Habakkuk 1

NEW JERUSALEM	KING JAMES BIBLE
1 The charge that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision.	1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
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 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 make me see wrong-doing, why do you countenance oppression? Plundering and violenceconfront me, contention and discord flourish.	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 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 slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
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 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 look, I am stirring up the Chaldaeans, that fierce and fiery nation who march miles across country toseize the homes of others.	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 They are dreadful and awesome, a law and authority to themselves.	7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
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 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 They are al bent on violence, their faces scorching like an east wind; they scoop up prisoners likesand.	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 They scoff at kings, they despise princes. They make light of al fortresses: they heap up earth andtake them.	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 the wind changes and is gone . . . Guilty is he who makes his strength his god.	11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto 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 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 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 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 Why treat people like fish of the sea, like gliding creatures who have no leader?	14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
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 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 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 they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
17 Are they to go on emptying their net unceasingly, slaughtering the nations without pity?	17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?