Habakkuk 1

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 The charge that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision.	1 The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.
2 How long, Yahweh, am I to cry for help while you wil not listen; to cry, 'Violence!' in your ear while youwil not save?	2 How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? shall I cry out to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt not save?
3 Why do you make me see wrong-doing, why do you countenance oppression? Plundering and violenceconfront me, contention and discord flourish.	3 Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice before me? and there is a judgment, but opposition is more powerful.
4 And so the law loses its grip and justice never emerges, since the wicked outwits the upright and sojustice comes out perverted.	4 Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment cometh not to the end: because the wicked prevaileth against the just, therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.
5 Cast your eyes over the nations, look, and be amazed, astounded. For I am doing something in yourown days which you wil not believe if you are told of it.	5 Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told.
6 For look, I am stirring up the Chaldaeans, that fierce and fiery nation who march miles across country toseize the homes of others.	6 For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not their own.
7 They are dreadful and awesome, a law and authority to themselves.	7 They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at night; their horsemen gal op on, theirhorsemen advance from afar, swooping like an eagle anxious to feed.	8 Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.
9 They are al bent on violence, their faces scorching like an east wind; they scoop up prisoners likesand.	9 They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.
10 They scoff at kings, they despise princes. They make light of al fortresses: they heap up earth andtake them.	10 And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.
11 Then the wind changes and is gone . . . Guilty is he who makes his strength his god.	11 Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.
12 Surely you, Yahweh, are from ancient times, my holy God, who never dies! Yahweh, you haveappointed him to execute judgement; O Rock, you have set him firm to punish.	12 Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.
13 Your eyes are too pure to rest on evil, you cannot look on at oppression. Why do you look on at thosewho play the traitor, why say nothing while the wicked swal ows someone more upright than himself?	13 Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more just than himself?
14 Why treat people like fish of the sea, like gliding creatures who have no leader?	14 And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.
15 They haul them al up on their hook, they catch them in their net, they sweep them up in their dragnetand then make merry and rejoice.	15 He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in his drag, and gathered them into his net: for this he will be glad and rejoice.
16 And so they offer a sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet, for by these they get a richliving and live off the fat of the land.	16 Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he will sacrifice to his net: because through them his portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.
17 Are they to go on emptying their net unceasingly, slaughtering the nations without pity?	17 For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually to slay the nations.