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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 plundering and violence are before me: and there are that raise strife and contention. 4 Therefore the law is feeble, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth surround the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted 5 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. 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 dwellingplaces 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 captives as the sand. 10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them: they shall laugh at 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 things, that have no ruler over them? 15 They take up all of them with the hook, 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?

1 I will stand upon my watch, and station myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it may tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold, his soul who is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. 5 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 to him all nations, and heapeth to him all people: 6 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! 7 Shall they not rise suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall oppress thee, and thou shalt be for booty to them? 8 Because thou hast laid waste many nations, all the remnant of the people shall lay thee waste; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell in it. 9 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!