Habakuk 1

1. ¹The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2. ²Jehovah, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto thee, Violence! and thou dost not save.
3. ³Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.
4. ⁴Therefore the law is powerless, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked encompasseth the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted.
5. ⁵See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for [ergänzt: I] work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared [ergänzt: to you].
6. ⁶For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marcheth through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7. ⁷They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8. ⁸And their horses are swifter than the leopards, and are more agile than the evening wolves; and their horsemen prance proudly, and their horsemen come from afar: they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour.
9. ⁹They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.
10. ¹⁰Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a scorn unto him; he derideth every stronghold: for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it.
11. ¹¹Then will his mind change, and he will pass on, and become guilty: this his power is become his +god.
12. ¹²-- Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction.
13. ¹³[ergänzt: Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on mischief: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [ergänzt: and] keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a [ergänzt: man] more righteous than he?
14. ¹⁴And thou makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them.
15. ¹⁵He taketh up all of them with the hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag; therefore he rejoiceth and is glad:
16. ¹⁶therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty.
17. ¹⁷Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?

Kursiv gesetzte Wörter haben die Übersetzer ergänzt.

Public Domain