Beginning
Chapter 1
1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision.
Habakkuk’s First Complaint
2 How long, O Lord, must I cry for help[a]
and you do not listen?(A)
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
and you do not intervene?
3 Why do you let me see iniquity?
why do you simply gaze at evil?
Destruction and violence are before me;(B)
there is strife and discord.
4 This is why the law is numb[b]
and justice never comes,
For the wicked surround the just;(C)
this is why justice comes forth perverted.
God’s Response
5 [c]Look over the nations and see!
Be utterly amazed!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe, were it told.(D)
6 For now I am raising up the Chaldeans,(E)
that bitter and impulsive people,
Who march the breadth of the land
to take dwellings not their own.
7 They are terrifying and dreadful;
their right and their exalted position are of their own making.
8 Swifter than leopards are their horses,
and faster than desert wolves.
Their horses spring forward;
they come from far away;
they fly like an eagle hastening to devour.
9 All of them come for violence,
their combined onslaught, a stormwind
to gather up captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
ridicule princes;
They laugh at any fortress,
heap up an earthen ramp, and conquer it.
11 Then they sweep through like the wind and vanish—
they make their own strength their god![d]
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Are you not from of old, O Lord,
my holy God, immortal?(F)
Lord, you have appointed them for judgment,[e]
O Rock,[f] you have set them in place to punish!
13 Your eyes are too pure to look upon wickedness,
and the sight of evil you cannot endure.
Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence
while the wicked devour those more just than themselves?
14 You have made mortals like the fish in the sea,
like creeping things without a leader.
15 He[g] brings them all up with a hook,
and hauls them away with his net;
He gathers them in his fishing net,
and then rejoices and exults.
16 Therefore he makes sacrifices to his net,[h]
and burns incense to his fishing net;
For thanks to them his portion is rich,
and his meal lavish.
17 Shall they, then, keep on drawing his sword
to slaughter nations without mercy?
Chapter 2
1 I will stand at my guard post,
and station myself upon the rampart;(G)
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what answer he will give to my complaint.
God’s Response
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write down the vision;[i](H)
Make it plain upon tablets,
so that the one who reads it may run.
3 For the vision is a witness for the appointed time,
a testimony to the end; it will not disappoint.
If it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
4 See, the rash have no integrity;
but the just one who is righteous because of faith shall live.[j](I)
Sayings Against Tyrants
5 [k]Indeed wealth is treacherous;
a proud man does not succeed.
He who opens wide his throat like Sheol,
and is insatiable as death,
Who gathers to himself all the nations,
and collects for himself all the peoples—
6 Shall not all these take up a taunt against him,(J)
and make a riddle about him, saying:
Ah! you who store up what is not yours
—how long can it last!—
you who load yourself down with collateral.
7 Will your debtors[l] not rise suddenly?
Will they not awake, those who make you tremble?
You will become their spoil!
8 Because you plundered many nations,
the remaining peoples shall plunder you;
Because of the shedding of human blood,
and violence done to the land,
to the city and to all who live in it.
9 Ah! you who pursue evil gain for your household,
setting your nest on high
to escape the reach of misfortune!
10 You have devised shame for your household,
cutting off many peoples, forfeiting your own life;
11 For the stone in the wall shall cry out,[m]
and the beam in the frame shall answer it!
12 Ah! you who build a city by bloodshed,
and who establish a town with injustice!(K)
13 Is this not from the Lord of hosts:
peoples toil[n] for what the flames consume,
and nations grow weary for nothing!
14 But the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory,
just as the water covers the sea.(L)
15 Ah! you who give your neighbors
the cup of your wrath to drink, and make them drunk,
until their nakedness is seen!(M)
16 You are filled with shame instead of glory;
drink, you too, and stagger!
The cup from the Lord’s right hand shall come around to you,
and utter shame shall cover your glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon[o] shall cover you,(N)
and the destruction of the animals shall terrify you;
Because of the shedding of human blood,
and violence done to the land,
to the city and to all who live in it.
18 Of what use is the carved image,[p]
that its maker should carve it?
Or the molten image, the lying oracle,
that its very maker should trust in it,
and make mute idols?
19 Ah! you who say to wood, “Awake!”
to silent stone, “Arise!”
Can any such thing give oracles?(O)
It is only overlaid with gold and silver,
there is no breath in it at all.
20 But the Lord is in his holy temple;
silence before him, all the earth!(P)
Chapter 3
Hymn About God’s Reign
1 Prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet. According to Shigyonot.[q]
2 O Lord, I have heard your renown,
and am in awe, O Lord, of your work.
