Chapter 3

Nineveh’s Complete Ruin

1 aWoe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage;

Her prey never departs.

2 The anoise of the whip,

The noise of the rattling of the wheel,

Galloping horses

And 1bounding chariots!

3 Horsemen charging,

Swords flashing, aspears gleaming,

bMany slain, a mass of corpses,

And 1ccountless dead bodies—

They stumble over 2the dead bodies!

4 All because of the amany harlotries of the harlot,

The charming one, the bmistress of sorceries,

Who csells nations by her harlotries

And families by her sorceries.

5 “Behold, aI am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts;

“And I will 1blift up your skirts over your face,

And cshow to the nations your nakedness

And to the kingdoms your disgrace.

6 “I will athrow 1filth on you

And bmake you vile,

And set you up as a cspectacle.

7 “And it will come about that all who see you

Will 1shrink from you and say,

‘Nineveh is devastated!

aWho will grieve for her?’

Where will I seek comforters for you?”

8 Are you better than 1aNo-amon,

Which was situated by the bwaters of the Nile,

With water surrounding her,

Whose rampart was 2the sea,

Whose wall consisted of 2the sea?

9 aEthiopia was her might,

And Egypt too, without limits.

bPut and cLubim were among 1her helpers.

10 Yet she abecame an exile,

She went into captivity;

Also her bsmall children were dashed to pieces

cAt the head of every street;

They dcast lots for her honorable men,

And all her great men were bound with fetters.

11 You too will become adrunk,

You will be bhidden.

You too will search for a refuge from the enemy.

12 All your fortifications are afig trees with 1bripe fruit—

When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth.

13 Behold, your people are awomen in your midst!

The gates of your land are bopened wide to your enemies;

Fire consumes your gate bars.

14 aDraw for yourself water for the siege!

bStrengthen your fortifications!

Go into the clay and tread the mortar!

Take hold of the brick mold!

15 There afire will consume you,

The sword will cut you down;

It will bconsume you as the locust does.

Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,

Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.

16 You have increased your atraders more than the stars of heaven—

The creeping locust 1strips and flies away.

17 Your 1aguardsmen are like the swarming locust.

Your bmarshals are like hordes of grasshoppers

Settling in the stone walls on a cold day.

The sun rises and they flee,

And the place where they are is not known.

18 Your shepherds are asleeping, O bking of Assyria;

Your cnobles are lying down.

Your people are dscattered on the mountains

And there is no one to regather them.

19 There is ano relief for your breakdown,

Your bwound is incurable.

All who hear 1about you

Will cclap their hands over you,

For on whom has not your evil passed continually?

The Book of

HABAKKUK

Chapter 1

Chaldeans Used to Punish Judah

1 The 1aoracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 aHow long, O Lord, will I call for help,

And You will not hear?

I cry out to You, “Violence!”

Yet You do bnot save.

3 Why do You make me asee iniquity,

And cause me to look on wickedness?

Yes, bdestruction and violence are before me;

cStrife exists and contention arises.

4 Therefore the alaw is 1ignored

And justice 2is never upheld.

For the wicked bsurround the righteous;

Therefore justice comes out cperverted.

5 “aLook among the nations! Observe!

Be astonished! bWonder!

Because I am doing csomething in your days—

You would not believe if 1you were told.

6 “For behold, I am araising up the Chaldeans,

That 1fierce and impetuous people

Who march 2throughout the earth

To 3bseize dwelling places which are not theirs.

7 “They are dreaded and afeared;

Their bjustice and 1authority 2originate with themselves.

8 “Their ahorses are swifter than leopards

And 1keener than bwolves in the evening.

Their 2horsemen come galloping,

Their horsemen come from afar;

They fly like an ceagle swooping down to devour.

9 “All of them come for violence.

1Their horde of afaces moves forward.

They collect captives like sand.

10 “They amock at kings

And rulers are a laughing matter to them.

They blaugh at every fortress

And cheap up rubble to capture it.

11 “Then they will sweep through like the awind and pass on.

But they will be held bguilty,

They whose cstrength is their god.”

12 Are You not from aeverlasting,

O Lord, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

You, O Lord, have bappointed them to judge;

And You, O cRock, have established them to correct.

13 Your eyes are too apure to 1approve evil,

And You can not look on wickedness with favor.

Why do You blook with favor

On those who deal ctreacherously?

Why are You dsilent when the wicked eswallow up

Those more righteous than they?

14 Why have You made men like the fish of the sea,

Like creeping things without a ruler over them?

15 The Chaldeans abring all of them up with a hook,

bDrag them away with their net,

And gather them together in their fishing net.

Therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net

and 1burn incense to their fishing net;

Because through athese things their 2catch is 3large,

And their food is 4plentiful.

17 Will they therefore empty their anet

And continually bslay nations without sparing?

Chapter 2

God Answers the Prophet

1 I will astand on my guard post

And station myself on the rampart;

And I will bkeep watch to see cwhat He will speak to me,

And how I may reply 1when I am reproved.

