Webster - Habakkuk

Chapter 1

1:1  The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

1:2  O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! [even] cry out to thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save!

1:3  Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance? for devastation and violence [are] before me: and there are [that] raise strife and contention.

1:4  Therefore the law is slackened, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth encompass the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

1:5  Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for [I] will work 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, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places [that are] not theirs.

1:7  They [are] terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall 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 far; they shall fly as the eagle [that] hasteth to eat.

1:9  They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up [as] the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

1:10  And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

1:11  Then shall [his] mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, [imputing] this his power to his god.

1:12  [Art] thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

1:13  [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: why lookest thou on them that deal treacherously, [and] keepest silence when the wicked devoureth [the man that is] more righteous than he?

1:14  And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping animals [that have] no ruler over them?

1:15  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.

1:16  Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag; because by them their portion [is] fat, and their food plenteous.

1:17  Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Chapter 2

2:1  I will stand upon my watch, and seat myself upon 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 upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

2:3  For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it may tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

2:4  Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up, is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

2:5  Yes 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 to him all nations, and collecteth to him all people:

2:6  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!

2:7  Shall they not rise suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall disturb thee, and thou shalt be for booties to them?

2:8  Because thou hast laid waste many nations, all the remnant of the people shall lay thee waste; because of men's blood, and [for] the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

2:9  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!

2:10  Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast 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 that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!

2:13  Behold, [is it] not from the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very 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 that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to [him], and makest [him] drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

2:16  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 to thee, and shameful vomiting [shall be] on thy glory.

2:17  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.

2:18  What profiteth the graven image that its maker hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

2:19  Woe to 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.

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 upon Shigionoth.

3:2  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.

3:3  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 horns [coming] out of his hand; and there [was] the hiding of his power.

3:5  Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.

3:6  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.

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

3:8  Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? [was] thy anger against the rivers? [was] thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thy horses, [and] thy chariots of salvation?

3:9  Thy bow was made quite naked, [according] to the oaths of the tribes, [even thy] word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.

3:10  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.

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

3:12  Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.

3:13  Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, [even] for salvation with thy anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by uncovering the foundation to the neck. Selah.

3:14  Thou didst strike through with his staffs the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing [was] as to devour the poor secretly.

3:15  Thou didst walk through the sea with thy horses, [through] the mire of great waters.

3:16  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 to the people, he will invade them with his troops.

3:17  Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither [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 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 hinds' [feet], and he will make me to walk upon my high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.