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?
|