1 The message which the naḇi Ḥaḇaqquq saw.
2 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, till when shall I cry, and You not hear? I cry to You, “Violence!” And You do not save.
3 Why do You show me wickedness, and cause me to see perversity? For ruin and violence are before me. And there is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the Torah ceases, and Right-Ruling never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous so that Right-Ruling comes out twisted.
5 “Look among the nations, and see, and be amazed, be amazed! For a work is being wrought in your days which you would not believe if it were told.
6 “See, I am raising up the Kasdites, a bitter and hasty nation, who is going through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 “They are frightening and fearsome, their right-ruling and their exaltation proceed from themselves.
8 “Their horses shall be swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. And their horsemen shall charge ahead, and their horsemen come from afar. They fly as the eagle, rushing to eat.
9 “All of them come for violence, the direction of their faces is like the east wind, and they gather captives like sand.
10 “And they scoff at sovereigns, and princes are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they pile up earth and seize it.
11 “Then shall he pass on as a wind, and transgress and be guilty, and ascribe this power to his mighty one.”
12 Are You not from everlasting, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 My Elohim, my Qadosh One? You do not die! O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, You have appointed them for right-ruling, O Rock, You have established them for reproof.
13 Whose eyes are too clean to see evil, You are not able to look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who act treacherously – Keep silent, when the wicked devours one more righteous than he?
14 And would You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping creatures that have no ruler over them?
15 All of them have been pulled up with a hook, caught in his net, and gathered in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and exults.
16 Therefore he offers to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, for by them is his portion fat and his food is rich.
17 Is he therefore to keep on emptying his net, and slaying nations without sparing?