In the course of years revive it,[r]
in the course of years make yourself known;
in your wrath remember compassion!
His glory covered the heavens,
and his praise filled the earth;
4 his splendor spread like the light.
He raised his horns high,(R)
he rejoiced on the day of his strength.
5 Before him went pestilence,
and plague[u] followed in his steps.
6 He stood and shook the earth;
he looked and made the nations tremble.
Ancient mountains were shattered,
the age-old hills bowed low,
age-old orbits[v] collapsed.
7 The tents of Cushan trembled,
the pavilions of the land of Midian.[w]
8 Was your anger against the rivers, O Lord?
your wrath against the rivers,
your rage against the sea,[x](S)
That you mounted your steeds,
your victorious chariot?
9 You readied your bow,
you filled your bowstring with arrows.
Selah
You split the earth with rivers;
10 at the sight of you the mountains writhed.
The clouds poured down water;
the deep roared loudly.
The sun[y] forgot to rise,
11 the moon left its lofty station,(T)
At the light of your flying arrows,
at the gleam of your flashing spear.
12 In wrath you marched on the earth,
in fury you trampled the nations.
13 You came forth to save your people,
to save your anointed one.[z]
You crushed the back of the wicked,
you laid him bare, bottom to neck.
Selah
14 [aa]You pierced his head with your shafts;
his princes you scattered with your stormwind,
as food for the poor in unknown places.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses
amid the churning of the deep waters.
16 I hear, and my body trembles;
at the sound, my lips quiver.
Decay invades my bones,
my legs tremble beneath me.
I await the day of distress
that will come upon the people who attack us.
17 For though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit appears on the vine,
Though the yield of the olive fails
and the terraces produce no nourishment,
Though the flocks disappear from the fold
and there is no herd in the stalls,
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord
and exult in my saving God.
19 God, my Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet swift as those of deer
and enables me to tread upon the heights.[ab](U)
For the leader; with stringed instruments.
Chapter 1
1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah,[a] in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah.
The Day of the Lord: Judgment on Judah
2 I will completely sweep away all things
from the face of the land—oracle of the Lord.
3 I will sweep away human being and beast alike,
I will sweep away the birds of the sky,
and the fish of the sea.
I will make the wicked stumble;
I will eliminate the people
from the face of the land—oracle of the Lord.(A)
4 I will stretch out my hand against Judah,
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
I will eliminate from this place
the last vestige of Baal,
the name of the idolatrous priests.
5 And those who bow down on the roofs
to the host of heaven,[b]
And those who bow down to the Lord
but swear by Milcom;(B)
6 And those who have turned away from the Lord,
and those who have not sought the Lord,
who have not inquired of him.
7 Silence in the presence of the Lord God!
for near is the day of the Lord,
Yes, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice,
he has consecrated his guests.[c](C)
8 On the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
I will punish the officials and the king’s sons,
and all who dress in foreign apparel.
9 I will punish, on that day,
all who leap over the threshold,[d]
Who fill the house of their master
with violence and deceit.
10 On that day—oracle of the Lord—
A cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
a wail from the Second Quarter,[e]
loud crashing from the hills.
11 Wail, O inhabitants of Maktesh!
for all the merchants are destroyed,
all who weigh out silver, done away with.
12 At that time,
I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
I will punish the people
who settle like dregs in wine,[f]
Who say in their hearts,
“The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do harm.”
13 Their wealth shall be given to plunder
and their houses to devastation;
They will build houses,
but not dwell in them;
They will plant vineyards,
but not drink their wine.(D)
14 Near is the great day of the Lord,
near and very swiftly coming.
The sound of the day of the Lord! Piercing—
there a warrior shrieks!
15 A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
a day of thick black clouds,(E)
16 A day of trumpet blasts and battle cries
against fortified cities,
against lofty battlements.(F)
17 I will hem the people in
till they walk like the blind,
because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their bowels like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them.
On the day of the Lord’s wrath,
in the fire of his passion,
all the earth will be consumed.
For he will make an end, yes, a sudden end,
of all who live on the earth.(G)
Chapter 2
1 [g]Gather, gather yourselves together,
O nation without shame!
2 Before you are driven away,
like chaff that disappears;
Before there comes upon you
the blazing anger of the Lord;
Before there comes upon you
the day of the Lord’s anger.
