Habakkuk 1–3

CHAPTER 1

Habakkuk Calls For Help

¹The ^1aoracle which Habakkuk the prophet beheld.

^2aHow long, O ¹Yahweh, will I call for help,

And You will not hear?

I cry out to You, “Violence!”

Yet You do ^bnot save.

³Why do You make me ^asee wickedness

And cause me to look on trouble?

Indeed, ^bdevastation and violence are before me;

^cAnd there is strife, and contention is lifted up.

⁴Therefore the ^alaw is ¹ignored,

And justice never comes forth.

For the wicked ^bsurround the righteous;

Therefore justice comes forth ^cperverted.

Yahweh Raises the Dreaded Chaldeans

⁵“^aSee among the nations! And look!

Be also astonished! ^bBe astounded!

Because I am doing ^csomething in your days—

You would not believe if it was recounted to you.

⁶“For behold, I am ^araising up the Chaldeans,

That bitter and hasty nation

Who walks on the breadth of the land

To ^bpossess dwelling places which are not theirs.

⁷“They are dreaded and ^afeared;

Their ^bjustice and exaltation come forth from themselves.

⁸“Their ^ahorses are swifter than leopards

And ¹sharper than ^bwolves in the evening.

Their ²horsemen come galloping;

Their horsemen come from afar;

They fly like an ^ceagle swooping down to devour.

⁹“All of them come for violence.

¹Their horde of ^afaces moves forward.

And they gather captives like sand.

¹⁰“And they ^amock at kings,

And rulers are a laughing matter to them.

They ^blaugh at every fortress

And ^cheap up dirt and capture it.

¹¹“Then they will sweep through like the ^awind and pass on.

But they will be held ^bguilty,

They whose ^cpower is their god.”

Yahweh Has Placed Them to Judge

¹²Are You not from ^aeverlasting,

O Yahweh, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

You, O Yahweh, have ^bplaced them to judge;

And You, O ^cRock, have established them to reprove.

¹³Your eyes are too ^apure to see evil,

And You cannot look on trouble.

Why do You ^blook

On those who deal ^ctreacherously?

Why are You ^dsilent when the wicked ^eswallow up

Those more righteous than they?

¹⁴And You have made men like the fish of the sea,

Like creeping things without a ruler over them.

¹⁵The Chaldeans ^abring all of them up with a hook,

^bDrag them away with their net,

And gather them together in their fishing net.

Therefore they are glad and rejoice.

¹⁶Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net

And ¹burn incense to their fishing net

Because through ^athese things their portion is rich

And their food is fat.

¹⁷Will they therefore empty their ^anet

And continually ^bkill nations without sparing?

CHAPTER 2

The Righteous Will Live by His Faith

¹I will ^astand on my guard post

And station myself on the fortification;

And I will ^bkeep watch to see ^cwhat He will speak to me

And how I may respond ¹when I am reproved.

²Then Yahweh answered me and said,

“^aWrite down the vision

And write it on tablets distinctly,

That ¹the one who ²reads it may run.

³“For the vision is yet for the ^aappointed time;

It pants toward its end, and it will not ¹lie.

Though it tarries, ^bwait for it;

For it will certainly come; it ^cwill not delay.

⁴“Behold, as for the ^aproud one,

His soul is not right within him;

But the ^brighteous will live by his ¹faith.

⁵“And indeed, ^awine betrays the ^bhaughty man

So that he does not ^cstay at home.

He ^denlarges his appetite like Sheol,

And he is like death, never satisfied.

He also gathers to himself all nations

And assembles to himself all peoples.

⁶“Will not all of these ^alift up a taunt-song against him,

Even satire and riddles against him

And say, ‘^bWoe to him who increases what is not his—

For how long—

And makes himself ¹rich with loans?’

⁷“Will not ¹your creditors ^arise up suddenly,

And those who make you tremble awaken?

Indeed, you will become spoil for them.

⁸“Because you have ^ataken many nations as spoil,

All that is left of the peoples will take you as spoil—

Because of human bloodshed and violence ¹done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

⁹“Woe to him who is greedy for ^aevil gain for his house

To ^bput his nest on high,

To be delivered from the hand of evil!

¹⁰“You have counseled a ^ashameful thing for your house

By cutting off many peoples;

So you are ^bsinning against your own soul.

