ULT HAB Chapter 1

1 The message that Habakkuk the prophet received,

2 “Yahweh, how long will I cry for help, and you will not hear?

I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you will not save.

3 Why do you make me see iniquity and look upon wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention rises up.

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice does not last for any time.

For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore false justice goes out.”

5 “Look at the nations and observe them; be amazed and astonished!

For I am surely about to do something in your days that you will not believe even if it is told to you.

6 For look! I am about to raise up the Chaldeans—that fierce and impetuous nation—

they are marching throughout the breadth of the earth to seize dwelling places that were not their own.

7 They are terrifying and fearsome; their judgment and splendor proceed from themselves.

8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, quicker than the evening wolves.

So their horsemen come galloping,

and their horsemen come from a great distance—they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

9 They all come for violence;

all their faces moving foward, and they gather captives like sand.[fn]

10 So they mock kings, and rulers are only a mockery for them.

They laugh at every stronghold, for they pile up earth and capture them.

11 Then they sweep past like the wind and pass on—guilty men, those whose might is their god.”

12 “Are you not from ancient times, O Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die.

O Yahweh, you have ordained them for judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for correction.

13 Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil, and you are not able to look on wrongdoing with favor;

why then have you looked favorably on those who betray?

Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they are?

14 You make men like fish in the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them.

15 He brings all of them up with a fishhook;

he drags men away in his fishnet;

he gathers them together in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and he is glad.

16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and burns incense to his dragnet,

for by his net his portion is fat,

and his food is the richest kind.

17 Will he therefore keep emptying his net,

and will he continually slaughter the nations without mercy?”

The Hebrew text translated here as their multitudes go like the desert wind is very difficult; many modern versions have other interpretations.