Bible (Bishops')/Habakkuk

Chapter 1
The burde which Habacuc the prophete dyd see.

O Lorde, howe long shall I crye, and thou wilt not heare? [euen] crye out vnto thee for violence, and thou wilt not helpe?

Why doest thou shew me iniquitie, and cause me to beholde sorowe? for spoyling and violence are before me, & there are that rayse vp stryfe and contention,

Therfore the law is dissolued, & iudgement doth neuer go foorth: for the wicked doth compasse about the righteous, therfore wrong iudgement proceedeth.

Behold among the heathen, and regarde, and wonder, and marueyll: for I will worke a worke in your dayes, ye will not beleue it though it be tolde you.

For lo, I rayse vp the Chaldeans, that bitter and furious nation, whiche shall go vpon the breadth of the land, to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs.

They are terrible and fearfull: their iudgement and their dignitie shall procede of them selues.

Their horses also are swifter then the leopardes, and are more fierce then the wolues in the euening, and their horsemen shall come from farre: they shall flee as the Egle hasting to meate.

They come all to spoyle: before their faces shalbe an eastwinde, and they shall gather the captiuitie as the sande.

And they shall mocke the kinges, and the princes shalbe a scorne vnto them: they shall deride euery stronghold, for they shall gather dust, and take it.

Then shall they take a courage, and transgresse, and do wickedly, [imputing] this their power vnto their god.

Art not thou of olde, O Lord my God, my holy one? we shall not dye, O Lord thou hast ordeined them for iudgement, and O God thou hast established them for correction.

Thou art of pure eyes, and canst not see euyl, thou canst not behold wickednesse: wherfore [then] doest thou loke vpo the transgressours, and holdest thy tongue, when the wicked deuoureth the man that is more righteous then he?

And makest men as the fishe of the sea, and as the creeping thinges that haue no ruler ouer them.

They take vp all with the angle, they catche it in their net, and gather it in their yarne: wherof they reioyce and are glad.

Therfore they sacrifice vnto their net, and burne incense vnto their yarne: because by them their portion is fat, and their meate plenteous.

Shall they therfore stretche out their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Chapter 2
I will stande vpon my watche, and set me vpon the towre, & will loke, and see what he will say vnto me, and what I shall aunswere to him that rebuketh me.

And the Lord aunswered me, and said: write the vision, and make it plaine vpon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

For the vision is yet for an appoynted time, but at the last it shall speake, and not lye: though it tary, wayte: for it shall surely come, and shall not stay.

Behold, he that lifteth vp him selfe, his minde is not vpright in him: but the iust shall liue by his fayth.

Yea in deede the proude man [is as] he that transgresseth by wine, therfore shall he not endure, because he hath enlarged his desire as the hell, & is as death, and can not be satisfied, but gathereth vnto him all nations, and heapeth vnto him all people.

Shall not all these take vp a parable against him? and a taunting prouerbe against him, and say: Wo he that increaseth that which is not his? how long? and he that ladeth him selfe with thicke clay?

Shall they not rise vp sodenly that shall byte thee? and awake that shall stirre thee, & thou shalt be their pray?

Because thou hast spoyled many nations, all the remnaunt of the people shall spoyle thee, because of mens blood, and for the wrong [done] in the lande, in the citie, and vnto all that dwell therin.

Wo he that coueteth an euyll couetousnesse to his house, that he may set his nest on hie, to escape from the power of euyll.

Thou hast consulted shame to thyne owne house, by destroying many people, & hast sinned against thyne owne soule.

For the stone shall crye out of the wal, and the beame out of the timber shall aunswere it.

Wo vnto him that buyldeth a towne with blood, and erecteth a citie by iniquitie.

Behold, is it not of the Lord of hoastes that the people shall labour in the very fire? the people shall euen weery them selues for very vanitie.

For the earth shalbe filled with the knowledge of the glorie of the Lorde, as the waters couer the sea.

Wo vnto him that geueth his neyghbour drinke, thou ioynest thy heate, and makest [him] drunken also, that thou mayest see their priuities.

Thou art filled with shame for glorie, drinke thou also and be made naked: the cup of the Lordes right hand shalbe turned vnto thee, and shamefull spuyng shalbe for thy glorie.

For the crueltie of Libanus shall couer thee: so shal the spoyle of the beastes which he made afrayde, because of mens blood, and for the wrong done in the land, in the citie, and vnto all that dwell therin.

What profiteth the image? for the maker therof hath made it an image and a teacher of lyes, though he that made it trust therin when he maketh dumbe idoles.

Wo vnto hym that sayth to the wood, Awake: and to the dumbe stone, Rise vp, it shall teache [thee:] beholde it is layde ouer with gold and siluer, & there is no breath in it.

But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth kepe scilence before hym.

Chapter 3
A prayer of Habacuc the prophete for the ignoraunces.

O lord I haue heard thy voyce, and was afrayde: O Lorde reuiue thy worke in the middes of the yeres, in the middes of the yeres make it knowen, in wrath remember mercie.

God commeth from Theman, and the holy one from mount Paran, Selah. his glorie couereth the heauens, and the earth is full of his prayse.

And [his] brightnesse was as the light: he had hornes [comming] out of his handes, and there was the hyding of his power.

Before him went the pestilence, and burning coales went foorth before his feete.

He stoode, and measured the earth, he behelde, and dissolued the nations, and the euerlasting mountaynes were broken, and the auncient hilles did bowe, his wayes are euerlasting.

For iniquitie I saw the tentes of Chusan, [and] the curtaynes of the lande of Madian dyd tremble.

Was the Lorde angry against the riuers? or was thyne anger against the floodes? or was thy wrath against the sea, that thou diddest ryde vpon thy horses? thy charets [brought] saluation.

Thy bow was manyfestly reuealed, and the othes of the tribes [were] a sure word. Selah. thou diddest cleaue the earth with riuers.

The mountaynes sawe thee and they trembled, the streame of the water passed by, the deepe made a noyse, and lift vp his handes on hye.

The sonne [and] moone stoode still in [their] habitation, at the light of thyne arrowes they went, [and] at the bright shining of thy speares.

Thou trodest downe the land in anger: [and] dyddest threshe the heathen in displeasure.

Thou wentest foorth for the saluation of thy people, [euen] for saluation with thyne annoynted: thou hast wounded the head of the house of the wicked, and discoueredst the foundations vnto the necke. Selah.

Thou diddest strike thorow with his owne staues the heades of his villages, they came out as a whirlewinde to scatter me: their reioycyng was as to deuour the poore secretly.

Thou diddest walke in the sea with thyne horses, vpon the heape of great waters.

When I hearde, my belly trembled, my lippes shoke at the voice, rottennesse entred into my bones, & I trembled in my selfe, that I might rest in the day of trouble: for when he commeth vp vnto the people, he shall destroy them.

For the figgetree shall not floorish, neither shall fruite be in the vines: the labour of the oliue shall fayle, & the fieldes shall yelde no meate: the sheepe shalbe cut of from the folde, and there shalbe no bullocke in the stalles.

But I will reioyce in the Lord, I will ioy in the God of my saluation.

The Lord God is my strength, he wil make my feete like hindes [feete] & he wil make me to walke vpon my hye places. To the chiefe singer on Neginothai, [or vpon the instrumentes of musicke.]