Habakkuk

The pronouncement which Ḥ̂av̱aqquq the prophet had seen.

^1:2However far, Yăhwēh, shall I have cried for help, and you will not listen? I cry out to you ‘violence!’ And you are not saving. ^3Why do you make me look at iniquity, and why do you take regard of the trouble, and destruction and violence in front of me? Then: there is strife, and contention arises!

^4Therefore the law is numb, and justice never goes forth, because wickedness is surrounding the righteous. Therefore justice comes out bent up.

^5Look among the nations and take notice, and be completely stunned. Be stunned, because a work is happening in your days, that you will give no support when it is recounted. ^6For behold, I am raising up the Kasdeem, that bitter tempered and swift nation, that marches through the wide plains of the earth, to dispossess dwellings that are not its own.

^7Dreaded and feared is it; its justice is from itself, and its own exaltation goes forth. ^8And its horses will have been swifter than leopards, and they will have been keener than evening wolves, and its horsemen will have stamped from afar. They will come; they will fly like an eagle hurrying to eat. ^9Each one of theṃ will come for violence. The scorch of their faces is an eastward wind. Then it will gather its captives like the sand.

^10And it will scoff at kings, and dignitaries are a derision to it; it will laugh at every fortress; then it will heap up rubble. Then it will capture it.

^11At that time, it shall have passed by like the wind; then, it shall slip away, and it will have become guilty. This, its might, is its god.

^12(Are you not from old, Yăhwēh my Almĭghty, my Holy One? Let us not die Yăhwēh. For justice you have appointed †him; and for a rock of correction, you have founded him, ^13who is too pure of eyes to look favorably at evil; and you are not able to take regard for trouble. Why then do you take regard for the treacherous? You keep silence while the wicked one swallows one more righteous than himself. ^14Then: you make man like the fishes of the sea, like the creeping thingṣ, with no one ruling over theṃ.)

^15All of theṃ, with a hook, it will have brought up: it will drag theṃ with its net: thus, it will gather theṃ with its dragnet. Therefore it will rejoice and be glad. ^16Therefore, it will sacrifice to its net: thus, it will burn incense to its dragnet; because with them its portion is robust, and its food is fat. ^17Therefore will it empty its net, and continually slay nations? Will it not spare?

Let me stand at my watchpost, and let me station myself on the tower. Let me keep watch to see what he will speak with me, and what I will bring back about my complaint.

^2:2Then Yăhwēh answered me: then, he said, “Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets so that the one calling on †him may run.

^3For the vision is still for the appointed time, and he will breathe at the end, and he will not be false. If he delays himself, wait for him. For coming he will come: he will not be too late.

^4Behold, it† will have been inflated. It’s soul will not have been upright in it. (But the righteous will revive by †his faithfulness.)

^5And indeed as wine betrays a proud man, even it will not remain, which has widened its soul like She’ol, and itself, like death, is not satisfied. Then, it will gather to itself all the nations; Then, it will collect to itself all the peoples.

^6Shall not these, all of them, lift up a proverb over it, and satire, and riddles about it? Then it will be said, “Woe to the one increasing what does not belong to it, until whenever, and weighting upon itself collateral pledged.”

^7Will not those paying you interest suddenly rise up? Then they will awake making you tremble; then, you will have become spoils for them.

^8Since you have plundered many nations, they will plunder you; every remnant of the peoples, because of the blood shed of man, and violence to the earth, the cities, and every one dwelling in them.

^9Woe to those profiting an unfair profit for theiṛ house, and setting theiṛ nest in the height to be safe from the hand of evil.†

^10You have advised shame for your house, by cutting off many peoples, even by your sinning soul.

^11For a stone will cry out from a wall, and a beam from the woodwork will reply:

^12“Woe to those building a city on bloodshed and establishing a town with crime.”

^13Behold, is it not from Yăhwēh of hosts, that the peoples will labor merely for the fire, and the nations will be exhausted for nothing?†

^14Because the earth will be filled with knowledge, with the glory of Yăhwēh as the waters cover over the sea.

^15Woe to the one making his neighbor drink, you who pour out your heat and also make them drunk in order to view their nakedness.

^16You have been sated with dishonor rather than glory. Drink even yourself! And show your uncircumcision. The cup in Yăhwēh’s right hand will come around upon you, and disgrace upon your glory!

^17The violence done to Lev̱anon will cover you, and the destruction of beasts will terrify ¹you, because of the bloodshed of man, and the violence to the earth, the cities, and every one dwelling in them.

^18How has a hewn image benefited? For its creator has hewn it, an idol, and a teacher of falsehood. For the creator has trusted his creation over himself, only to make worthless gods speechless.

^19Woe to one saying to a piece of wood, “Wake up; arise,” or to a dumb stone, “it will teach.” Look, it is stuck fast in gold and silver, and there isn’t any spirit in its midst!”

^20And Yăhwēh is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before his face.†

The prayer of Ḥ̂av̱aqquq, the prophet, according to shigyonot.

^3:2Yăhwēh I have heard your report; and your work Yăhwēh, I have been fearing. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known. In trouble you will remember mercy.

^3Gŏd from Tæyman comes, and the Holy one from mount Pa’ran. Selah. His splendor has been covering the heavens. And his praise has been filling the earth.

^4And it is a brightness like the sun, his rays from his hand. And there is the concealment of his might.

^5Before his face walks pestilence; then plauge follows at his feet.

^6He has stood: then he will shake the earth. He has seen: then he will startle the nations. Then, the enduring mountains will be shattered; the ancient hills will have been cast down. But everlasting pathways belong to him.

^7I have seen the tents of Chushan in trouble; The tent curtains of the land of Midyan do quake.

^8Has your wrath been against the streams Yăhwēh? Is your anger against the rivers? Is your indignation against the sea when you ride upon your horses, your chariots of salvation?

^9Your bow is bared naked, with seven shafts of an utterance. Selah. With streams you split up the land.

^10The mountains have seen you. They twist about: a downpour of waters has passed by. The ocean has put forth its sound. Its breakers have been lifted up.

^11Sun and moon have stopped in their elevation at the light of your arrows; at the brightness of your spear’s lightning flash.

^12In fury you will march through the earth; in anger you will trample the nations.

^13You will have come out for the salvation of your people, for salvation along with your Messiah.† You will have smitten the head of the wicked house, stripping it naked from its foundation up to its neck. Selah.

^14You will have impaled on his own spear shafts the heads of his officers: they who stormed out to scatter me, their gloating as if to rob the poor in a secret place.

^15You have trampled on the sea with your horses frothing up great waters.

^16I have heard. Then my belly quakes. At the sound my lips have tingled. Rottenness enters my bones. And in the lower part of me I shake when I should rest for the day of trouble to go up to the people who attack us.

^17Though the fig may not fruit, and no produce be on the vines; and has failed the olive product, and the fields have produced no food; and the flock has been cut off from the fold, and no cattle be in the stalls, ^18even I in Yăhwēh, I want to rejoice, I want to be glad in the Almĭghty of my salvation. ^19Yăhwēh Adŏnai is my strength. Thus he places my feet like the deer, and on my high places he makes me tread.

^19bFor the choirmaster; on stringed instruments.