HABAKKUK
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The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 O LORD,
how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you
"Violence!" and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look
at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the
righteous-- therefore judgment comes forth perverted. 5 Look at the nations, and
see! Be astonished! Be astounded! For a work is being done in your days that you
would not believe if you were told. 6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans, that
fierce and impetuous nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize
dwellings not their own. 7 Dread and fearsome are they; their justice and
dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more
menacing than wolves at dusk; their horses charge. Their horsemen come from far
away; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, with
faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand. 10 At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth
to take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind; they transgress and become
guilty; their own might is their god! 12 Are you not from of old, O LORD my God,
my Holy One? You shall not die. O LORD, you have marked them for judgment; and
you, O Rock, have established them for punishment. 13 Your eyes are too pure to
behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; why do you look on the
treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than
they? 14 You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things
that have no ruler. 15 The enemy brings all of them up with a hook; he drags
them out with his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his seine; for by
them his portion is lavish, and his food is rich. 17 Is he then to keep on
emptying his net, and destroying nations without mercy?
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I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer
concerning my complaint. 2 Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. 3 For there is still a
vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it
seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4 Look at
the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their
faith. 5 Moreover, wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure. They open
their throats wide as Sheol; like Death they never have enough. They gather all
nations for themselves, and collect all peoples as their own. 6 Shall not
everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them, "Alas for
you who heap up what is not your own!" How long will you load yourselves with
goods taken in pledge? 7 Will not your own creditors suddenly rise, and those
who make you tremble wake up? Then you will be booty for them. 8 Because you
have plundered many nations, all that survive of the peoples shall plunder you--
because of human bloodshed, and violence to the earth, to cities and all who
live in them. 9 "Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses, setting your
nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm!" 10 You have devised shame for
your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. 11 The
very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the
woodwork. 12 "Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on
iniquity!" 13 Is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor only to feed
the flames, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 14 But the earth will be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 "Alas for you who make your neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath until
they are drunk, in order to gaze on their nakedness!" 16 You will be sated with
contempt instead of glory. Drink, you yourself, and stagger! The cup in the
Lord's right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory!
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of the
animals will terrify you-- because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who live in them. 18 What use is an idol once its maker has
shaped it-- a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what has
been made, though the product is only an idol that cannot speak! 19 Alas for you
who say to the wood, "Wake up!" to silent stone, "Rouse yourself!" Can it teach?
See, it is gold and silver plated, and there is no breath in it at all. 20 But
the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!
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A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk according to Shigionoth. 2 O
LORD, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe, O LORD, of your work. In
our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember
mercy. 3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory
covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 The brightness was
like the sun; rays came forth from his hand, where his power lay hidden. 5
Before him went pestilence, and plague followed close behind. 6 He stopped and
shook the earth; he looked and made the nations tremble. The eternal mountains
were shattered; along his ancient pathways the everlasting hills sank low. 7 I
saw the tents of Cushan under affliction; the tent-curtains of the land of
Midian trembled. 8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Or your anger
against the rivers, or your rage against the sea, when you drove your horses,
your chariots to victory? 9 You brandished your naked bow, sated were the arrows
at your command. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw
you, and writhed; a torrent of water swept by; the deep gave forth its voice.
The sun raised high its hands; 11 the moon stood still in its exalted place, at
the light of your arrows speeding by, at the gleam of your flashing spear. 12 In
fury you trod the earth, in anger you trampled nations. 13 You came forth to
save your people, to save your anointed. You crushed the head of the wicked
house, laying it bare from foundation to roof. Selah 14 You pierced with his own
arrows the head of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter us,
gloating as if ready to devour the poor who were in hiding. 15 You trampled the
sea with your horses, churning the mighty waters. 16 I hear, and I tremble
within; my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, and my
steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon
the people who attack us. 17 Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit
is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no
food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the
stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my
salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a
deer, and makes me tread upon the heights. To the leader: with stringed
instruments.
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