Habakkuk 1

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet received in vision.	1 The burden that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
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 How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not heed? Shall I shout to you while suffering violence, and you will 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 have you revealed to me iniquity and hardship, to see plunder and injustice opposite me? And there has been judgment, but the opposition is more powerful.
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 Because of this, the law has been torn apart, and judgment does not persevere to its conclusion. For the impious prevail against the just. Because of this, a perverse judgment is issued.
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 Gaze among the nations, and see. Admire, and be astounded. For a work has been done in your days, which no one will believe when it is told.
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 behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift people, marching across the width of the earth, to possess tabernacles not their own.
7 Terrible and dreadful is he, from himself derive his law and his majesty.	7 It is dreadful and terrible. From themselves, judgment and their burden will issue.
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 are more nimble than leopards and swifter than wolves in the evening; their horsemen will spread out. And then their horsemen will approach from far away; they will fly like the eagle, hurrying to devour.
9 each comes for the rapine, Their combined onset is that of a stormwind that heaps up captives like sand.	9 They will all approach towards the prey; their face is like a burning wind. And they will gather captives together like 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 concerning kings, he will triumph, and sovereign rulers will be his laughingstock, and he will laugh over every fortress, and he will transport a rampart and seize it.
11 Then he veers like the wind and is gone-- this culprit who makes his own strength his god!	11 Then his spirit will be altered, and he will cross over and fall. Such is his strength from 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 Have you not existed from the beginning, Lord my God, my holy one, and so we shall not die? Lord, you have stationed him for judgment, and you have establish that his strength will be swept away.
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 Your eyes are pure, you do not behold evil, and you cannot look towards iniquity. Why do you look upon the agents of iniquity, and remain silent, while the impious is devouring one who is more just than himself?
14 You have made man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler.	14 And you will make men like the fish of the sea and like the creeping things that have no ruler.
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 He lifted up everything with his hook. He drew them in with his dragnet, and gathered them into his netting. Over this, he will rejoice and exult.
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 For this reason, he will offer victims to his dragnet, and he will sacrifice to his netting. For through them, his portion has been made fat, and his meals elite.
17 Shall he, then, keep on brandishing his sword to slay peoples without mercy?	17 Because of this, therefore, he expands his dragnet and will not be lenient in continually putting to death the peoples.