Habakkuk 1–3

¹The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

The Prophet’s Complaint

²O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not listen?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

and you will not save?^*

³Why do you make me see wrongdoing

and look at trouble?

Destruction and violence are before me;

strife and contention arise.^*

⁴So the law becomes slack,

and justice never prevails.

The wicked surround the righteous;

therefore judgment comes forth perverted.^*

⁵Look at the nations and see!

Be astonished! Be astounded!

For a work is being done in your days

that you would not believe if you were told.^*

⁶For I am rousing the Chaldeans,

that fierce and impetuous nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth

to seize dwellings not their own.^*

⁷Dread and fearsome are they;

their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.^*

⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards,

more menacing than wolves at dusk;

their horses charge.

Their horsemen come from far away;

they fly like an eagle swift to devour.^*

⁹They all come for violence,

with faces pressing^a forward;

they gather captives like sand.^*

¹⁰At kings they scoff,

and of rulers they make sport.

They laugh at every fortress

and heap up earth to take it.^*

¹¹Then they sweep by like the wind;

they transgress and become guilty;

their own might is their god!^*

¹²Are you not from of old,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

You^b shall not die.

O Lord, you have marked them for judgment,

and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.^*

¹³Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,

and you cannot look on wrongdoing;

why do you look on the treacherous

and are silent when the wicked swallow

those more righteous than they?^*

¹⁴You have made people 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 makes offerings to his seine,

for by them his portion is lavish,

and his food is rich.

¹⁷Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and destroying nations without mercy?^*

God’s Reply to the Prophet’s Complaint

²I will stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the rampart;

I will keep watch to see what he will say to me

and what he^c will answer concerning my complaint.^*

²Then the Lord answered me and said:

Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so that a runner may read it.^*

³For there is still a vision for the appointed time;

it speaks of the end and does not lie.

If it seems to tarry, wait for it;

it will surely come; it will not delay.^*

⁴Look at the proud!

Their spirit is not right in them,

but the righteous live by their faithfulness.^*

⁵Moreover, wealth^d is treacherous;

the arrogant do not endure.

They open their throats wide as Sheol;

like Death they never have enough.

They gather all nations for themselves

and collect all peoples as their own.^*

The Woes of the Wicked

⁶Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them,

“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”

How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?^*

⁷Will not your own creditors suddenly rise

and those who make you tremble wake up?

Then you will be plunder for them.

⁸Because you have plundered many nations,

all who survive of the peoples shall plunder you—

because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who live in them.^*

⁹“Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,

setting your nest on high

to be safe from the reach of harm!”^*

¹⁰You have devised shame for your house

by cutting off many peoples;

you have forfeited your life.^*

¹¹The very stones will cry out from the wall,

and the rafter will respond from the woodwork.

¹²“Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed

and found a city on iniquity!”^*

¹³Is it not from the Lord of hosts

that peoples labor only to feed the flames

and nations weary themselves for nothing?

¹⁴But the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

as the waters cover the sea.^*

¹⁵“Alas for you who make your neighbors drink,

pouring out your wrath until they are drunk,

in order to gaze on their nakedness!”^*

¹⁶You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.

Drink, you yourself, and stagger!^e

The cup in the Lord’s right hand

will come around to you,

and shame will come upon your glory!^*

¹⁷For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you;

the destruction of the animals will terrify you—^f

because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who live in them.^*

¹⁸What use is an idol

once its maker has shaped it—

a cast image, a teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in what has been made,

though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!^*

¹⁹Alas for you who say to the wood, “Wake up!”

to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!”

Can it teach?

See, it is gold and silver plated,

and there is no breath in it at all.^*

²⁰But the Lord is in his holy temple;

let all the earth keep silence before him!^*

³A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk according to Shigionoth.

The Prophet’s Prayer

²O Lord, I have heard of your renown,

and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.

In our own time revive it;

in our own time make it known;

in wrath may you remember mercy.^*

³God came from Teman,

the Holy One from Mount Paran.   Selah

His glory covered the heavens,

and the earth was full of his praise.^*

⁴The brightness was like the sun;

rays came forth from his hand,

where his power lay hidden.^*

⁵Before him went pestilence,

and plague followed close behind.^*

⁶He stopped and shook the earth;

he looked and made the nations tremble.

The eternal mountains were shattered;

along his ancient pathways

the everlasting hills sank low.^*

⁷I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction;

the tent curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

⁸Was your wrath against the rivers,^g O Lord,

or your anger against the rivers^h

or your rage against the sea,ⁱ

when you drove your horses,

your chariots to victory?^*

⁹You brandished your naked bow;

sated^j were the arrows at your command.^k   Selah

You split the earth with rivers.^*

¹⁰The mountains saw you and writhed;

a torrent of water swept by;

the deep gave forth its voice.

The sun raised high its hands;^*

¹¹the moon stood still in its exalted place,

at the light of your arrows speeding by,

at the gleam of your flashing spear.^*

¹²In fury you marched on the earth;

in anger you trampled nations.^*

¹³You came forth to save your people,

to save your anointed.

You crushed the head of the wicked house,

laying it bare from foundation to roof.^l   Selah^*

¹⁴You pierced with their^m own arrows the head of his warriors,ⁿ

who came like a whirlwind to scatter us,^o

gloating as if ready to devour the poor who were in hiding.

¹⁵You trampled the sea with your horses,

churning the mighty waters.^*

¹⁶I hear, and I tremble within;

my lips quiver at the sound.

Rottenness enters into my bones,

and my steps tremble^p beneath me.

I wait quietly for the day of calamity

to come upon the people who attack us.^*

Trust and Joy in the Midst of Trouble

¹⁷Though the fig tree does not blossom

and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the olive fails

and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold

and there is no herd in the stalls,^*

¹⁸yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will exult in the God of my salvation.^*

¹⁹God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer

and makes me tread upon the heights.^q

To the leader: with stringed^r instruments.^*