Habakkuk

1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. 2 O YHVH, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear! Even cry out to You of violence, and You will not save! 3 Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and evil ones raise up strife and contention. 4 Therefore the law is slacked, and justice is dead, for the wicked gang up on the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceeds. 5 Behold among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you. 6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places 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 hastens to eat. 9 They shall come all for violence; their faces shall accumulate as the east wind, and they shall gather captivies as the sand. 10 They shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them; they shall deride every stronghold; 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 to his god. 12 Are you not from everlasting, O YHVH my Elohim, my Holy One? We shall not die. O YHVH, You have ordained them for judgment, and, O mighty Cliff, you have established them for correction. 13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look on iniquity; why do You look upon those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours the man who is more righteous than he? 14 And make 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 to their net, and burn incense to 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?

1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 2 Then YHVH answered me and said: Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it delay, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not fail. 4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in himself; but the just shall live by his faith. 5 Yes also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers to him all nations, and heaps to 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 who increases that which is not his! For how long? And to him who loads himself with thick clay! 7 Shall they not rise up suddenly who shall bite you, and awake who shall vex you, and you shall be spoil for them? 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 who dwell there. 9 Woe to him who covets 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 You have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned against your 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 who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of YHVH 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 YHVH, as the waters cover the sea. 15 Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, who put your bottle to him, and make him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness! 16 You are filled with shame for glory; drink also, and let your foreskin be uncovered; the cup of Elohim's right hand shall be turned to you, and shameful spewing shall be on your glory. 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 who dwell there. 18 What profits the graven image that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusts in it, to make dumb idols? 19 Woe to him who said to the wood: Awake! Or to the dumb stone: Arise and 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 YHVH is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him!

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. 2 O YHVH, I have heard Your speech, and was afraid. O YHVH, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. 3 Elohim came from Teman; the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah! His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. 4 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 YHVH displeased against the rivers? Was Your anger against the rivers? Was Your wrath against the sea, that You rode upon Your horses and chariots of salvation? 9 Your bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even Your word. Selah! You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw You and they trembled; the overflowing of the water passed by; the deep uttered its voice, and lifted up its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of Your arrows they went, and at the shining of Your glittering spear. 12 You marched through the land in indignation; You threshed the heathen in anger. 13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, even for salvation with Your Anointed. You wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah! 14 You struck the head of his villages with his staves; they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me; their rejoicing was to devour the poor secretly. 15 You walked through the sea with Your 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 comes up to 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 food; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. 18 Yet I will rejoice in YHVH, I will joy in the Elohim of my salvation. 19 YHVH Adonai is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places!
To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. (Back)