                                   HABAKKUK



Chapter 1

1   The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2   O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out
    unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
3   Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for
    spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife
    and contention.
4   Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth:  for
    the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment
    proceedeth.
5   Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for
    I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be
    told you.
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
    dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
7   They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall
    proceed of themselves.
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
    hasteth to eat.
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.
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.
11  Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend,
    imputing this his power unto his god.
12  Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?  we
    shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O
    mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
13  Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on
    iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and
    holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more
    righteous than he?
14  And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that
    have no ruler over them?
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.
16  Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their
    drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
17  Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to
    slay the nations?

Chapter 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   And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it
    plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
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.
4   Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the
    just shall live by his faith.
5   Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither
    keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and
    cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth
    unto him all people:
6   Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting
    proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is
    not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!
7   Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that
    shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?
8   Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people
    shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the
    land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
9   Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he
    may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of
    evil!
10  Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people,
    and hast sinned against thy soul.
11  For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the
    timber shall answer it.
12  Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by
    iniquity!
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?
14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the
    Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
15  Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle
    to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their
    nakedness!
16  Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy
    foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned
    unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.
17  For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, 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.
18  What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven
    it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work
    trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
19  Woe unto him that saith 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.
20  But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence
    before him.

Chapter 3

1   A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
2   O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy
    work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in
    wrath remember mercy.
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.
4   And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his
    hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
5   Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his
    feet.
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.
7   I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land
    of Midian did tremble.
8   Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against
    the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon
    thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?
9   Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes,
    even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
10  The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the
    water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on
    high.
11  The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of
    thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
12  Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh
    the heathen in anger.
13  Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for
    salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house
    of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck.  Selah.
14  Thou didst 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.
15  Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap
    of great waters.
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 cometh up unto the people, he will
    invade them with his troops.
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 meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall
    be no herd in the stalls:
18  Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
    salvation.
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.
