The chariots race madly in the streets, They rush wildly in the squares, Their appearance is like torches, They dash to and fro like lightning flashes.
He remembers his nobles; They stumble in their march, They hurry to her wall, And the mantelet is set up.
The gates of the rivers are opened And the palace is dissolved.
It is fixed: She is stripped, she is carried away, And her handmaids are moaning like the sound of doves, Beating on their breasts.
Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no limit to the treasure-- Wealth from every kind of desirable object.
She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and waste! Hearts are melting and knees knocking! Also anguish is in the whole body And all their faces are grown pale!
Where is the den of the lions And the feeding place of the young lions, Where the lion, lioness and lion’s cub prowled, With nothing to disturb them?
The lion tore enough for his cubs, Killed enough for his lionesses, And filled his lairs with prey And his dens with torn flesh.
“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of hosts. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, a sword will devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.”
Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey never departs.
The noise of the whip, The noise of the rattling of the wheel, Galloping horses And bounding chariots!
Horsemen charging, Swords flashing, spears gleaming, Many slain, a mass of corpses, And countless dead bodies-- They stumble over the dead bodies!
All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by her harlotries And families by her sorceries.
“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of hosts; “And I will lift up your skirts over your face, And show to the nations your nakedness And to the kingdoms your disgrace.
Are you better than No-amon, Which was situated by the waters of the Nile, With water surrounding her, Whose rampart was the sea, Whose wall consisted of the sea?
Yet she became an exile, She went into captivity; Also her small children were dashed to pieces At the head of every street; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound with fetters.
You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy.
All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit-- When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth.
Behold, your people are women in your midst! The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies; Fire consumes your gate bars.
Draw for yourself water for the siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!
There fire will consume you, The sword will cut you down; It will consume you as the locust does. Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.
You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven-- The creeping locust strips and flies away.
Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers Settling in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, And the place where they are is not known.
Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; Your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains And there is no one to regather them.
The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.
“Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days-- You would not believe if you were told.
“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.
“Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
“Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.”
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them?
The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
I will stand on my guard post And station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved.
Then the LORD answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run.
“For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
“Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.
“Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, So that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations And collects to himself all peoples.
“Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you-- Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house To put his nest on high, To be delivered from the hand of calamity!
“Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework.
“Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts That peoples toil for fire, And nations grow weary for nothing?
“For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.
“You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the LORD’S right hand will come around to you, And utter disgrace will come upon your glory.
“For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.
“What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols.
“But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.
God comes from Teman, And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is full of His praise.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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