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¹ The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw:² O Jehovah, until when shall I cry for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, Violence! But You do not save.³ Why do You make me see evil, and You look upon toil? For destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rises up.⁴ On account of this the law has become feeble, and justice does not go forth with continuity. For the wicked surrounds the righteous, so justice goes forth, being perverted.

⁵ Look among the nations and see, and be amazed. Be amazed! For a work is working in your days which you will not believe, though it be told to you.⁶ For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, the bitter and impetuous nation which is going into the broad spaces of the land, to possess dwellings not his own.⁷ He is terrible and fearful; his judgment and his glory goes forth from himself.⁸ His horses also are swifter than leopards and are fiercer than the evening wolves. And their horsemen spread themselves; yea, their horsemen come from afar; they shall fly as the eagle hurrying to eat.⁹ All of him shall come for violence; the eagerness of their faces is forward; and they gather captives like the sand.¹⁰ And he shall scoff against the kings, and officials shall be a scorn to him. He shall scorn every fortress, and he shall heap up dirt and capture it.¹¹ Then he sweeps on like a wind; and he passes on and is guilty, crediting this power of his to his god.

¹² Are You not from aforetime, Jehovah our God, my Holy One? We shall not die, Jehovah, for You have appointed him for judgment. And, my Rock, You have established him for correction.¹³ You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and You are not able to look upon vexation. Why do you look on those who deal deceitfully? Will You be silent when the wicked swallows one more righteous than he?¹⁴ For You make man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things with no ruler over him.¹⁵ He takes up all of him with the hook; he drags him with his net and gathers him with his seine. On account of this he rejoices and exults.¹⁶ So he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his seine; because by them his portion is fat, and his food rich.¹⁷ Shall he therefore empty his net, and shall he not spare to continually slay nations?