Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
New Revised Standard NRS
1 The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.
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The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2 How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? shall I cry out to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt not save?
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O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?
3 Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice before me? and there is a judgment, but opposition is more powerful.
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Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
4 Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment cometh not to the end: because the wicked prevaileth against the just, therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.
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So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
5 Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told.
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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.
6 For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not their own.
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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.
7 They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.
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Dread and fearsome are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.
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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.
9 They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.
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They all come for violence, with faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand.
10 And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.
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At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it.
11 Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.
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Then they sweep by like the wind; they transgress and become guilty; their own might is their god!
12 Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.
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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.
13 Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more just than himself?
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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?
14 And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.
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You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in his drag, and gathered them into his net: for this he will be glad and rejoice.
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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.
16 Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he will sacrifice to his net: because through them his portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.
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Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his seine; for by them his portion is lavish, and his food is rich.
17 For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually to slay the nations.
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Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and destroying nations without mercy?
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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.