| Chapter 1 |
| 1 | The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. |
| 2 | O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! {even} cry out unto thee {of} violence, and thou wilt not save! |
| 3 | 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. |
| 4 | Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. |
| 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 of 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 captivity as the sand. |
| 10 | 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. |
| 11 | Then shall {his} mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, {imputing} this his power unto his god. |
| 12 | {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. |
| 13 | {Thou art} of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, {and} holdest thy tongue 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 angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad. |
| 16 | Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion {is} fat, and their meat plenteous. |
| 17 | Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? |
| Chapter 2 |
| 1 | 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. |
| 2 | And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make {it} plain upon tables, 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 tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. |
| 4 | Behold, his soul {which} 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 unto him all nations, and heapeth unto 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 up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? |
| 8 | 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. |
| 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! |
| 10 | Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned {against} thy soul. |
| 11 | For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. |
| 12 | Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! |
| 13 | 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? |
| 14 | For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. |
| 15 | 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! |
| 16 | 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. |
| 17 | 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. |
| 18 | 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? |
| 19 | 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. |
| 20 | But the Lord {is} in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. |
| Chapter 3 |
| 1 | A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. |
| 2 | 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. |
| 3 | 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. |
| 4 | And {his} brightness was as the light; he had horns {coming} out of his hand: and there {was} the hiding of his power. |
| 5 | Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. |
| 6 | 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. |
| 7 | I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: {and} the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. |
| 8 | 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? |
| 9 | Thy bow was made quite naked, {according} to the oaths of the tribes, {even thy} word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. |
| 10 | 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. |
| 11 | 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. |
| 12 | Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. |
| 13 | 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. |
| 14 | 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. |
| 15 | Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, {through} the heap of great waters. |
| 16 | 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. |
| 17 | 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: |
| 18 | Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. |
| 19 | 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. |