2 Then the Lord answered me and said,

“aRecord the vision

And inscribe it on tablets,

That 1the one who 2reads it may run.

3 “For the vision is yet for the aappointed time;

It 1hastens toward the goal and it will not 2fail.

Though it tarries, bwait for it;

For it will certainly come, it cwill not delay.

4 “Behold, as for the aproud one,

His soul is not right within him;

But the brighteous will live by his 1faith.

5 “Furthermore, awine betrays the bhaughty man,

So that he does not cstay at home.

He denlarges his appetite like Sheol,

And he is like death, never satisfied.

He also gathers to himself all nations

And collects to himself all peoples.

6 “Will not all of these atake up a taunt-song against him,

Even mockery and insinuations against him

And say, ‘bWoe to him who increases what is not his—

For how long—

And makes himself 1rich with loans?’

7 “Will not 1your creditors arise up suddenly,

And those who 2collect from you awaken?

Indeed, you will become plunder for them.

8 “Because you have alooted many nations,

All the remainder of the peoples will loot you—

Because of human bloodshed and violence 1done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

9 “Woe to him who gets aevil gain for his house

To bput his nest on high,

To be delivered from the hand of calamity!

10 “You have devised a ashameful thing for your house

By cutting off many peoples;

So you are bsinning against yourself.

11 “Surely the astone will cry out from the wall,

And the rafter will answer it from the 1framework.

12 “Woe to him who abuilds a city with bloodshed

And founds a town with 1violence!

13 “Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts

That peoples atoil for fire,

And nations grow weary for nothing?

14 “For the earth will be afilled

With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

As the waters cover the sea.

15 “Woe to you who make 1your neighbors drink,

Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk

So as to look on their nakedness!

16 “You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor.

Now you yourself adrink and 1expose your own nakedness.

The bcup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you,

And cutter disgrace will come upon your glory.

17 “For the aviolence 1done to Lebanon will 2overwhelm you,

And the devastation of its beasts 3by which you terrified them,

bBecause of human bloodshed and cviolence 4done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

18 “What aprofit is the 1idol when its maker has carved it,

Or 2an image, a bteacher of falsehood?

For its maker ctrusts in his own handiwork

When he fashions speechless idols.

19 “Woe to him who asays to a piece of wood, ‘bAwake!’

To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’

And that is your teacher?

Behold, it is overlaid with cgold and silver,

And there is dno breath at all inside it.

20 “But the aLord is in His holy temple.

1Let all the earth bbe silent before Him.”

Chapter 3

God’s Deliverance of His People

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to 1Shigionoth.

2 Lord, I have aheard 1the report about You and 2I bfear.

O Lord, crevive dYour work in the midst of the years,

In the midst of the years make it known;

In wrath remember 3emercy.

3 God comes from aTeman,

And the Holy One from Mount bParan.

Selah.

His csplendor covers the heavens,

And the dearth is full of His praise.

4 His aradiance is like the sunlight;

He has rays flashing from His hand,

And there is the hiding of His bpower.

5 Before Him goes apestilence,

And bplague comes 1after Him.

6 He stood and surveyed the earth;

He looked and astartled the nations.

Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered,

The ancient hills 1collapsed.

His ways are beverlasting.

7 I saw the tents of Cushan under adistress,

The tent curtains of the land of bMidian were trembling.

8 Did the Lord rage against the arivers,

Or was Your anger against the rivers,

Or was Your wrath against the bsea,

That You crode on Your horses,

On Your dchariots of salvation?

9 Your abow was made bare,

The rods of 1chastisement were sworn.

Selah.

You bcleaved the earth with rivers.

10 The mountains saw You and quaked;

The downpour of waters swept by.

The deep auttered forth its voice,

It lifted high its hands.

11 aSun and moon stood in their places;

They went away at the blight of Your arrows,

At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.

12 In indignation You amarched through the earth;

In anger You 1btrampled the nations.

13 You went forth for the asalvation of Your people,

For the salvation of Your banointed.

You struck the chead of the house of the evil

To lay him open from 1thigh to neck.

Selah.

14 You pierced with his aown 1spears

The head of his 2throngs.

They bstormed in to scatter 3us;

Their exultation was like those

Who cdevour the oppressed in secret.

15 You atrampled on the sea with Your horses,

On the bsurge of many waters.

16 I heard and my 1inward parts atrembled,

At the sound my lips quivered.

Decay enters my bbones,

And in my place I tremble.

Because I must cwait quietly for the day of distress,

2For the dpeople to arise who will invade us.

17 Though the afig tree should not blossom

And there be no 1fruit on the vines,

Though the yield of the bolive should fail

And the fields produce no food,

Though the cflock should be cut off from the fold

And there be dno cattle in the stalls,

18 Yet I will aexult in the Lord,

I will brejoice in the cGod of my salvation.

19 The Lord 1God is my astrength,

And bHe has made my feet like hinds’ feet,

And makes me walk on my chigh places.

For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.