New International Version NIV
Young's Literal Translation YLT
1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.
1
The burden that Habakkuk the prophet hath seen:
2 How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
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Till when, O Jehovah, have I cried, And Thou dost not hear? I cry unto Thee -- `Violence,' and Thou dost not save.
3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
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Why dost Thou shew me iniquity, And perversity dost cause to behold? And spoiling and violence [are] before me, And there is strife, and contention doth lift [itself] up,
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
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Therefore doth law cease, And judgment doth not go forth for ever, For the wicked is compassing the righteous, Therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.
5 “Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
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Look ye on nations, and behold and marvel greatly. For a work He is working in your days, Ye do not believe though it is declared.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.
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For, lo, I am raising up the Chaldeans, The bitter and hasty nation, That is going to the broad places of earth, To occupy tabernacles not its own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.
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Terrible and fearful it [is], From itself its judgment and its excellency go forth.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
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Swifter than leopards have been its horses, And sharper than evening wolves, And increased have its horsemen, Even its horsemen from afar come in, They fly as an eagle, hasting to consume.
9 they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.
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Wholly for violence it doth come in, Their faces swallowing up the east wind, And it doth gather as the sand a captivity.
10 They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.
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And at kings it doth scoff, And princes [are] a laughter to it, At every fenced place it doth laugh, And it heapeth up dust, and captureth it.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on— guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”
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Then passed on hath the spirit, Yea, he doth transgress, And doth ascribe this his power to his god.
12 LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
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Art not Thou of old, O Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O Jehovah, For judgment Thou hast appointed it, And, O Rock, for reproof Thou hast founded it.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
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Purer of eyes than to behold evil, To look on perverseness Thou art not able, Why dost Thou behold the treacherous? Thou keepest silent when the wicked Doth swallow the more righteous than he,
14 You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
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And Thou makest man as fishes of the sea, As a creeping thing -- none ruling over him.
15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad.
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Each of them with a hook he hath brought up, He doth catch it in his net, and gathereth it in his drag, Therefore he doth joy and rejoice.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.
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Therefore he doth sacrifice to his net, And doth make perfume to his drag, For by them [is] his portion fertile, and his food fat.
17 Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?
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Doth he therefore empty his net, And continually to slay nations spare not?
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Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.