Habakkuk, 1

1. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

1. These are the message and the vision of Habakkuk, the prophet.

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!

2. Yahweh, how long will I cry for help while you pay no attention to me? I denounce the oppression and you do 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.

3. Why do you make me see injustice? Are you pleased to look on tyranny? All I see is outrage, violence and quarrels.

4. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

4. That is why the Law has been put aside and just decrees are no longer issued. The wicked overrule the upright and they get crooked sentences.

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].

5. Look, traitors, and pay attention; be amazed and astounded, for I am going to do in your own days, something that you would not believe if you were told it.

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.

6. I am going to call the Chaldeans, that terrifying and violent people who raid to the ends of the earth, to seize the lands of others.

7. They [are] terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

7. I call a terrible and dangerous nation who obey no other law but their own will.

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.

8. Their horses are speedier than leopards, fiercer than wolves on the plain; their riders gallop on and come from afar, they swoop like the eagle descending on its prey.

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.

9. When they launch themselves for an attack, pushed forward by the desert wind, they round up prisoners like 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.

10. This people makes fun of kings and laughs at princes; they make light of fortified cities, for they build up an embankment and seize them.

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

11. Thus they come and go like the wind! Their strength is their 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.

12. But you, are you not Yahweh from past ages? You, my holy God, you cannot die. You have set this people to serve your justice and you have made them firm as a rock to fulfill your punishment.

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?

13. Yahweh, your eyes are too pure to tolerate wickedness and you cannot look on oppression. Why, then, do you look on treacherous people and watch in silence while the evildoer swallows up one better than himself?

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

14. You treat human beings like the fish in the sea, like reptiles who are nobody's concern.

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.

15. This nation catches all on its hook, pulls them out with its net and piles them up in its dragnet.

16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion [is] fat, and their meat plenteous.

16. Pleased and delighted at their catch, they offer sacrifices to their net and burn incense to their dragnets, since these supplied them with fish in plenty and provided them with food in abundance.

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

17. Will they continue, then, to constantly empty their nets, slaughtering nations without mercy?