New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
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The word which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?
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How long, O Lord, will your ears be shut to my voice? I make an outcry to you about violent behaviour, but you do not send salvation.
3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
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Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes fixed on wrong? for wasting and violent acts are before me: and there is fighting and bitter argument.
4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
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For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers; because of which right is twisted.
5 Look at the nations, and see! Be astonished! Be astounded! For a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told.
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See among the nations, and take note, and be full of wonder: for in your days I am doing a work in which you will have no belief, even if news of it is given to you.
6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
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For see, I am sending the Chaldaeans, that bitter and quick-moving nation; who go through the wide spaces of the earth to get for themselves living-places which are not theirs.
7 Dread and fearsome are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
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They are greatly to be feared: their right comes from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more menacing than wolves at dusk; their horses charge. Their horsemen come from far away; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
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And their horses are quicker than leopards and their horsemen more cruel than evening wolves; they come from far away, like an eagle in flight rushing on its food.
9 They all come for violence, with faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand.
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They are coming all of them with force; the direction of their faces is forward, the number of their prisoners is like the sands of the sea.
10 At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it.
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He makes little of kings, rulers are a sport to him; all the strong places are to be laughed at; for he makes earthworks and takes them.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind; they transgress and become guilty; their own might is their god!
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Then his purpose will be changed, over-stepping the limit; he will make his strength his god.
12 Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O Lord, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
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Are you not eternal, O Lord my God, my Holy One? for you there is no death. O Lord, he has been ordered by you for our punishment; and by you, O Rock, he has been marked out to put us right.
13 Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?
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Before your holy eyes sin may not be seen, and you are unable to put up with wrong; why, then, are your eyes on the false? why do you say nothing when the evil-doer puts an end to one who is more upright than himself?
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
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He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the worms which have no ruler over them.
15 The enemy brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults.
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He takes them all up with his hook, he takes them in his net, getting them together in his fishing-net: for which cause he is glad and full of joy.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his seine; for by them his portion is lavish, and his food is rich.
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For this reason he makes an offering to his net, burning perfume to his fishing-net; because by them he gets much food and his meat is fat.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and destroying nations without mercy?
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For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no end to his destruction of the nations.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.