Dual Panel1THE BURDEN {or} oracle (the thing to be lifted up) which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and You will not hear? Or cry out to You of violence and You will not save?
3Why do You show me iniquity {and} wrong, and Yourself look upon {or} cause me to see perverseness {and} trouble? For destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention arises.
4Therefore the law is slackened and justice {and} a righteous sentence never go forth, for the [hostility of the] wicked surrounds the [uncompromisingly] righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5Look around [you, Habakkuk, replied the Lord] among the nations and see! And be astonished! Astounded! For I am putting into effect a work in your days [such] that you would not believe it if it were told you.
6For behold, I am rousing up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation who march through the breadth of the earth to take possession of dwelling places that do not belong to them.
7[The Chaldeans] are terrible and dreadful; their justice and dignity proceed [only] from themselves.
8Their horses also are swifter than leopards and are fiercer than the evening wolves, and their horsemen spread themselves {and} press on proudly; yes, their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle that hastens to devour.
9They all come for violence; their faces turn eagerly forward, and they gather prisoners together like sand.
10They scoff at kings, and rulers are a derision to them; they ridicule every stronghold, for they heap up dust [for earth mounds] and take it.
11Then they sweep by like a wind and pass on, and they load themselves with guilt, [as do all men] whose own power is their god.
12Are not You from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed [the Chaldean] to execute [Your] judgment, and You, O Rock, have established him for chastisement {and} correction.
13You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and can not look [inactively] upon injustice. Why then do You look upon the plunderer? Why are you silent when the wicked one destroys him who is more righteous than [the Chaldean oppressor] is?
14Why do You make men like the fish of the sea, like reptiles {and} creeping things that have no ruler [and are defenseless against their foes]?
15[The Chaldean] brings all of them up with his hook; he catches and drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is in high spirits.
16Therefore he sacrifices [offerings] to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, because from them he lives luxuriously and his food is plentiful {and} rich.
17Shall he therefore continue to empty his net and mercilessly go on slaying the nations forever?