AFV2020 - Habakkuk

Chapter 1

1:1  The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

1:2  O LORD, how long shall I cry and You will not hear? I cry out to You of violence, and You do not save!

1:3  Why do You show me wickedness, and trouble? For destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rises up.

1:4  Therefore the law has become ineffective, and judgment does not always go forth, for the wicked entraps the righteous; therefore judgment goes forth perverted.

1:5  "Look among the nations, and behold and be amazed and stunned; for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, not even if it is declared to you,

1:6  For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess dwelling places that are not their own.

1:7  They are terrible and fearful; their law and their majesty proceed from themselves.

1:8  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 afar. They shall fly like the vulture hurrying to devour.

1:9  "All of them shall come for violence; their faces are set sternly as the east wind; and they gather captives like the sand.

1:10  And they shall scoff at the kings, and the rulers shall be a scorn to them. They shall laugh at every stronghold, for they shall heap up dust and capture it.

1:11  Then he sweeps on like wind, and he transgresses and is guilty, crediting his power to his god."

1:12  Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have ordained them for judgment; and, my Rock, You have established them for correction.

1:13  You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity. Why do You look upon those who deal treacherously? Will You be silent when the wicked swallows the man that is more righteous than he?

1:14  For You make man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things with no ruler over them.

1:15  He takes up all of them with the hook; he catches him with his net and gathers him with his dragnet; therefore he rejoices and exults.

1:16  Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet; because by them his portion is fat and his food rich.

1:17  Shall he therefore empty his net, and shall he slay nations without pity?

Chapter 2

2:1  I will stand on my watch and set myself on the tower, and will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

2:2  And the LORD answered me and said, "Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, so that a man may read it swiftly,

2:3  For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it shall speak at the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not delay.

2:4  Behold, his soul is puffed up, and is not upright; but the just shall live by his faith.

2:5  Yea also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man and he is not content. He widens his desire like the grave, and he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers all nations to himself, and heaps to himself all the people.

2:6  Shall not all these lift up a parable against him, and a mocking riddle against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his! How long then, shall he heap up many pledges upon himself?'

2:7  Shall not your creditors who strike you rise up suddenly, and those who oppress you awake, and you become a prize to them?

2:8  Because you have stripped many nations, all the rest of the people shall strip you; because of men's blood, and the violence of the land, of the city, and of all who dwell in it.

2:9  Woe to him who robs evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be delivered from the power of evil!

2:10  You have devised ignominy to your house, to make an end of many people, and are sinning against your 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 the LORD of hosts that the people labor for the fire; yea, and the nations weary themselves only for vanity?

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

2:15  Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, mixing in your venom to make him drunk, that you may gaze upon their nakedness!

2:16  You are filled with shame instead of glory; drink also, and be seen as one uncircumcised! The cup of the LORD'S right hand shall turn upon you, and disgrace shall be your glory,

2:17  For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the destruction of beasts shall terrify them because of the blood of man, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all those dwelling in it.

2:18  What does an image profit, for its maker has carved it; a molten image, and a teacher of lies? For does the maker trust in his work—which are but dumb idols?

2:19  Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' To a dumb stone, 'Arise!' Can it teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet no breath is in its midst.

2:20  But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him."

Chapter 3

3:1  A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet concerning erring ones:

3:2  O LORD, I have heard the report about You; I am afraid. O LORD, give new life to Your work in the midst of years; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember compassion.

3:3  God comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covers the heavens, and His praise fills the earth.

3:4  And His brightness is as the light; rays of power from His hand are His, and there is the hiding of His power.

3:5  A plague went before Him, and lightning went forth at His feet.

3:6  He stood and measured the earth; He looked and shook nations, and the everlasting mountains were shattered; the eternal hills bowed down. His ways are everlasting.

3:7  I saw the tents of Cushan under calamity; the curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

3:8  Was the LORD displeased against rivers? Or was Your anger against the rivers? Or Your wrath against the sea, that You ride upon Your horses, upon Your chariots of victory?

3:9  You brandish Your naked bow according to the oaths of the arrows of Your word. Selah. You have cleaved the earth with rivers.

3:10  The mountains have seen You and they tremble. The overflowing water passed over; the deep uttered its voice and lifted up its hands on high.

3:11  The sun and moon stood still in their lofty dwellings. At the light of Your arrows they go, and at the shining of Your glittering spear.

3:12  You march through the land in indignation; You thresh nations in anger.

3:13  You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your anointed. You struck the head out of the house of the wicked, to lay bare the foundation even to the neck. Selah.

3:14  You pierced through the head of his warriors with his own shafts; they storm out as a whirlwind to scatter me; their rejoicing is to devour the meek secretly.

3:15  You trod upon the sea with Your horses, through the foaming of mighty waters.

3:16  I heard and my inward parts trembled; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself that I should wait for the day of trouble; when he comes up against the people, that he invades.

3:17  Though the fig tree shall not blossom, and fruit shall not be on 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 the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

3:19  The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.