Habakkuk
1:1 The
burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
1:2
O LORD, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear! even
cry out unto you of violence, and you will not save!
1:3
Why do you show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?
for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and
contention.
1:4 Therefore
the law is slacked, and judgment does never go forth: for the wicked does compass
about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceeds.
1:5
Behold all of you among the heathen, and regard, and wonder
marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which all of you will not believe,
though it be told you.
1:6
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty
nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling
places that are not their's.
1:7
They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their
dignity shall proceed of themselves.
1:8
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are
more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves,
and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hastes
to eat.
1:9 They
shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they
shall gather the captivity as the sand.
1:10
And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall
be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap
dust, and take it.
1:11
Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and
offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
1:12
Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One?
we shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God,
you have established them for correction.
1:13
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look
on iniquity: wherefore look you upon them that deal treacherously, and hold your
tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he?
1:14 And
make men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler
over them?
1:15 They
take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them
in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
1:16
Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense
unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their food abundant.
1:17 Shall
they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
2:1 I
will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what
he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and
make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.
2:3
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the
end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will
surely come, it will not tarry.
2:4
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him:
but the just shall live by his faith.
2:5
Yea also, because he trangresses by wine, he is a proud
man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as hell, and is as death,
and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and heaps unto him
all people:
2:6 Shall
not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him,
and say, Woe to him that increases that which is not his! how long? and to him
that loads himself with thick clay!
2:7
Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and
awake that shall vex you, and you shall be for booties unto them?
2:8
Because you have spoiled many nations, all the remnant of
the people shall spoil you; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the
land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
2:9
Woe to him that covers an evil covetousness to his house,
that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
2:10 You
have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned
against your soul.
2:11
For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out
of the timber shall answer it.
2:12
Woe to him that builds a town with blood, and establishes
a city by iniquity!
2:13
Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall
labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
2:14 For
the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the
waters cover the sea.
2:15
Woe unto him that gives his neighbour drink, that put your
bottle to him, and make him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness!
2:16 You
are filled with shame for glory: drink you also, and let your foreskin be uncovered:
the cup of the LORD's right hand shall be turned unto you, and shameful spewing
shall be on your glory.
2:17
For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the spoil
of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence
of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
2:18
What profits the graven image that the maker thereof has
graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work
trusts therein, to make dumb idols?
2:19
Woe unto him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone,
Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there
is no breath at all in the midst of it.
2:20
But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep
silence before him.
3:1
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
3:2 O LORD,
I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the midst
of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
3:3 God came
from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
3:4
And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming
out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
3:5
Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth
at his feet.
3:6 He
stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the
everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are
everlasting.
3:7 I
saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian
did tremble.
3:8 Was
the LORD displeased against the rivers? was yours anger against the rivers? was
your wrath against the sea, that you did ride upon yours horses and your chariots
of salvation?
3:9 Your
bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even your word.
Selah. You did cleave the earth with rivers.
3:10
The mountains saw you, and they trembled: the overflowing
of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on
high.
3:11 The
sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of yours arrows they
went, and at the shining of your glittering spear.
3:12
You did march through the land in indignation, you did thresh
the heathen in anger.
3:13
You went forth for the salvation of your people, even for
salvation with yours anointed; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked,
by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.
3:14
You did strike through with his staves the head of his villages:
they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the
poor secretly.
3:15 You
did walk through the sea with yours horses, through the heap of great waters.
3:16 When
I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered
into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble:
when he comes up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
3:17 Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour
of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food; the flock shall be
cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
3:18
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of
my salvation.
3:19 The
LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will
make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.