[This is Habakuk from the Holy Bible, Hoehn Version, copyright 2011. (Amazon.com) It has been revised from the King James Version into modern English by Frederick Hoehn.] ___Habakuk chapter 1 1 The burden that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 "O Lord, how long shall I call to you and you won't hear! Even call out to you about violence, and you won't save! 3 Why do you show me sin, and cause me to see grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are those who raise up strife and contention. 4 Therefore the law has been slacked, and justice doesn't happen, for the wicked surround the righteous, therefore injustice proceeds. 5 See among the heathen, and notice, and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days that you won't believe, though it's told to you. 6 For see, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful, their judgment and their dignity shall proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves, and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far, they shall fly like the eagle that hurries to eat. 9 They shall all come for violence, their faces shall eat up like the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity like the sand. 10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them, they shall deride every stronghold, for they shall heap dust, and take it. 11 Then his mind shall change, and he shall cross over, and offend, imputing his power to his god. 12 Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy one? We shall not die. O Lord, you've ordained them for judgment, and, O mighty God, you've established them for correction. 13 You are of purer eyes than to see evil, and can't look at sin, so why do you look at those who deal treacherously and remain silent when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he is? 14 And make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15 All of them take up with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag, therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag, because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. 17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not stop continually killing the nations?" ___Habakuk chapter 2 1 I will stand my watch, and set myself on the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reprimanded. 2 And the Lord answered me, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, so he can run that reads it. 3 For the vision is for a later appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie, though it doesn't come right away, wait for it, because it will surely come, it won't wait. 4 See, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. 5 Yes also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, and doesn't stay home, who enlarges his desire as hell, and is like death, and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all tribes, 6 Shall not all of these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, “Woe to him that increases that which is not his! How long? And to him that burdens himself with thick clay!” 7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and shall they not awake that shall vex you, and you shall be for spoils of war to them? 8 Because you've spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil you, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all who live in it. 9 Woe to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, so he can set his nest on high, so he can be delivered from the power of evil! 10 You have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned against your soul. 11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. 12 Woe to him that builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by sin! 13 See, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for vanity? 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, like the waters cover the sea. 15 Woe to him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts your bottle to him, and makes him drunk also, so you can look at their nakedness! 16 You're filled with shame instead of glory, drink also, and let your foreskin be uncovered, the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned to you, and shameful vomiting shall be on your glory. 17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the spoil of animals, that made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all who live in it. 18 How does the engraver profit from the engraved image that he has made, the image made by casting in the foundry, and a teacher of lies, so that the maker of his work trusts in it, to make dumb idols? 19 Woe to him that says to the wood, awake, to the dumb stone, get up, it shall teach! See, it is plated with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the middle of it. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him." ___Habakuk chapter 3 1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet on Shigionoth. 2 "O Lord, I've heard your speech, and was afraid, O Lord, revive your work in the middle of the years, in the middle of the years make known, in anger, remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, and the Holy one from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 And his brightness was like the light, he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power. 5 The pestilence went before him, and burning coals went out at his feet. 6 He stood and measured the earth, he saw, and split the nations in pieces, and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills bowed, his ways are everlasting. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian trembled. 8 Was the Lord displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers? Was your anger against the sea, so that you rode on your horses and your chariots of salvation? 9 Your bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even your word. Selah. You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw you, and they trembled, the overflowing of the water passed by, the deep uttered its voice, and lifted up its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation, at the light of your arrows they went, and at the shining of your glittering spear. 12 You marched through the land in indignation, you threshed the heathen in anger. 13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed, you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation to the neck. Selah. 14 With his staves, you struck the head of his villages, they came out like a whirlwind to scatter me, their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. 15 You walked through the sea with your horses, through the heap of great waters. 16 When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, so that I could rest in the day of trouble, when he comes up to the people, he will invade them with his troops. 17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, nor shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in stalls, 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk on my high places."