3 Seek the Lord,
all you humble of the land,
who have observed his law;
Seek justice,
seek humility;
Perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the Lord’s anger.(H)
Judgment on the Nations
4 For Gaza shall be forsaken,
and Ashkelon shall be a waste,
Ashdod they shall drive out at midday,
and Ekron[h] shall be uprooted.(I)
5 Ah! You who dwell by the seacoast,
the nation of Cherethites,[i]
the word of the Lord is against you!
O Canaan, land of the Philistines,
I will leave you to perish without an inhabitant!
6 You shall become fields for shepherds,
and folds for flocks.
7 The seacoast shall belong
to the remnant of the house of Judah;
by the sea they shall pasture.
In the houses of Ashkelon
they shall lie down in the evening.
For the Lord their God will take care of them,
and bring about their restoration.
8 I have heard the taunts uttered by Moab,
and the insults of the Ammonites,[j]
When they taunted my people
and made boasts against their territory.(J)
9 Therefore, as I live—
oracle of the Lord of hosts—
the God of Israel,
Moab shall become like Sodom,
the Ammonites like Gomorrah:
A field of weeds,
a salt pit,
a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
the survivors of my nation dispossess them.
10 This will be the recompense for their pride,
because they taunted and boasted against
the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord shall inspire them with terror
when he makes all the gods of earth waste away;
Then the distant shores of the nations,
each from its own place,
shall bow down to him.
12 You too, O Cushites,[k]
shall be slain by the sword of the Lord.(K)
13 He will stretch out his hand against the north,
to destroy Assyria;
He will make Nineveh a waste,
dry as the desert.(L)
14 In her midst flocks shall lie down,
all the wild life of the hollows;
The screech owl and the desert owl
shall roost in her columns;
The owl shall hoot from the window,
the raven croak from the doorway.(M)
15 Is this the exultant city[l]
that dwelt secure,
That told itself,
“I and there is no one else”?
How it has become a waste,
a lair for wild animals!
Those who pass by it
hiss, and shake their fists!
Chapter 3
Jerusalem Reproached
1 Ah! Rebellious and polluted,
the tyrannical city![m]
2 It listens to no voice,
accepts no correction;
In the Lord it has not trusted,
nor drawn near to its God.(N)
3 Its officials within it
are roaring lions;
Its judges are desert wolves
that have no bones to gnaw by morning.(O)
4 Its prophets are reckless,
treacherous people;
Its priests profane what is holy,
and do violence to the law.(P)
5 But the Lord in its midst is just,
doing no wrong;
Morning after morning rendering judgment
unfailingly, at dawn;
the wicked, however, know no shame.
6 I have cut down nations,
their battlements are laid waste;
I have made their streets deserted,
with no one passing through;
Their cities are devastated,
with no one dwelling in them.(Q)
7 I said, “Surely now you will fear me,
you will accept correction;
They cannot fail to see
all I have brought upon them.”
Yet the more eagerly they have done
all their corrupt deeds.
The Nations Punished and Jerusalem Restored
8 Therefore, wait for me—oracle of the Lord—
until the day when I arise as accuser;
For it is my decision to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
In order to pour out upon them my wrath,
all my blazing anger;
For in the fire of my passion
all the earth will be consumed.(R)
9 For then I will make pure
the speech of the peoples,
That they all may call upon the name of the Lord,
to serve him with one accord;
10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia
and as far as the recesses of the North,
they shall bring me offerings.
11 On that day
You will not be ashamed
of all your deeds,
when you rebelled against me;
For then I will remove from your midst
the proud braggarts,
And you shall no longer exalt yourself
on my holy mountain.
12 But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
Who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord—(S)
13 the remnant of Israel.
They shall do no wrong
and speak no lies;
Nor shall there be found in their mouths
a deceitful tongue;
They shall pasture and lie down
with none to disturb them.(T)
14 Shout for joy, daughter Zion!
sing joyfully, Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
daughter Jerusalem!(U)
15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you,
he has turned away your enemies;
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
16 On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, Zion,
do not be discouraged!
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior,
Who will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
Who will sing joyfully because of you,(V)
18 as on festival days.
I will remove disaster from among you,
so that no one may recount your disgrace.
19 At that time I will deal
with all who oppress you;
I will save the lame,
and assemble the outcasts;
I will give them praise and renown
in every land where they were shamed.(W)
20 At that time I will bring you home,
and at that time I will gather you;
For I will give you renown and praise,
among all the peoples of the earth,
When I bring about your restoration
before your very eyes, says the Lord.(X)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.