Habakkuk 1–3

Chapter 1

Chaldeans Used to Punish Judah

¹The ^1aoracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

^2aHow long, O Lord, 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 iniquity,

And cause me to look on wickedness?

Yes, ^bdestruction and violence are before me;

^cStrife exists and contention arises.

⁴Therefore the ^alaw is ¹ignored

And justice ²is never upheld.

For the wicked ^bsurround the righteous;

Therefore justice comes out ^cperverted.

⁵“^aLook among the nations! Observe!

Be astonished! ^bWonder!

Because I am doing ^csomething in your days—

You would not believe if ¹you were told.

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

That ¹fierce and impetuous people

Who march ²throughout the earth

To ^3bseize dwelling places which are not theirs.

⁷“They are dreaded and ^afeared;

Their ^bjustice and ¹authority ²originate with themselves.

⁸“Their ^ahorses are swifter than leopards

And ¹keener 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.

They collect captives like sand.

¹⁰“They ^amock at kings

And rulers are a laughing matter to them.

They ^blaugh at every fortress

And ^cheap up rubble to capture it.

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

But they will be held ^bguilty,

They whose ^cstrength is their god.”

¹²Are You not from ^aeverlasting,

O Lord, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

You, O Lord, have ^bappointed them to judge;

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

¹³Your eyes are too ^apure to ¹approve evil,

And You can not look on wickedness with favor.

Why do You ^blook with favor

On those who deal ^ctreacherously?

Why are You ^dsilent when the wicked ^eswallow up

Those more righteous than they?

¹⁴Why have You 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 rejoice and are glad.

¹⁶Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net

and ¹burn incense to their fishing net;

Because through ^athese things their ²catch is ³large,

And their food is ⁴plentiful.

¹⁷Will they therefore empty their ^anet

And continually ^bslay nations without sparing?

Chapter 2

God Answers the Prophet

¹I will ^astand on my guard post

And station myself on the rampart;

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

And how I may reply ¹when I am reproved.

²Then the Lord answered me and said,

“^aRecord the vision

And inscribe it on tablets,

That ¹the one who ²reads it may run.

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

It ¹hastens toward the goal and it will not ²fail.

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“Furthermore, ^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 collects to himself all peoples.

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

Even mockery and insinuations 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 ²collect from you awaken?

Indeed, you will become plunder for them.

⁸“Because you have ^alooted many nations,

All the remainder of the peoples will loot you—

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

To the town and all its inhabitants.

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

To ^bput his nest on high,

To be delivered from the hand of calamity!

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

By cutting off many peoples;

So you are ^bsinning against yourself.

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 ¹violence!

¹³“Is it not indeed from the Lord 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 the Lord,

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 honor.

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

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

And ^cutter disgrace will come upon your glory.

¹⁷“For the ^aviolence ¹done to Lebanon will ²overwhelm you,

And the devastation of its beasts ³by which you terrified them,

^bBecause of human bloodshed and ^cviolence ⁴done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

¹⁸“What ^aprofit is the ¹idol when its maker has carved it,

Or ²an image, a ^bteacher of falsehood?

For its maker ^ctrusts in his own handiwork

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 the ^aLord is in His holy temple.

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

Chapter 3

God’s Deliverance of His People

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

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

O Lord, ^crevive ^dYour work in the midst of the years,

In the midst of the years make it known;

In wrath remember ^3emercy.

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 ^aradiance is like the sunlight;

He has rays flashing from His hand,

And there is the hiding of His ^bpower.

⁵Before Him goes ^apestilence,

And ^bplague comes ¹after Him.

⁶He stood and surveyed the earth;

He looked and ^astartled the nations.

Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered,

The ancient hills ¹collapsed.

His ways are ^beverlasting.

⁷I saw the tents of Cushan under ^adistress,

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

⁸Did the Lord rage 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,

The rods of ¹chastisement were sworn.

Selah.

You ^bcleaved the earth with rivers.

¹⁰The mountains saw You and quaked;

The downpour of waters swept by.

The deep ^auttered forth its voice,

It lifted high its hands.

^11aSun and moon stood in their places;

They went away at the ^blight of Your arrows,

At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.

¹²In indignation You ^amarched through the earth;

In anger You ^1btrampled the nations.

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

For the salvation of Your ^banointed.

You struck the ^chead of the house of the evil

To lay him open from ¹thigh to neck.

Selah.

¹⁴You pierced with his ^aown ¹spears

The head of his ²throngs.

They ^bstormed in to scatter ³us;

Their exultation was like those

Who ^cdevour the oppressed in secret.

¹⁵You ^atrampled on the sea with Your horses,

On the ^bsurge of many waters.

¹⁶I heard and my ¹inward parts ^atrembled,

At the sound my lips quivered.

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 ¹fruit on the vines,

Though the yield of the ^bolive should fail

And the fields produce 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 the Lord,

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

¹⁹The Lord ¹God is my ^astrength,

And ^bHe has made my feet like hinds’ feet,

And makes me walk on my ^chigh places.

For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.