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¹ THE vision which Habakkuk the prophet saw:² O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I cry to thee because of the plunderers, and thou wilt not deliver!³ Why dost thou show me iniquity and deceit? For I see violence and evil; justice was on my side, but the judge accepted bribes.⁴ Therefore the law is slacked, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surely does evil to the righteous; thus justice goes forth perverted.

⁵ Behold, O you presumptuous, see, wonder, and be amazed! for I will do a work in your days that you would not believe if a man should declare it to you.⁶ For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that hasty and bitter nation, who shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.⁷ They are mighty and dreadful; their judgment and their notable doings proceed of themselves.⁸ Their horses are swifter than eagles and more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen shall swoop down and shall come from afar; they shall fly like an eagle that hastens to eat.⁹ They all come for plunder; the appearance of their faces is fearful, and they shall gather booty as the sand.¹⁰ They scoff at kings, and princes they mock; and they laugh at every stronghold; for they heap up earth and capture it.¹¹ Then shall his wind change and pass away, and his army shall be found guilty before his god.

¹² Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? Art thou without a law, O LORD? For thou hast ordained them for judgment, and thou hast created us for chastisement.¹³ Thine eyes are too pure, they do not behold evil, and thou canst not look on wicked men; why dost thou look on presumptuous men, and art silent when the wicked devours the righteous man?¹⁴ And thou didst make men as the fish of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.¹⁵ They take up all of them with the hook, they catch them in a net, and gather them in their drag; and when they gather them, they rejoice and are glad.¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag, because by them their portion is made rich, and their food dainty.¹⁷ Therefore they cast their net continually, they slay peoples without pity.