DASV:  Digital American Standard Version

                                           DASV: Habakkuk 1

¹ The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk's First Complaint

² How long, O LORD, must I cry, and you not listen?

            I cry out to you "Violence," but you do not save.

³ Why do you force me to view injustice?

            Why do you make me look at trouble?

     For destruction and violence are before me;

            there is strife and conflict prevails.

⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed,

            and justice is never executed.

    For the wicked surround the righteous,

            so that justice is perverted.

The LORD's Response
⁵ Look at the nations, and see.

            Be absolutely amazed.

    For I am doing a deed in your days

            which you will not believe,
            even if you were told about it.

⁶ For look, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

            that ruthless and unruly nation.

   They march over the entire earth,

            to seize dwelling places that do not belong to them.

⁷ They are dreadful and terrifying;

            they make up their own justice and promote themselves.

⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,

            and are more fierce than wolves in the evening.

   Their horsemen charge ahead,

            their horsemen come from far away;

    they fly like an eagle swooping down to devour prey.

⁹ They all come for violence,

            with their faces fixed forward.

                        They gather captives like sand.

¹⁰ They mock kings,

            and ridicule rulers.

    They laugh at every fortress,

            for they build earthen siege ramps,

                        and take them.

¹¹ Then they sweep by like a wind and go on,

            but they are guilty, whose might is their god.

Habakkuk's Second Complaint
¹² O LORD, are you not from everlasting?

            My God, my Holy One, you never die.
    O LORD, you have ordained them to administer judgment;

            you, O Rock, have established them for correction.

¹³ Your eyes are too pure than to gaze on evil;

            you cannot look on wrongdoing.

   So why do you look on those who deal treacherously?

            Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up

                        those more righteous than they are?

¹⁴ You have made people like the fish of the sea,

            as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.

¹⁵ The wicked hauls them up with a hook,

            he catches them in his net.

     He gathers them in his dragnet,

            so he rejoices and is glad.

¹⁶ Then he sacrifices to his net,

            and burns incense worshipping his dragnet;

      for by them he lives in luxury,

            and has plenty of food.

¹⁷ Will he continue emptying his net,

            and keep on slaying nations without mercy?

                                      DASV: Habakkuk 2

¹ I will stand at my guard post,

            and station myself on the rampart.

    I will watch to see what he will say to me,

            and how I should respond concerning my complaint.

² Then the LORD answered me and said,

            "Write down the vision,

                        and make it clear on tablets,

            so that the runner may easily read it.

³ For the vision is for its appointed time,

            and it speaks about how things will end up,

                        and it will not be proven false.

    Though it delays, wait for it;

            it will surely come,

                        it will not be late.

⁴ Look at the proud,

            his soul is not upright in him;

                        but the righteous will live by his faithfulness.

⁵ Furthermore, wine is treacherous;

            the arrogant are never at rest.

   They open their mouths as wide as the grave,

            and as death they are never satisfied.

    They gather to themselves all nations,

            and harvests together all peoples.

⁶ Will not all these take up a proverb against him,

            a saying ridiculing him, 

   'Woe to him who accumulates what is not his!

            How long? He weighs himself down with heavy debts!'

⁷ Will not your creditors rise up suddenly,

            those who terrify you will get up?

                        You will become their plunder.

⁸ Because you have plundered many nations,

            all the survivors of the peoples will plunder you.

   For you have shed blood

            and done violence to the land,

            to the city and all its inhabitants.

⁹ Woe to the one who gets evil gain for his house,

            so that he may set his nest on high,

                        attempting to escape from the hand of disaster!

¹⁰ You have plotted bringing shame to your house,

            by cutting off many peoples,

                        and have sinned against your own life.

¹¹ For the stone will cry out of the wall,

            and the wooden beams will respond.

¹² Woe to the one who builds a town by bloodshed,

            and establishes a city by injustice!

¹³ Look, is it not from the LORD of hosts

            that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire,

            and the nations weary themselves for nothing?

¹⁴ For the earth will be filled

            with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,

                        as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵ Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink,

             pouring out your wrath until they are drunk,

    so that you can gawk at their nakedness!

¹⁶ You are filled with shame, instead of glory.

            Now you will drink and expose your uncircumcised genitals.

    The cup of LORD's right hand will come to you,

            and utter shame will cover over your glory.

¹⁷ For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you,

            and the destruction of the animals by which you terrified them;

    because of human bloodshed,

            and for the violence done to the land,

            to the cities and to all their inhabitants.

¹⁸ What benefit is an idol when a craftsman carved it?

            What good is a metal image, a teacher of lies?

    Why does even the one who makes them

            trust in speechless idols?

¹⁹ Woe to him that says to wood, 'Wake up,'

            To speechless stone, 'Arise!'

                        Can it instruct?

     Look, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

            and there is absolutely no breath in it.

²⁰ But the LORD is in his holy temple;

            let all the earth be silent before him."

                                       DASV: Habakkuk 3

¹ A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

² O LORD, I have heard the report about what you have done,

            and stand in awe, O LORD.

   Revive your work in our time;

            in the midst of these years make it known;

            in wrath remember mercy.

³ God came from Teman,

            the Holy One from Mount Paran.               Selah.

    His glory covered the heavens,

            and the earth was full of his praise.

⁴ His splendor is like the light;

            rays flashed from his hand;

     where his power was hidden.

⁵ Pestilence went before him,

            and plague followed his feet.

⁶ He stood and the earth shook;

            his gaze startled the nations.

   The ancient mountains shattered;

            the everlasting hills bow,

                        along his ancient paths.

⁷ I see the tents of Cushan in distress;

            the tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.

⁸ Was the LORD angry at the rivers?

            Was your wrath against the rivers?

   Or your rage against the sea

            when you rode on your horses,

                        on your chariots to victory?

⁹ You brandished your bare bow,

            calling for many arrows.                  Selah.

   You split the earth with rivers;

¹⁰         the mountains saw you and trembled.

   The downpour swept through;

            the deep raised its voice,

                        and lifted its hands high.

¹¹ The sun and moon stood still in the sky,

            at the light of your arrows as they flew,

                        at the shining of your glistening spear.

¹² In rage you marched though the land;

            in anger you threshed the nations.

¹³ You went out to rescue your people,

            to save your anointed ones.

   You wounded the leader of the house of the wicked,

            laying him open from head to toe.             Selah.

¹⁴ You pierced the head of his warriors with his own spear.

            They came like a whirlwind to scatter us,

            rejoicing as they were devouring the poor who were in hiding.

¹⁵ You trample the sea with your horses,

            on the surging of mighty waters.

¹⁶ I listened and my belly trembled;

            my lips quivered at the sound.

    My bones gave way like they were decayed,

            and I trembled in my place.

    I must wait quietly for the day of calamity,

            coming on the people who invaded us.

¹⁷ Even though the fig tree does not blossom,

            and there is no fruit on the vines;

     when the olive tree fails to produce,

            and the fields produce no crops;

     even when the flock is cut off from the fold,

            and there is no herd in the stalls;

¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

            I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

¹⁹ The sovereign LORD, is my strength.

            He makes my feet as agile as a deer's,

            and enables me to walk on high places.

To the music director, on my stringed instruments.