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¹ The burden that Habakkuk the prophet has seen:² Until when, O YHWH, have I cried, || And You do not hear? I cry to You, "Violence!" And You do not save.³ Why do You show me iniquity, || And cause [me] to behold perversity? And spoiling and violence [are] before me, || And there is strife, and contention lifts [itself] up,⁴ Therefore law ceases, || And judgment does not go forth forever, || For the wicked is surrounding the righteous, || Therefore wrong judgment goes forth.

⁵ "Look on nations, and behold and marvel greatly. For a work He is working in your days, || You do not believe though it is declared.⁶ For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, || The bitter and hasty nation, || That is going to the broad places of earth, || To occupy dwelling places not his own.⁷ He [is] terrible and fearful, || His judgment and his excellence go forth from him.⁸ His horses have been swifter than leopards, || And sharper than evening wolves, || And his horsemen have increased, || Even his horsemen from afar come in, || They fly as an eagle, hastening to consume.⁹ All for violence—he comes in, || Their faces swallowing up the east wind, || And he gathers a captivity as the sand.¹⁰ And he scoffs at kings, || And princes [are] a laughter to him, || He laughs at every fortification, || And he heaps up dust, and captures it.¹¹ Then the spirit has passed on, || Indeed, he transgresses, || And [ascribes] this—his power—to his god."

¹² Are You not of old, O YHWH, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O YHWH, || You have appointed him for judgment, || And, O Rock, You have founded him for reproof.¹³ Purer of eyes than to behold evil, || You are not able to look on perverseness, || Why do You behold the treacherous? You keep silent when the wicked || Swallow the more righteous than he,¹⁴ And You make man as fishes of the sea, || As a creeping thing [with] none ruling over him.¹⁵ He has brought up each of them with a hook, || He catches it in his net, and gathers it in his dragnet, || Therefore he delights and rejoices.¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net, || And makes incense to his dragnet, || For by them [is] his portion fertile, and his food fat.¹⁷ Does he therefore empty his net, || And continually not spare to slay nations?