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¹ The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.² O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! [even] cry out to thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save!³ Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance? for devastation and violence [are] before me: and there are [that] raise strife and contention.⁴ Therefore the law is slackened, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth encompass the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

⁵ Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for [I] will work a work in your days, [which] ye will not believe though it be told [you].⁶ For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, [that] bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places [that are] not theirs.⁷ They [are] terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed from 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 [that] hasteth to eat.⁹ They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up [as] 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 to them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.¹¹ Then shall [his] mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, [imputing] this his power to his god.

¹² [Art] thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.¹³ [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: why lookest thou on them that deal treacherously, [and] keepest silence when the wicked devoureth [the man that is] more righteous than he?¹⁴ And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping animals [that have] 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 to their net, and burn incense to their drag; because by them their portion [is] fat, and their food plenteous.¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?