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.”