Habakkuk 1

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¹The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

²Jehovah, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto thee, Violence! and thou dost not save.

³Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.

⁴Therefore the law is powerless, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked encompasseth the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted.

⁵See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for I work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared to you.

⁶For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marcheth through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.

⁷They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.

⁸And their horses are swifter than the leopards, and are more agile than the evening wolves; and their horsemen prance proudly, and their horsemen come from afar: they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour.

⁹They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.

¹⁰Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a scorn unto him; he derideth every stronghold: for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it.

¹¹Then will his mind change, and he will pass on, and become guilty: this his power is become his god.

¹²— Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction.

¹³Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on mischief: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a man more righteous than he?

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

¹⁵He taketh up all of them with the hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag; therefore he rejoiceth and is glad:

¹⁶therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty.

¹⁷Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?