1The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2Until when, YHWH, have I cried out and you do not hear? I cry to you, "Violence!" and you do not save.
3Why do you make me see iniquity, and you look upon trouble? And destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rises up.
4Therefore the Torah is slacked, and judgment (mishpat) does not go forth perpetually; for the wicked surrounds the righteous; therefore judgment (mishpat) goes forth perverted.
5Look among the nations, and behold, and be astonished, be astounded; for a work is working in your days that you will not believe though it be told.
6For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, the bitter and hasty nation, which goes to the breadths of the earth, to possess dwelling places (mishkanot) that are not its own.
7Terrible and dreadful is it; from itself its judgment (mishpat) and its dignity go forth.
8And its horses are swifter than leopards, and keener than evening wolves; and its horsemen spread out, and its horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle hastening to devour.
9All of it comes for violence; the gathering of their faces is forward; and it gathers captives like the sand.
10And it scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to it; it laughs at every fortress, and heaps up dust (aphar) and captures it.
11Then a spirit (ruach) sweeps by and passes over and becomes guilty—this his strength is to his god.
12Are you not from of old, YHWH my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. YHWH, for judgment (mishpat) you have appointed it; and, O Rock, for correction you have established it.
13You are of purer eyes than to see evil, and you are not able to look on trouble; why do you look on the treacherous, and keep silent when the wicked swallows one more righteous than he?
14And you make man (adam) like the fish of the sea, like the creeping thing that has no ruler over it.
15He brings up all of them with a hook, he drags them away in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet; therefore he rejoices and exults.
16Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet; for by them his portion is fat, and his food rich.
17Shall he therefore empty his net, and continually slay nations without sparing?