1The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2O Yehovah, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you of violence, and you will not save. 3Why do you show me iniquity, and look upon perverseness? for destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention rises up. 4Therefore the law is slackened, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted. 5Behold among the nations, and look, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you. 6For, look, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are fiercer than the evening wolves; and their horsemen press proudly on: yes, their horsemen come from far; they fly as an eagle that hastens to devour. 9They all come for violence; the set of their faces is forward; and they gather captives like the sand. 10Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him; he derides every stronghold; for he heaps up dust, and takes it. 11Then shall he sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over, and be guilty, even he whose might is his god. 12Are you not from everlasting, O Yehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Yehovah, you have ordained him for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established him for correction. 13You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and who cannot look on perverseness, why do you look on those who deal treacherously, and hold your peace when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he; 14and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15He takes up all of them with the hook, he catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet: therefore he rejoices and is glad. 16Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet; because by them his portion is fat, and his food plentiful. 17Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?