{N}WHY DO YOU MAKE ME SEE INJUSTICE?{/}

{1}1{/}

[\u0095]_{R}_{I}1_{/}These are the message and the vision of Habakkuk, the 
prophet.
[=]_{I}2_{/}Yahweh, how long will I cry for help while you pay no 
attention to me? I denounce the oppression and you do not save.
[=]_{I}3_{/}Why do you make me see injustice?
Are you pleased to look on tyranny? All I see is outrage, violence 
and quarrels.
{R}_{I}4_{/}That is why the Law has been put aside and just decrees are 
no longer issued. The wicked overrule the upright and they get 
crooked sentences.

{N}FIRST REPLY{/}

[=]_{I}5_{/}Look, traitors, and pay attention; be amazed and 
astounded, for I am going to do in your own days, something that 
you would not believe if you were told it.
{I}6_{/}I am going to call the Chaldeans, that terrifying and violent 
people who raid to the ends of the earth, to seize the lands of 
others. {R}_{I}7_{/}I call a terrible and dangerous nation who obey no 
other law but their own will. {I}8_{/}Their horses are speedier than 
leopards, fiercer than wolves on the plain; their riders gallop on 
and come from afar, they swoop like the eagle descending on its 
prey.
{R}_{I}9_{/}When they launch themselves for an attack, pushed forward by 
the desert wind, they round up prisoners like sand. {R}_{I}10_{/}This 
people makes fun of kings and laughs at princes; they make light 
of fortified cities, for they build up an embankment and seize 
them. {I}11_{/}Thus they come and go like the wind! Their strength is 
their god!

{N}SECOND COMPLAINT OF THE PROPHET{/}

[=]_{R}_{I}12_{/}But you, are you not Yahweh from past ages? You, my holy 
God, you cannot die. You have set this people to serve your 
justice and you have made them firm as a rock to fulfill your 
punishment.
[=]_{I}13_{/}Yahweh, your eyes are too pure to tolerate wickedness and 
you cannot look on oppression. Why, then, do you look on 
treacherous people and watch in silence while the evildoer 
swallows up one better than himself?
{R}_{I}14_{/}You treat human beings like the fish in the sea, like 
reptiles who are nobody's concern. {I}15_{/}This nation catches all on 
its hook, pulls them out with its net and piles them up in its 
dragnet. {I}16_{/}Pleased and delighted at their catch, they offer 
sacrifices to their net and burn incense to their dragnets, since 
these supplied them with fish in plenty and provided them with 
food in abundance. {I}17_{/}Will they continue, then, to constantly 
empty their nets, slaughtering nations without mercy?

{N}SECOND REPLY: THE UPRIGHT WILL LIVE BY HIS FAITHFULNESS{/}

{1}2{/}

[\u0095]_[=]_{I}1_{/}I will stand in my watchtower and take up position on 
my battlements; I will see what he replies, if there is an answer 
to my question.
[=]_{I}2_{/}Then Yahweh answered me and said,
"Write down the vision, inscribe it on tables so it can be easily 
read, [=]_{I}3_{/}since this is a vision for an appointed time; it 
will not fail but will be fulfilled in due time. If it delays, 
wait for it, for it will come and will not be deferred. Look:
[=]_{I}4_{/}I don't look with favor on the one who gives way; the 
upright, on the other hand, will live by his faithfulness."
[=]_{R}_{I}5_{/}The grasping conqueror is always ready to devour, he 
enlarges his mouth like the netherworld; he is as insatiable as 
death, he seizes on all the nations and monopolizes all the 
peoples for himself. [\u0095]_[=]_{I}6_{/}But will not all the people mock 
him, as with one voice? Will they not write fierce satires to show 
him up? They will say,

