The Book of the Prophet Habacuc, Chapter 1

1   The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.
2   How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not
    hear?  shall I cry out to thee suffering violence,
    and thou wilt not save?
3   Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to
    see rapine and injustice before me?  and there is a
    judgment, but opposition is more powerful.
4   Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment
    cometh not to the end:  because the wicked
    prevaileth against the just, therefore wrong
    judgment goeth forth.
5   Behold ye among the nations, and see:  wonder, and
    be astonished:  for a work is done in your days,
    which no man will believe when it shall be told.
6   For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter
    and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the
    earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not
    their own.
7   They are dreadful, and terrible:  from themselves
    shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.
8   Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter
    than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be
    spread abroad:  for their horsemen shall come from
    afar, they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste
    to eat.
9   They shall all come to the prey, their face is like
    a burning wind:  and they shall gather together
    captives as the sand.
10  And their prince shall triumph over kings, and
    princes shall be his laughingstock:  and he shall
    laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a
    mount, and shall take it.
11  Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass,
    and fall:  this is his strength of his god.
12  Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my
    holy one, and we shall not die?  Lord, thou hast
    appointed him for judgment:  and made him strong for
    correction.
13  Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst
    not look on iniquity.  Why lookest thou upon them
    that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when
    the wicked devoureth the man that is more just than
    himself?
14  And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and
    as the creeping things that have no ruler.
15  He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in
    his drag, and gathered them into his net:  for this
    he will be glad and rejoice.
16  Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he
    will sacrifice to his net:  because through them his
    portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.
17  For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and
    will not spare continually to slay the nations.

          The Book of the Prophet Habacuc, Chapter 2

1   I will stand upon my watch, and fix my foot upon the
    tower:  and I will watch, to see what will be said
    to me, and what I may answer to him that reproveth
    me.
2   And the Lord answered me, and said:  Write the
    vision, and make it plain upon tables:  that he that
    readeth it may run over it.
3   For as yet the vision is far off, and it shall
    appear at the end, and shall not lie:  if it make
    any delay, wait for it:  for it shall surely come,
    and it shall not be slack.
4   Behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul shall not
    be right in himself: but the just shall live in his
    faith.
5   And as wine deceiveth him that drinketh it:  so
    shall the proud man be, and he shall not be
    honoured:  who hath enlarged his desire like hell:
    and is himself like death, and he is never
    satisfied:  but will gather together unto him all
    nations, and heap together unto him all people.
6   Shall not all these take up a parable against him,
    and a dark speech concerning him:  and it shall be
    said:  Woe to him that heapeth together that which
    is not his own?  how long also doth he load himself
    with thick clay?
7   Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite
    thee:  and they be stirred up that shall tear thee,
    and thou shalt be a spoil to them?
8   Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all that
    shall be left of the people shall spoil thee:
    because of men's blood, and for the iniquity of the
    land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
9   Woe to him that gathereth together an evil
    covetousness to his house, that his nest may be on
    high, and thinketh he may be delivered out of the
    hand of evil.
10  Thou hast devised confusion to thy house, thou hast
    cut off many people, and thy soul hath sinned.
11  For the stone shall cry out of the wall:  and the
    timber that is between the joints of the building,
    shall answer.
12  Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and
    prepareth a city by iniquity.
13  Are not these things from the Lord of hosts?  for
    the people shall labour in a great fire:  and the
    nations in vain, and they shall faint.
14  For the earth shall be filled, that men may know the
    glory of the Lord, as waters covering the sea.
15  Woe to him that giveth drink to his friend, and
    presenteth his gall, and maketh him drunk, that he
    may behold his nakedness.
16  Thou art filled with shame instead of glory:  drink
    thou also, and fall fast asleep:  the cup of the
    right hand of the Lord shall compass thee, and
    shameful vomiting shall be on thy glory.
17  For the iniquity of Libanus shall cover thee, and
    the ravaging of beasts shall terrify them because of
    the blood of men, and the iniquity of the land, and
    of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
18  What doth the graven thing avail, because the maker
    thereof hath graven it, a molten, and a false image?
    because the forger thereof hath trusted in a thing
    of his own forging, to make dumb idols.
19  Woe to him that saith to wood:  Awake:  to the dumb
    stone:  Arise:  can it teach?  Behold, it is laid
    over with gold, and silver, and there is no spirit
    in the bowels thereof.
20  But the Lord is in his holy temple:  let all the
    earth keep silence before him.

          The Book of the Prophet Habacuc, Chapter 3

1   A PRAYER OF HABACUC THE PROPHET FOR IGNORANCES.
2   O Lord, I have heard thy hearing, and was afraid.  O
    Lord, thy work, in the midst of the years bring it
    to life:  In the midst of the years thou shalt make
    it known:  when thou art angry, thou wilt remember
    mercy.
3   God will come from the south, and the holy one from
    mount Pharan:  His glory covered the heavens, and
    the earth is full of his praise.
4   His brightness shall be as the light; horns are in
    his hands:  There is his strength hid:
5   Death shall go before his face.  And the devil shall
    go forth before his feet.
6   He stood and measured the earth.  He beheld, and
    melted the nations: and the ancient mountains were
    crushed to pieces.  The hills of the world were
    bowed down by the journeys of his eternity.
7   I saw the tents of Ethiopia for their iniquity, the
    curtains of the land of Madian shall be troubled.
8   Wast thou angry, O Lord, with the rivers?  or was
    thy wrath upon the rivers?  or thy indignation in
    the sea?  Who will ride upon thy horses:  and thy
    chariots are salvation.
9   Thou wilt surely take up thy bow:  according to the
    oaths which thou hast spoken to the tribes.  Thou
    wilt divide the rivers of the earth.
10  The mountains saw thee, and were grieved:  the great
    body of waters passed away.  The deep put forth its
    voice:  the deep lifted up its hands.
11  The sun and the moon stood still in their
    habitation, in the light of thy arrows, they shall
    go in the brightness of thy glittering spear.
12  In thy anger thou wilt tread the earth under foot:
    in thy wrath thou wilt astonish the nations.
13  Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people:
    for salvation with thy Christ.  Thou struckest the
    head of the house of the wicked:  thou hast laid
    bare his foundation even to the neck.
14  Thou hast cursed his sceptres, the head of his
    warriors, them that came out as a whirlwind to
    scatter me.  Their joy was like that of him that
    devoureth the poor man in secret.
15  Thou madest a way in the sea for thy horses, in the
    mud of many waters.
16  I have heard and my bowels were troubled:  my lips
    trembled at the voice.  Let rottenness enter into my
    bones, and swarm under me.  That I may rest in the
    day of tribulation:  that I may go up to our people
    that are girded.
17  For the fig tree shall not blossom:  and there shall
    be no spring in the vines.  The labour of the olive
    tree shall fail:  and the fields shall yield no
    food:  the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and
    there shall be no herd in the stalls.
18  But I will rejoice in the Lord:  and I will joy in
    God my Jesus.
19  The Lord God is my strength:  and he will make my
    feet like the feet of harts:  and he the conqueror
    will lead me upon my high places singing psalms.