The Holy Bible, containing the Old & New Testament & the Apocrypha/Volume 2/Habakkuk
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HABAKKUK
The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
- O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!
- Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
- Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?
- For spoiling and violence are before me:
- And there are that raise up strife and contention.
- Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth:
- For the wicked doth compass about the righteous;
- Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
- Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously:
- For I will work a work in your days,
- Which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
- 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.
- They are terrible and dreadful:
- Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
- 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.
- They shall come all for violence:
- Their faces shall sup up as the east wind,
- And they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
- And they shall scoff at the kings,
- And the princes shall be a scorn unto them:
- They shall deride every strong hold;
- For they shall heap dust, and take it.
- Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend,
- Imputing this his power unto his god.
- Art thou not from everlasting,
- O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die.
- O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment;
- And, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
- Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil,
- And canst not look on iniquity:
- Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously,
- And boldest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
- And makest men as the fishes of the sea,
- As the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
- 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.
- Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag;
- Because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
- Shall they therefore empty their net,
- And not spare continually to slay the nations?
- I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower,
- And will watch to see what he will say unto me,
- And what I shall answer when I am reproved.
- And the Lord answered me, and said,
- Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables,
- That he may run that readeth it.
- For the vision is yet for an appointed time,
- But at the end it shall speak, and not lie:
- Though it tarry, wait for it;
- Because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
- Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him:
- But the just shall live by his faith.
- Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine,
- He is a proud man, neither keepeth at home,
- Who enlargeth his desire as hell,
- And is as death, and cannot be satisfied,
- But gathereth unto him all nations,
- And heapeth unto him all people:
- Shall not all these take up a parable against him,
- And a taunting proverb against him, and say,
- Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long?
- And to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!
- Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee,
- And awake that shall vex thee,
- And thou shalt be for booties unto them?
- Because thou hast spoiled many nations,
- All the remnant of the people shall spoil thee;
- Because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land,
- Of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
- Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house,
- That he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
- Thou hast consulted shame to thy house
- By cutting off many people,
- And hast sinned against thy soul.
- For the stone shall cry out of the wall,
- And the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
- Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood,
- And stablisheth a city by iniquity!
- Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts
- That the people shall labour in the very fire,
- And the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
- For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
- As the waters cover the sea.
- Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink,
- That puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also,
- That thou mayest look on their nakedness!
- Thou art filled with shame for glory:
- Drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered:
- The cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee,
- And shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.
- For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee,
- And the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid,
- Because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land,
- Of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
- What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it;
- The molten image, and a teacher of lies,
- That the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
- Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach!
- Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver,
- And there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
- But the Lord is in his holy temple:
- Let all the earth keep silence before him.
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
- O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid:
- O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years,
- In the midst of the years make known;
- In wrath remember mercy.
- God came from Teman,
- And the Holy One from mount Paran.Selah.
- His glory covered the heavens,
- And the earth was full of his praise.
- And his brightness was as the light;
- He had horns coming out of his hand:
- And there was the hiding of his power.
- Before him went the pestilence,
- And burning coals went forth at his feet.
- He stood, and measured the earth:
- He beheld, and drove asunder the nations;
- And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
- The perpetual hills did bow:
- His ways are everlasting.
- I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction:
- And the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
- Was the Lord displeased against the rivers?
- Was thine anger against the rivers?
- Was thy wrath against the sea,
- That thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?
- Thy bow was made quite naked,
- According to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word.
Selah.
- Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
- The mountains saw thee, and they trembled:
- The overflowing of the water passed by:
- The deep uttered his voice,
- And lifted up his hands on high.
- The sun and moon stood still in their habitation:
- At the light of thine arrows they went,
- And at the shining of thy glittering spear.
- Thou didst march through the land in indignation,
- Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.
- Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people,
- Even for salvation with thine anointed;
- Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked,
- By discovering the foundation unto the neck.Selah.
- Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages;
- They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me:
- Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
- Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses,
- Through the heap of great waters.
- When I heard, my belly trembled;
- My lips quivered at the voice:
- Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself,
- That I might rest in the day of trouble:
- When he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
- Although the fig tree shall not blossom,
- Neither shall fruit be in the vines;
- The labour of the olive shall fail,
- And the fields shall yield no meat;
- The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
- And there shall be no herd in the stalls:
- Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
- I will joy in the God of my salvation.
- The Lord God is my strength,
- And he will make my feet like hinds' feet,
- And he will make me to walk upon mine high places.
To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.