1The revelation which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save?
3Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.
4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.
5“Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.
6For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
9All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
10Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it.
11Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god.”