Habakkuk Calls for Help
The aoracle which Habakkuk the prophet beheld.
2 aHow long, O Yahweh, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to You, “Violence!”
Yet You do bnot save.
3 Why 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.
4 Therefore the alaw is ignored,
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 sharper than bwolves in the evening.
Their horsemen come galloping;
Their horsemen come from afar;
They fly like an ceagle swooping down to devour.
9 All of them come for violence.
Their 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
12 Are 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.
13 Your 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?
14 And You have made men like the fish of the sea,
Like creeping things without a ruler over them.
15 The 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.
16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net
And burn incense to their fishing net
Because through athese things their portion is rich
And their food is fat.
17 Will they therefore empty their anet
And continually bkill nations without sparing?