Habakkuk 1

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 The charge that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision.	1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet received in vision.
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? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not intervene.
3 Why do you make me see wrong-doing, why do you countenance oppression? Plundering and violenceconfront me, contention and discord flourish.	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.
4 And so the law loses its grip and justice never emerges, since the wicked outwits the upright and sojustice comes out perverted.	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.
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 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.
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 see, I am raising up Chaldea, that bitter and unruly people, That marches the breadth of the land to take dwellings not his own.
7 They are dreadful and awesome, a law and authority to themselves.	7 Terrible and dreadful is he, from himself derive his law and his majesty.
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 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;
9 They are al bent on violence, their faces scorching like an east wind; they scoop up prisoners likesand.	9 each comes for the rapine, Their combined onset is that of a stormwind that heaps up captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings, they despise princes. They make light of al fortresses: they heap up earth andtake them.	10 He scoffs at kings, and princes are his laughingstock; He laughs at any fortress, heaps up a ramp, and conquers it.
11 Then the wind changes and is gone . . . Guilty is he who makes his strength his god.	11 Then he veers like the wind and is gone-- this culprit who makes his own strength 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 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!
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 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?
14 Why treat people like fish of the sea, like gliding creatures who have no leader?	14 You have made man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a 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 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.
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 he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his seine; For thanks to them his portion is generous, and his repast sumptuous.
17 Are they to go on emptying their net unceasingly, slaughtering the nations without pity?	17 Shall he, then, keep on brandishing his sword to slay peoples without mercy?