Habakkuk
1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto
thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
1:3 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.
1:4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the
wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment
proceedeth.
1:5 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.
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
dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
1:7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall
proceed of 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 unto
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 unto his god.
1:12 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.
1:13 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?
1:14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, 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 unto their net, and burn incense unto their
drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
1:17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay
the nations?
