1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded.For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation,who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on.Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh.They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound;rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food,the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.