Priestly Intro
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Southern Oracle
How long, O Yahweh,
shall I cry to you but you do not hear?
Shall I shriek to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save.
3 Why must I look at
iniquity,
and behold greviance,
and desolation and violence before me,
and there be strife,
and tension rise up?
4 Therefore the Law is slack,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked beseige the Righteous One.
Therefore wrong justice goes forth.
Sargon's Invasion
5 Watch the heathen, and take notice,
and wonder wonderfully.
For I am working a work in your days,
that you should not believe it
even if you were told.
6 For behold,
I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and rash nation,
who go through the breadth of the land
to occupy dwelling places not their own.
7 They are terrible and dreadful.
They are their own justice,
and their arrogance preceeds them.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
and are fiercer than wolves,
and their horsemen spread out.
Then their horsemen will come from afar,
and fly like a eagle hastening to eat.
9 All of them will come for violence,
like the east wind blowing before them,
and will gather the exiles like sand.
10 And they will scoff at the kings,
and scorn at the princes,
and deride all the strongholds.
They scoup up the dust and take it.
11 Then the wind will change and pass by.
And this one will be guilty,
his power belongs to his god.
Second Complaint
12 Are you not from old,
Yahweh,
my holy God?
Do not let us die,
Yahweh!
For justice you have ordained them.
And Rock,
for correction you have appointed them.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil,
and you cannot look upon mischeif.
Why shall you look upon the treacherous,
and be silent while the wicked
devour the Righteous One for themeselves.
14 And they make men like fish of the sea,
creepers without a ruler over them.
15 They pull them all up with a hook,
they catch them in their net,
and gather them in their drag.
Because they rejoice and are glad,
therefore they sacrifice to their net.