1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw1:
1:2 O Yehovah, until when shall I cry for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, Violence! But You do not save.
1:3 Why do You make me see evil, and You look upon toil? For destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rises up.
1:4 On account of this the Torah has become helpless, and justice does not continually go forth. For the wicked surrounds the righteous, so justice goes forth, being perverted2.
1:5 Look, you despisers, and look, and wonder marvelously, and vanish: for I work a work in your days which you will by no means believe, though a man declare it to you.3.
1:6 For, look, I raise up the Chaldeans, the bitter and impetuous nation which is going into the broad spaces of the land, to possess dwellings not his own.
1:7 He is terrible and fearful; his judgment and his glory goes forth from himself.
1:8 His horses also are swifter than leopards and are fiercer than the evening wolves. And their horsemen spread themselves; yea, their horsemen come from afar; they shall fly as the eagle hurrying to eat.
1:9 All of him shall come for violence; the gathering of their faces is forward; and they gather captives like the sand4.
1:10 And he shall scoff against the kings, and officials shall be a scorn to him. He shall scorn every fortress, and he shall heap up dirt and capture it.
1:11 Then he sweeps on like a wind; and he passes on and is guilty, crediting this power of his to his god5.
1:12 Are You not from of old, Yehovah our Elohim, my set apart One? You shall not die, Yehovah, for You have appointed him for judgment. And, my Rock, You have established him for correction.
1:13 You are of purer eyes than to look evil, and You are not able to look upon vexation. Why do you look on those who deal deceitfully? Will You be silent when the wicked swallows one more righteous than he?
1:14 For You make man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things with no ruler over him.
1:15 He takes up all of him with the hook; he drags him with his net and gathers him with his fishnet. On account of this he rejoices and exults.
1:16 So he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his fishnet; because by them his portion is fat, and his food rich.
1:17 Shall he therefore empty his net, and shall he not spare to continually slay nations?6
2:1 I will stand on my guard and set myself on the tower, and watch to see what He will say against me, and what I shall return on my rebuke.
2:2 And Yehovah answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it on the tablets, that he who reads it may run.
2:3 For the vision is still for the appointed time, but it kindles to the end, and it does not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, because surely, it will come; it will not tarry.
2:4 If he should draw back, My soul has no pleasure in him: but the just shall live by My belief.
2:5 And also, wine indeed betrays a proud man, and he dwells not at home; who widens his soul like Sheol. And he is like death, and is not satisfied, but gathers all the nations to himself, and collects all the peoples to himself.
2:6 Shall not all of these lift up a parable against him, and a mocking riddle to him, and say, Woe to him who increases what is not his! Until when, then, shall he load the pledges on himself?
2:7 Shall not those who bite you rise up suddenly, and those who shake you be aroused, and you become a prize to him?
2:8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the rest of the people shall plunder you, because of the blood of men and the violence of the land, and the city, and all those dwelling in it.
2:9 Woe to him who robs evil booty for his house, to set his nest on high, to be snatched from the hand of evil!
2:10 You have advised shame for your house, to make an end of many peoples, and are sinning in your soul7.
2:11 For the stone shall cry out from the wall, and the beam shall answer it from the wood.
2:12 Woe to him who builds a town with blood and establishes a city by iniquity!
2:13 Look, is it not for Yehovah of Hosts that the people labor only for fire? Yea, nations weary themselves only for vanity.
2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yehovah, as the waters cover the sea.
(Is 11:9)
2:15 Woe to him who causes his friend to drink, pouring out your wineskin, and also making him drunk, in order to look upon their nakedness!8
2:16 You are filled with shame instead of glory; you drink also, and will be seen as uncircumcised. The cup of the right hand of Yehovah shall turn on you, and disgrace shall be your glory9.
2:17 For the violence10 of Lebanon shall cover you, and the ruin of beasts shall terrify them because of the blood of men and the violence of the land, the city, and all those dwelling in it.
2:18 What does an image profit, for its maker has carved it; a molten image, and a teacher of falsehood? For does the maker trust in his work on it, to make mute idols?
2:19 Woe to him who says to the wood, Awake! To a mute stone, Rise up, it shall teach! Look, it is overlaid with gold and silver, but no breath is in its midst.11
2:20 But Yehovah is in His set apart sanctuary; let all the earth be silent before Him12.
3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet concerning erring ones13:
3:2 Yehovah, I have heard Your report; I am afraid, Yehovah. Give new life to Your work in the midst of years, in the midst of years make known; in anger remember compassion.
3:3 Elohim comes from Teman, and the set apart One from Mount Paran. Selah. His majesty covers the heavens, and His praise fills the earth. (Is 63:1)
3:4 And His brightness is as the light; rays from His hand are His, and there was a covering of His strength.
3:5 A plague goes before Him, and lightning went forth at His feet.
3:6 He stood and measured the earth; He looked and shook nations; and the ancient mountains were shattered; the eternal hills bowed down. The goings of eternity are His. (Mic 5:2)
3:7 I saw the tents of Cushan under iniquity; the curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
3:8 Did Yehovah burn against rivers? Or was Your anger against the rivers? Or Your fury against the sea? For You ride on horses; Your chariots of salvation*.
3:9 You bare Your bow, naked according to the oaths of the tribes of Your Word. Selah. You have cut through the earth with rivers.
3:10 They saw You; mountains whirled. The storm of water gushed. The deep gave its voice and lifted up its hands on high.
3:11 The sun and moon stood still in their dwelling. At the light of Your arrows they go, at the shining of Your gleaming spear.
3:12 You go into the land in fury. You thresh nations in anger.
3:13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for Y’shua* (Aleph/Tav) Your Messiah. You struck the head from the house of the wicked to bare the foundation to the neck. Selah.
3:14 You pierced the head of his warriors with his shafts. They rush to scatter me; their rejoicing is to devour the humble in a secret place.
3:15 You trod in the sea with Your horses, the surging of many waters.
3:16 I heard, and my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled within myself that I might rest for the day of distress; to come up against the peoples; he cuts him off.
3:17 Though the fig tree shall not blossom, and fruit is not on the vines; the work of the olive fails, and the fields make no food; the flock is cut off from the fold, and no herd is in the stalls,
3:18 yet I will exult in Yehovah; I will rejoice in the Elohim of salvation.
3:19 Yehovah, Adonai is my might, and He sets my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk on my high places. To the chief singer, on my stringed instruments.