1. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

2. O יְהוָ֥ה, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! cry out unto thee violence, and thou wilt not save!

3. Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence before me: and there are raise up strife and contention.

4. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

5. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for will work a work in your days, ye will not believe, though it be told.

6. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces not their's.

7. They terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

8. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle hasteth to eat.

9. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

10. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

11. Then shall mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, this his power unto his god.

12. thou not from everlasting, O יְהוָ֥ה my Elohim, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O יְהוָ֥ה, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty Elohim, thou hast established them for correction.

13. of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth more righteous than he?

14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, no ruler over them?

15. They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion fat, and their meat plenteous.

17. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?