{N}AGAINST THE OPPRESSOR{/}

Woe to him who amasses what is not his and fills himself with 
extorted pledges. {I}7_{/}Your creditors will come suddenly, your 
money collectors will waken and take away all your goods.
[=]_{I}8_{/}Since you have plundered so many nations, shedding blood, 
stripping the land, their cities and homes, all the remaining 
nations will turn on you.
[=]_{I}9_{/}Woe to him who raises his house on unjust profits and 
fixes his nest so high that he thinks he can thereby escape 
misfortune!
[=]_{I}10_{/}You have willed the disgrace of your house; you draw evil 
on your own head. [=]_{I}11_{/}The very stones of your walls cry out 
against you and the rafters reply from the roof.
[=]_{I}12_{/}Woe to the one who builds a city on bloody foundations 
and sets up a town by means of evil. [=]_{R}_{I}13_{/}Has Yahweh of hosts 
not willed that the work of the nations go to the fire and the 
peoples toil for nothing?
({I}14{/})[=]_{I}15_{/}Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors and 
drugs them to make them drunk so that everyone looks at their 
nakedness. {I}16_{/}This will bring you more shame than glory. You 
will also drink and uncover your foreskin. The cup turns over in 
Yahweh's hand and pours out onto you: disgrace will swallow your 
glory.
{I}17_{/}The violence you did in Lebanon will befall{I}_{/}you and the 
animals will devour you, since you slaughtered human beings, 
destroyed the country with its cities and put an end to all who 
lived there.
[=]_{I}18_{/}What use is a statue? Why do the sculptors make them? Why 
these images and deceiving answers? Why do their makers trust them 
and produce mute idols? {I}19_{/}Woe to the one who says to a piece of 
wood, "Wake up," and to a dumb stone, "Get up." Can it give any 
answer? For, even though it is plated with gold and silver, there 
is not a single breath of life in it.
[=]_{R}_{I}20_{/}But Yahweh lives in his holy Temple: let the whole earth 
be silent before him!

{N}PRAYER OF HABAKKUK{/}

{1}3{/}

[\u0095]_{R}_{I}1_{/}Prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet. To the tune of a dirge.
{I}2_{/}I have heard, Yahweh, of your renown;
I stand in awe of your work, O Yahweh.
In the middle of years make it known;
in your wrath even, remember mercy.
[=]_{R}_{I}3_{/}God comes from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory shrouds the heavens,
his praise fills the earth,
{I}4_{/}his splendor is like the daylight
with rays flashing from his hand,
radiating from his hidden power.
{I}5_{/}Pestilence goes before him,
plague follows close behind.
[=]_{I}6_{/}He stands and the earth sways;
he looks and the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumble,
the time-honored hills collapse.
{I}7_{/}I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,
the pavilions of Midian in anguish.
{I}8_{/}Was your anger against the rivers, Yahweh?
Was your wrath against the sea
that you drive your steeds
with your invincible chariots?
[=]_{I}9_{/}You bare and ready your bow
and set upon it your arrow.
With rivers you cleave the earth.
[=]_{R}_{I}10_{/}At your sight the mountains writhe.
Torrents of water ragingly sweep by,
the deep roaring, lifting its waves high.
{I}11_{/}The sun and moon stood still
at the glint of your flying arrows,
at the gleam of your flashing spears.
[=]_{I}12_{/}You stride the earth in wrath,
you trample the nations in rage.
{I}13_{/}You came out to redeem your people,
to save your anointed one -
you crush the head of the wicked,
you lay him bare from head to foot.
{I}14_{/}You pierce with your shafts his warriors who came like a 
whirlwind to scatter us in joy,
to devour the wretched quietly.
[=]_{I}15_{/}You trample the waters with your horses,
amid the churning of the great seas.
[=]_{I}16_{/}I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound.
Decay crept into my bones;
my legs tottered under my body.
Yet I wait confidently for the day of distress,
when we face the people coming against us.
[=]_{I}17_{/}For though the fig trees blossom not,
nor grapes be on the vines,
though the olive crop fail
and the fields produce no food,
though the flock be lost from the fold,
and the herd be gone from the stalls,
[=]_{R}_{I}18_{/}yet in Yahweh will I rejoice,
in God my savior will I exult.
[=]_{I}19_{/}My Lord Yahweh is my stronghold;
he makes my feet as fleeting as the hinds;
he steadies my steps upon the heights.
For the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

