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?
Habakkuk - 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.
Habakkuk - 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.