¹¹“Surely the ^astone will cry out from the wall,

And the rafter will answer it from the ¹framework.

¹²“Woe to him who ^abuilds a city with bloodshed

And founds a town with injustice!

¹³“Is it not, behold, from Yahweh of hosts

That peoples ^atoil for fire,

And nations grow weary for nothing?

¹⁴“For the earth will be ^afilled

With the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,

As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵“Woe to you who make ¹your neighbors drink,

Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk

So as to look on their nakedness!

¹⁶“You will be filled with disgrace rather than glory.

Now you yourself ^adrink and ¹expose your own nakedness.

The ^bcup in Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you,

And ^cutter disgrace will come upon your glory.

¹⁷“For the ^aviolence ¹done to Lebanon will cover you,

And the devastation of its beasts ²by which you terrified them,

^bBecause of human bloodshed and ^cviolence ³done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

¹⁸“What ^aprofit is the graven image when its maker has engraved it,

Or a molten image, a ^bteacher of ¹lies?

For its maker ^ctrusts in his own making

When he fashions speechless idols.

¹⁹“Woe to him who ^asays to a piece of wood, ‘^bAwake!’

To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’

And that is your teacher?

Behold, it is overlaid with ^cgold and silver,

And there is ^dno breath at all inside it.

²⁰“But ^aYahweh is in His holy temple.

¹Let all the earth ^bbe silent before Him.”

CHAPTER 3

Yet I Will Exalt in Yahweh

¹A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to ¹Shigionoth.

²O Yahweh, I have ^aheard ¹the report about You, and ²I ^bfear.

O Yahweh, ^crevive ^dYour work in the midst of the years;

In the midst of the years make it known;

In rage remember ^ecompassion.

³God comes from ^aTeman,

And the Holy One from Mount ^bParan. Selah.

His ^csplendor covers the heavens,

And the ^dearth is full of His praise.

⁴His ^abrightness is like the sunlight;

He has rays flashing from His hand,

And there is the hiding of His ^bstrength.

⁵Before Him goes ^apestilence,

And ^bplague comes ¹after Him.

⁶He stood and ¹measured out the earth;

He looked and ^astartled the nations.

So the perpetual mountains were shattered;

The ancient hills ²collapsed.

His ways are ^beverlasting.

⁷I saw the tents of Cushan under ^awickedness;

The tent curtains of the land of ^bMidian were trembling.

⁸Did Yahweh’s fury burn against the ^arivers,

Or was Your anger against the rivers,

Or was Your wrath against the ^bsea,

That You ^crode on Your horses,

On Your ^dchariots of salvation?

⁹Your ^abow was made bare;

Rods were sworn unto battle by word. Selah.

You ^bsplit the earth with rivers.

¹⁰The mountains saw You and writhed;

The downpour of waters passed by.

The deep ^agave forth its voice;

It lifted high its hands.

^11aSun and moon stood in their lofty places;

They went away at the ^blight of Your arrows,

At the brightness of Your flashing spear.

¹²In indignation You ^amarched through the earth;

In anger You ^1btrampled the nations.

¹³You went forth for the ^asalvation of Your people,

For salvation with Your ^banointed.

You crushed the ^chead of the house of the wicked

To lay him bare from ¹thigh to neck. Selah.

¹⁴You pierced with his ^aown sharpened rods

The head of his ¹throngs.

They ^bstormed in to scatter ²us;

Their exultation was like those

Who ^cdevour the afflicted in secret.

¹⁵You ^atread on the sea with Your horses,

On the ^bsurge of many waters.

¹⁶I heard, and my ¹inward parts ^atrembled;

At the sound my lips tingled.

Decay enters my ^bbones,

And in my place I tremble.

Because I must ^cwait quietly for the day of distress,

²For the ^dpeople to arise who will invade us.

¹⁷Though the ^afig tree should not blossom

And there be no produce on the vines,

Though the yield of the ^bolive should fail

And the fields yield no food,

Though the ^cflock should be cut off from the fold

And there be ^dno cattle in the stalls,

¹⁸Yet I will ^aexult in Yahweh;

I will ^brejoice in the ^cGod of my salvation.

¹⁹Yahweh, the Lord, is my ^1astrength,

And ^bHe has set my feet like hinds’ feet

And makes me tread on my ^chigh places.

²For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.