about to be done in your days
that you will not believe if it is told.
6 For look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,
the bitter and impetuous nation,
the one who walks through the spacious places of earth
to take possession of dwellings not belonging to it.b
7 Theyc are dreadful and awesome;
theird justice and theire dignity proceed from themselves.f
8 Theirg horses are more swift than leopards;
they are more menacing than wolves at dusk.
Theirh horsemen gallop; theiri horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle that is swift to devour.
9 All of themj come for violence,
their faces pressing forward.
They gather captives like the sand.
10 And they themselves scoff at kings
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortification,
and they heap up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep like the wind and pass on;
they become guilty, whose might is theirk god!”
12 Are you not from of old,
O Yahweh my God, my Holy One?
Youl shall not die.
O Yahweh, you have marked themm for judgment;
O Rock, you have established themn for reproof.
13 Your eyes are too pure to see evil,
and you are not able to look at wrongdoing.o
Why do you look at the treacherous?
Why are you silent when the wicked swallows up
someone more righteous than him?
14 You make humankind like fish of the sea,
like crawling creatures that have no ruler among them.
15 He brings up all of them with a fishhook;
he drags them up with his fishnet,
and he gathers them in his dragnet.
Therefore, he rejoices and exults.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his fishnet
and makes offerings to his dragnet,
for by them ⌊he makes a good living⌋p
and his food is rich.
17 Will he therefore empty his fishnet
and continually kill nations without showing mercy?
The Righteous Will Live by Faith
2 I will stand at my post,
and station myself on the rampart.
And I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
2 Then Yahweh answered me and said,
“Write the vision and make it plain on the tablet
so that ⌊it might be read quickly⌋.a
3 For there is yet a vision for the appointed time;
it will give witness to the end, and it will not lie.
If it tarries, wait for it,
for it will surely come and not delay.
4 Look! His spirit within him is puffed up;
it is not upright.
But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness.
5 ⌊How much less⌋b the defiant;c
the arrogant, treacherous man?
He who broadens his throat like Sheol,
and who, like death, is not satisfied,
and who gathers to himself all the nations,
and harvested for himself all the peoples,
will not succeed.
6 Shall not all of these take up a taunt against him,
with ridicule and riddles against him, saying,
‘Woe to him who heaps up what is not his’?
For how long?
And, ‘Woe to him who makes himself heavy with pledges’?
7 Will not your creditors suddenly rise up
and awaken those who make you tremble?
Then you shall be as plunder for them.
8 Because you plundered many nations,
all the remaining nations will plunder you
on account of the blood of humanity
and violence against the land,
and against cities and all who live in them.
9 Woe to him who obtains profit from evil gain for his house,
to set his nest on high,
to be saved from the hand of misfortune!
10 You have plotted shame for your house,
cutting off many peoples
and sinning against your life.
11 For the stone will cry out from the wall,
and the plaster from the wood will answer it.
12 Woe to him who builds a city by bloodguilt,
and who founds a city by wickedness!
13 Look! Is it not from Yahweh of hosts
that people labor for mere fire,
and nations exhaust themselves for mere vanity?
14 For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,
like the waters covering the sea.
15 Woe to him who gives a drink to his neighbors,
pouring out your wrath and also making them drunk
in order to see their nakedness!
16 You will be sated with shame rather than glory.
Drink also yourself, and expose yourself!
The cup of the right hand of Yahweh
will come around upon you
and disgrace upon your glory.
17 For the violence of Lebanon will cover you,
and the destruction of wild animals will shatter them
on account of the blood of humanity,
and the violence against the land,
against a city and all the inhabitants in it.
when its carver has fashioned it,
a molten idol, a teacher of lies?
For he who fashioned his creation trusts in it,
though making mute idols!
19 Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Wake up!’
And to a lifeless stone, ‘Arise!’
Can he teach?
Look, it is covered with gold and silver,
and there is no breath within it.
20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.”