HABAKKUK
§ Why do you make me see
injustice?
¤1 °1 These are the message and the vision of Habakkuk, the prophet. °2 Yahweh, how long will I cry for help while you pay no attention to me? I denounce the oppression and you do not save. °3 Why do you make me see injustice? Are you pleased to look on tyranny? All I see is outrage, violence and quarrels. °4 That is why the Law has been put aside and just decrees are no longer issued. The wicked overrule the upright and they get crooked sentences. § First reply°5 Look, traitors, and pay attention; be amazed and
astounded, for I am going to do in your own days, something that you would
not believe if you were told it. °6 I am going to call the Chaldeans, that terrifying
and violent people who raid to the ends of the earth, to seize the lands of
others. °7 I call a terrible and dangerous nation
who obey no other law but their own will. °8 Their
horses are speedier than leopards, fiercer than wolves on the plain; their
riders gallop on and come from afar, they swoop like the eagle descending on
its prey. °9 When they launch themselves for an attack, pushed
forward by the desert wind, they round up prisoners like sand. °10 This people makes fun of kings and laughs at
princes; they make light of fortified cities, for they build up an embankment
and seize them. °11 Thus they come and go like the wind!
Their strength is their god! § Second complaint of the prophet°12 But you, are you not Yahweh from past ages? You, my
holy God, you cannot die. You have set this people to serve your justice and
you have made them firm as a rock to fulfill your punishment. °13 Yahweh, your eyes are too pure to tolerate
wickedness and you cannot look on oppression. Why, then, do you look on
treacherous people and watch in silence while the evildoer swallows up one
better than himself? °14 You treat human beings like the fish in the sea,
like reptiles who are nobody’s concern. °15 This
nation catches all on its hook, pulls them out with its net and piles them up
in its dragnet. °16 Pleased and delighted at their catch,
they offer sacrifices to their net and burn incense to their dragnets, since
these supplied them with fish in plenty and provided them with food in
abundance. °17 Will they continue, then, to constantly
empty their nets, slaughtering nations without mercy? § Second reply: the upright will live by his faithfulness¤2 °1 I will stand in my watchtower and take up position on my battlements; I will see what he replies, if there is an answer to my question. °2 Then Yahweh answered me and said, “Write down the vision, inscribe it on tables so it can be easily read, °3 since this is a vision for an appointed time; it will not fail but will be fulfilled in due time. If it delays, wait for it, for it will come and will not be deferred. Look: °4 I don’t look with favor on the one who gives way; the upright, on the other hand, will live by his faithfulness.” °5 The grasping conqueror is always ready to devour, he
enlarges his mouth like the netherworld; he is as insatiable as death, he
seizes on all the nations and monopolizes all the peoples for himself. °6 But will not all the people mock him, as with one
voice? Will they not write fierce satires to show him up? They will say, § Against the oppressorWoe to him who amasses what is not his and fills himself with extorted pledges. °7 Your creditors will come suddenly, your money collectors will waken and take away all your goods. °8 Since you have plundered so many nations, shedding blood, stripping the land, their cities and homes, all the remaining nations will turn on you. °9 Woe to him who raises his house on unjust profits and fixes his nest so high that he thinks he can thereby escape misfortune! °10 You have willed the disgrace of your house; you draw evil on your own head. °11 The very stones of your walls cry out against you and the rafters reply from the roof. °12 Woe to the one who builds a city on bloody foundations and sets up a town by means of evil. °13 Has Yahweh of hosts not willed that the work of the nations go to the fire and the peoples toil for nothing? (°14)°15 Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors and
drugs them to make them drunk so that everyone looks at their nakedness. °16 This will bring you more shame than glory. You will
also drink and uncover your foreskin. The cup turns over in Yahweh’s hand and
pours out onto you: disgrace will swallow your glory. °17 The violence you did in Lebanon will befall you and
the animals will devour you, since you slaughtered human beings, destroyed
the country with its cities and put an end to all who lived there. °18 What use is a statue? Why do the sculptors make
them? Why these images and deceiving answers? Why do their makers trust them
and produce mute idols? °19 Woe to the one who says to a piece of
wood, “Wake up,” and to a dumb stone, “Get up.” Can it give any answer? For,
even though it is plated with gold and silver, there is not a single breath
of life in it. °20 But Yahweh lives in his holy Temple: let the whole
earth be silent before him! § Prayer of Habakkuk¤3 °1 Prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet. To the tune of a
dirge. °2 I have heard, Yahweh, of your renown; I
stand in awe of your work, O Yahweh. In
the middle of years make it known; in
your wrath even, remember mercy. °3 God comes from Teman, the
Holy One from Mount Paran. His
glory shrouds the heavens, his
praise fills the earth, °4 his splendor is like the daylight with
rays flashing from his hand, radiating
from his hidden power. °5 Pestilence goes before him, plague
follows close behind. °6 He stands and the earth sways; he
looks and the nations tremble. The
ancient mountains crumble, the
time-honored hills collapse. °7 I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the
pavilions of Midian in anguish. °8 Was your anger against the rivers,
Yahweh? Was
your wrath against the sea that
you drive your steeds with
your invincible chariots? °9 You bare and ready your bow and
set upon it your arrow. With
rivers you cleave the earth. °10 At your sight the mountains writhe. Torrents
of water ragingly sweep by, the
deep roaring, lifting its waves high. °11 The sun and moon stood still at
the glint of your flying arrows, at
the gleam of your flashing spears. °12 You stride the earth in wrath, you
trample the nations in rage. °13 You came out to redeem your people, to
save your anointed one – you
crush the head of the wicked, you
lay him bare from head to foot. °14 You pierce with your shafts his warriors
who came like a whirlwind to scatter us in joy, to
devour the wretched quietly. °15 You trample the waters with your horses, amid
the churning of the great seas. °16 I heard and my heart pounded, my
lips quivered at the sound. Decay
crept into my bones; my
legs tottered under my body. Yet
I wait confidently for the day of distress, when
we face the people coming against us. °17 For though the fig trees blossom not, nor
grapes be on the vines, though
the olive crop fail and
the fields produce no food, though
the flock be lost from the fold, and
the herd be gone from the stalls, °18 yet in Yahweh will I rejoice, in
God my savior will I exult. °19 My Lord Yahweh is my stronghold; he
makes my feet as fleeting as the hinds; he
steadies my steps upon the heights. For the choirmaster:
with stringed instruments. The End. |