ACV - Habakkuk

Chapter 1

1:1  The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

1:2  O Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and thou will not hear? I cry out to thee of violence, and thou will not save.

1:3  Why do thou show me iniquity, and look upon perverseness? For destruction and violence are before me, and there is strife, and contention rises up.

1:4  Therefore the law is slacked, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked man surrounds the righteous man, therefore justice goes forth perverted.

1:5  Behold ye scoffers, and look, and wonder marvelously. For I am working a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told you.

1:6  For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.

1:7  They are fearful and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.

1:8  Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their horsemen come from far. They fly as an eagle that hastens to devour.

1:9  They come all of them for violence. The set of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.

1:10  Yea, he scoffs at kings, and rulers are a derision to him. He derides every stronghold, for he heaps up dust, and takes it.

1:11  Then he shall sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over, and be guilty; he whose might is his god.

1:12  Are not thou from everlasting, O Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Jehovah, thou have ordained him for judgment, and thou, O Rock, have established him for correction.

1:13  Thou who are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and who cannot look on perverseness, why do thou look upon those who deal treacherously, and hold thy peace when the wicked man swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,

1:14  and makes men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

1:15  He takes all of them up with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his drag. Therefore he rejoices and is glad.

1:16  Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his drag, because by them his portion is fat, and his food plentiful.

1:17  Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to kill the nations continually?

Chapter 2

2:1  I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will speak with me, and what I shall answer concerning my complaint.

2:2  And Jehovah answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run who reads it.

2:3  For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hastens toward the end, and shall not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not delay.

2:4  Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright in him. (But the righteous man shall live by his faith.

2:5  Yea, moreover, wine is treacherous.) He is a haughty man, who does not keep 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 peoples.

2:6  Shall not all these take up a derision against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him who increases that which is not his (how long?) and who loads himself with pledges!

2:7  Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee. And thou shall be for booty to them?

2:8  Because thou have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder thee, because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell therein.

2:9  Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!

2:10  Thou have devised shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against thy soul.

2:11  For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

2:12  Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!

2:13  Behold, is it not of Jehovah of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?

2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

2:15  Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, who adds thy venom, and also makes him drunken, that thou may look on their nakedness!

2:16  Thou are filled with shame, and not glory. Drink thou also, and be as one uncircumcised. The cup of Jehovah's right hand shall come around to thee, and foul shame shall be upon thy glory.

2:17  For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee and the plunder of the beasts (which made them afraid), because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell therein.

2:18  What profits the graven image, that the maker of it has engraved it, the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make dumb idols?

2:19  Woe to him who says to the wood, Awake, to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

2:20  But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.

Chapter 3

3:1  A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to Shigionoth.

3:2  O Jehovah, I have heard the report of thee, and am afraid. O Jehovah, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known. In wrath remember mercy.

3:3  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.

3:4  And his brightness was as the light. He had rays from his hand, and there was the hiding of his power.

3:5  Before him went the pestilence. And fiery bolts went forth at his feet.

3:6  He stood, and measured the earth. He beheld, and drove apart the nations. And the eternal mountains were scattered. The everlasting hills bowed. His goings were as of old.

3:7  I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

3:8  Was Jehovah displeased with the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers, or thy wrath against the sea, that thou rode upon thy horses, upon thy chariots of salvation?

3:9  Thy bow was made quite bare. The oaths to the tribes were a sure word. Selah. Thou split the earth with rivers.

3:10  The mountains saw thee, and were afraid. The tempest of waters passed by. The deep uttered its voice, and lifted up its hands on high.

3:11  The sun and moon stood still in their habitation, at the light of thine arrows as they went, at the shining of thy glittering spear.

3:12  Thou marched though the land in indignation. Thou threshed the nations in anger.

3:13  Thou went forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation of thine anointed. Thou wound the head out of the house of the wicked man, laying bare the foundation even to the neck. Selah.

3:14  Thou pierced with his own staves the head of his warriors. They came as a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor man secretly.

3:15  Thou walked through the sea with thy horses, the heap of mighty waters.

3:16  I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place, because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the people who invade us.

3:17  For though the fig tree shall not flourish, nor shall fruit be in the vines; the labor 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;

3:18  yet I will rejoice in Jehovah. I will joy in the God of my salvation.

3:19  Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength. And he makes my feet like hinds' feet, and will make me to walk upon my high places.