Habakkuk 1

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	KING JAMES BIBLE
1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet received in vision.	1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2 How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not intervene.	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!
3 Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord.	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.
4 This is why the law is benumbed, and judgment is never rendered: Because the wicked circumvent the just; this is why judgment comes forth perverted.	4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
5 Look over the nations and see, and be utterly amazed! For a work is being done in your days that you would not have believed, were it told.	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.
6 For see, I am raising up Chaldea, that bitter and unruly people, That marches the breadth of the land to take dwellings not his own.	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.
7 Terrible and dreadful is he, from himself derive his law and his majesty.	7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
8 Swifter than leopards are his horses, and keener than wolves at evening. His horses prance, his horsemen come from afar: They fly like the eagle hastening to devour;	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.
9 each comes for the rapine, Their combined onset is that of a stormwind that heaps up captives like sand.	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.
10 He scoffs at kings, and princes are his laughingstock; He laughs at any fortress, heaps up a ramp, and conquers it.	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.
11 Then he veers like the wind and is gone-- this culprit who makes his own strength his god!	11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
12 Are you not from eternity, O LORD, my holy God, immortal? O LORD you have marked him for judgment, O Rock , you have readied him for punishment!	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.
13 Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil, and the sight of misery you cannot endure. Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence while the wicked man devours one more just than himself?	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?
14 You have made man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler.	14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 He brings them all up with his hook, he hauls them away with his net, He gathers them in his seine; and so he rejoices and exults.	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 he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his seine; For thanks to them his portion is generous, and his repast sumptuous.	16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
17 Shall he, then, keep on brandishing his sword to slay peoples without mercy?	17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?