Habakkuk 1
1The pronouncement made by the prophet Habakkuk.
2How long, O ETERNAL One, shall I cry outAnd You not listen,Shall I shout to You, “Violence!”And You not save?
3Why do You make me see iniquity[Why] do You look upon wrong?—Raiding and violence are before me,Strife continues and contention goes on.
4That is why decision failsAnd justice never emerges;For villains hedge in those whose cause is just—Therefore judgment emerges deformed.
5“Look among the nations,Observe well and be utterly astounded;For a work is being wrought in your daysThat you would not believe if it were told.
6For lo, I am raising up the Chaldeans,That fierce, impetuous nation,Who cross the earth’s wide spacesTo seize homes not their own.
7They are terrible, dreadful;They make their own laws and rules.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards,Fleeter than wolves of the steppe. as synonymous with ʻarabah; cf. Jer. 5.6. Their steeds gallop—their steeds Come flying from afar.Like vultures rushing toward food,
9They all come, bent on rapine.The thrust of their van is forward,And they amass captives like sand.
10Kings they hold in derision,And princes are a joke to them;They laugh at every fortress,They pile up earth and capture it.
11Then they pass on like the wind,They transgress and incur guilt,For they ascribe their might to their god.”
12You, O ETERNAL One, are from everlasting;My holy God, You never die.O ETERNAL One, You have made them a subject of contention;O Rock, You have made them a cause for complaint.
13You whose eyes are too pure to look upon evil,Who cannot countenance wrongdoing,Why do You countenance treachery,And stand by idleWhile the one in the wrong devoursThe one in the right?
14You have made humankind like the fish of the sea,Like creeping things that have no ruler.
15He has fished them all up with a line,Pulled them up in his trawl,And gathered them in his net.That is why he rejoices and is glad.
16That is why he sacrifices to his trawlAnd makes offerings to his net;For through them his portion is richAnd his nourishment fat.
17Shall he then keep emptying his trawl, And slaying nations without pity?