1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! [even] cry out to thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save!
1:3 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.
1:4 Therefore the law is feeble, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth surround the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted
1:5 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].
1:6 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.
1:7 They [are] terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed from themselves.
1:8 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.
1:9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up [as] the east wind, and they shall gather the captives as the sand.
1:10 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.
1:11 Then shall [his] mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, [imputing] this his power to his god.
1:12 [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.
1:13 [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?
1:14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, [that have] no ruler over them?
1:15 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.
1:16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag; because by them their portion [is] fat, and their food plenteous.
1:17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?