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Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk’s First Complaint

1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 O LORD, how long will I cry, and you wilt not hear! even cry out to you of violence, and you wilt not save!

3 Why dost you show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for devastation and violence are before me: and there are that raise strife and contention.

4 Therefore the law is slackened, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth encompass the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

The LORD’s Answer

5 Behold you among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe though it be told you.

6 For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which will march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.

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

8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen will spread themselves, and their horsemen will come from far; they will fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

9 They will come all for violence: their faces will sup up as the east wind, and they will gather the captivity as the sand.

10 And they will scoff at the kings, and the princes will be a scorn to them: they will deride every strong hold; for they will heap dust, and take it.

11 Then will his mind change, and he will pass over, and offend, imputing this his power to his god.

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
(Psalm 11:1–7)

12 Art you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We will not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and O mighty God, you have established them for correction.

13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: why lookest you on them that deal treacherously, and keepest silence when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping animals that have no ruler over them?

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.

16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their food plenteous.

17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Habakkuk 2

WBT

The LORD Answers Again

1 I will stand upon my watch, and seat myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer when I am reproved.

2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and not lie: though it may tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him: but the just will live by his faith.

5 Yes also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire, as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth to him all nations, and collecteth to him all people:

Woe to the Chaldeans

6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!

7 Shall they not rise suddenly that will bite you, and awake that will disturb you, and you will be for booties to them?

8 Because you have laid waste many nations, all the remnant of the people will lay you waste; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

9 Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

10 You have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned against your soul.

11 For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber will answer it.

12 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!

13 Behold, is it not from the LORD of Armies that the people will labor in the very fire, and the people will weary themselves for very vanity?

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

15 Woe to him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest your bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness!

16 You are filled with shame for glory: drink you also, and let your foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’S right hand will be turned to you, and shameful vomiting will be on your glory.

17 For the violence of Lebanon will cover you, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

18 What profiteth the graven image that its maker has graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

19 Woe to him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it will teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

Habakkuk 3

WBT

Habakkuk’s Prayer

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.

2 O LORD, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand; and there was the hiding of his power.

5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.

6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.

7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was your anger against the rivers? was your wrath against the sea, that you didst ride upon your horses, and your chariots of salvation?

9 Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even your word. Selah. You didst cleave the earth with rivers.

10 The mountains saw you, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.

11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of your arrows they went, and at the shining of your glittering spear.

12 You didst march through the land in indignation, you didst thresh the heathen in anger.

13 You wentest forth for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your anointed; you woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by uncovering the foundation to the neck. Selah.

14 You didst strike through with his staffs the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.

15 You didst walk through the sea with your horses, through the mire of great waters.

16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up to the people, he will invade them with his troops.

Habakkuk Rejoices

17 Although the fig-tree will not blossom, neither will fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive will fail, and the fields will yield no food; the flock will be cut off from the fold, and there will be no herd in the stalls:

18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.