Habakkuk 1

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.	1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet received in vision.
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!	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 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.	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 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.	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 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.	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, 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.	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 terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.	7 Terrible and dreadful is he, from himself derive his law and his majesty.
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.	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 shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.	9 each comes for the rapine, Their combined onset is that of a stormwind that heaps up captives like sand.
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.	10 He scoffs at kings, and princes are his laughingstock; He laughs at any fortress, heaps up a ramp, and conquers it.
11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.	11 Then he veers like the wind and is gone-- this culprit who makes his own strength his god!
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.	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 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?	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 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?	14 You have made man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler.
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.	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 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.	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 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?	17 Shall he, then, keep on brandishing his sword to slay peoples without mercy?