\v 1 The message that Habakkuk the prophet received,
\q
\v 2 "Yahweh, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?
\q I have cried out to you in horror, 'Violence!' but you will not save me.
\s5
\q
\v 3 Why do you make me see iniquity and look upon wrongdoing?
\q Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention rises up.
\q
\v 4 Therefore the law is weakened, and justice does not last for any time.
\q For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore false justice goes out."
\s5
\p
\sp Yahweh replies to Habakkuk
\q
\v 5 "Look at the nations and examine them; be amazed and astonished!
\q For I am surely about to do something in your days that you will not believe when it is reported to you.
\q
\v 6 For look! I am about to raise up the Chaldeans—that fierce and impetuous nation—
\q they are marching throughout the breadth of the land to seize homes that were not their own.
\q
\v 7 They are terrifying and fearsome; their judgment and splendor proceed from themselves.
\s5
\q
\v 8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, quicker than the evening wolves.
\q So their horses stamp,
\q and their horsemen come from a great distance—they fly like an eagle hurrying to eat.
\q
\v 9 They all come for violence;
\q their multitudes go like the desert wind, and they gather captives like sand.
\f + \ft The Hebrew text translated here as \fqa their multitudes go like the desert wind \fqa* is very difficult; many modern versions have other interpretations. \f*
\s5
\q
\v 10 So they mock kings, and rulers are only a mockery for them.
\q They laugh at every stronghold, for they heap up earth and take them.
\q
\v 11 Then the wind will rush on; it will move past—guilty men, those whose might is their god."
\s5
\p
\sp Habakkuk asks Yahweh another question
\q
\v 12 "Are you not from ancient times, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die.
\q Yahweh has ordained them for judgment, and you, Rock, have established them for correction.
\s5
\q
\v 13 Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil, and you are not able to look on wrongdoing with favor;
\q why then have you looked favorably on those who betray?
\q Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they are?
\q
\v 14 You make men like fish in the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them.
\s5
\q
\v 15 He brings all of them up with a fishhook;
\q he drags men away in his fishnet;
\q he gathers them together in his dragnet;
\q so he rejoices and he is glad.
\q
\v 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
\q and burns incense to his dragnet,
\q for by his net he lives in luxury,
\q and his food is the richest kind.
\q
\v 17 Will he therefore keep emptying his net,
\q and will he continually slaughter the nations without mercy?"
\s5
\c 2
\m
\q
\v 1 I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the watchtower, and I will watch carefully
\q to see what he will say to me and how I should turn from my complaint.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa how I should turn from my complaint \fqa* , which is what the Hebrew text has, some modern versions have \fqa how I should answer when he replies to my complaint \fqa* or \fqa how I should answer when he rebukes me \fqa* . \f*
\s5
\v 2 Yahweh answered me and said,
\q "Record this vision, and write plainly on the tablets so that the one reading them might run.
\q
\v 3 For the vision is yet for a future time and will finally speak and not fail.
\q Though it delays, wait for it. For it will surely come and will not tarry.
\s5
\q
\v 4 Look! The one whose desires are not right within him is puffed up. But the righteous will live by his faith.
\m
\q
\v 5 For wine is a betrayer of the arrogant young man so that he will not abide,
\q but enlarges his desire like the grave and, like death, is never satisfied.
\q He gathers to himself every nation and gathers up for himself all of the peoples.
\s5
\q
\v 6 Will not all these create a saying to ridicule him and a taunting song about him, saying,
\q 'Woe to the one increasing what is not his! For how long will you increase the weight of the pledges you have taken?'
\q2
\v 7 Will the ones biting at you not rise up suddenly, and the ones terrifying you awaken?
\q2 You will become a victim for them.
\q2
\v 8 Because you have plundered many peoples, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you.
\q2 For you have shed human blood and acted with violence against the land, the cities, and all who live in them.
\s5
\q
\v 9 'Woe to the one who carves out evil gains for his house,
\q2 so he can set his nest on high to keep himself safe from the hand of evil.'
\q2
\v 10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned against yourself.
\q2
\v 11 For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters of timber will answer them,
\s5
\q
\v 12 'Woe to the one who builds a city with blood, and who establishes a town in iniquity.'
\q2
\v 13 Is it not from Yahweh of hosts
\q2 that peoples labor for fire and all the other nations weary themselves for nothing?
\q2
\v 14 Yet the land will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea.
\s5
\q
\v 15 'Woe to the one who forces his neighbors to drink—
\q you express your anger \f + \ft There is some question about whether the Hebrew should be translated as \fqa anger \fqa* or as \fqa wineskin.\f* over and you make them drunk
\q in order to look at their nakedness.'
\q2
\v 16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
\q Now it is your turn! Drink, and you will expose your uncircumcised foreskin!
\q2 The cup in Yahweh's right hand is coming around to you,
\q2 and disgrace will cover your glory.
\s5
\q2
\v 17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you and the destruction of animals will terrify you.
\q2 For you have shed human blood and you have acted with violence against the land, the cities, and all who live in them.
\s5
\q
\v 18 What does the carved figure profit you? For the one who has carved it, or who casts a figure from molten metal, is a teacher of lies;
\q for he trusts his own handiwork when he makes these mute gods.
\q
\v 19 'Woe to the one saying to the wood, Wake up! Or to the silent stone, Arise!' Do these things teach?
\q See, it is overlaid with gold and silver, but there is no breath at all within it.
\q
\v 20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple! Be silent before him, all the land."
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