Habakkuk 1
1
The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? 3Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous-- therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
5 Look at the nations, and see! Be astonished! Be astounded! For a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told. 6For I am rousing the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own. 7Dread and fearsome are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. 8Their horses are swifter than leopards, more menacing than wolves at dusk; their horses charge. Their horsemen come from far away; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9They all come for violence, with faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand. 10At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it. 11Then they sweep by like the wind; they transgress and become guilty; their own might is their god!
12 Are you not from of old, O LORD my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O LORD, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment. 13Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they? 14You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. 15The enemy brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults. 16Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his seine; for by them his portion is lavish, and his food is rich. 17Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and destroying nations without mercy?

Habakkuk 2
2
I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. 2Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. 3For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.
5 Moreover, wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure. They open their throats wide as Sheol; like Death they never have enough. They gather all nations for themselves, and collect all peoples as their own. 6Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them, "Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!" How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge? 7Will not your own creditors suddenly rise, and those who make you tremble wake up? Then you will be booty for them. 8Because you have plundered many nations, all that survive of the peoples shall plunder you-- because of human bloodshed, and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them. 9"Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses, setting your nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm!" 10You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. 11The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork. 12"Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on iniquity!" 13Is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor only to feed the flames, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 14But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 "Alas for you who make your neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath until they are drunk, in order to gaze on their nakedness!" 16You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink, you yourself, and stagger! The cup in the Lord"s right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory! 17For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of the animals will terrify you-- because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them. 18What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it-- a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what has been made, though the product is only an idol that cannot speak! 19Alas for you who say to the wood, "Wake up!" to silent stone, "Rouse yourself!" Can it teach? See, it is gold and silver plated, and there is no breath in it at all. 20But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

Habakkuk 3
3
A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk according to Shigionoth. 2O LORD, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe, O LORD, of your work. In our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4The brightness was like the sun; rays came forth from his hand, where his power lay hidden. 5Before him went pestilence, and plague followed close behind. 6He stopped and shook the earth; he looked and made the nations tremble. The eternal mountains were shattered; along his ancient pathways the everlasting hills sank low. 7I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction; the tent-curtains of the land of Midian trembled. 8Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Or your anger against the rivers, or your rage against the sea, when you drove your horses, your chariots to victory? 9You brandished your naked bow, sated were the arrows at your command. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10The mountains saw you, and writhed; a torrent of water swept by; the deep gave forth its voice. The sun raised high its hands; 11the moon stood still in its exalted place, at the light of your arrows speeding by, at the gleam of your flashing spear. 12In fury you trod the earth, in anger you trampled nations. 13You came forth to save your people, to save your anointed. You crushed the head of the wicked house, laying it bare from foundation to roof. Selah 14You pierced with his own arrows the head of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter us, gloating as if ready to devour the poor who were in hiding. 15You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the mighty waters.
16 I hear, and I tremble within; my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, and my steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon the people who attack us. 17Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, 18yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.