1 This burden {hammasa: oracular warning} came as a vision to Habakkuk {khavaqquq: the prophet’s name}, the prophet.
2 How long, O LORD {YHWH, Covenant Lord}, have I cried out {shivʿati: fervent plea} and You do not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” yet You do not deliver.
3 Why do You {YHWH, Covenant Keeper} make me see iniquity {aven: moral evil} and why must I keep looking at trouble? Ruin and violence are right before me; strife and contention keep rising.
4 So the law {torah: instruction} grows numb, and justice is never issued as it should be; the wicked hem in the righteous, and the verdict comes out perverted {meukal: twisted}.
5 Look out among the nations and pay attention; be shocked and amazed! For I am acting in your days in a way you would not believe {ta'aminu: trust}, even if someone told you, declares the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Lord}.
6 For behold, I {YHWH, Sovereign Orchestrator} am raising up the Chaldeans {kasdim: southern Mesopotamian people}, a bitter and quick-moving nation that traverses the broad land to take dwelling places not their own.
7 They are terrifying and dreadful; their judgment {mishpat: legal decision} is self-derived, and their exaltation {se’et: proud authority} issues from within.
8 Their horses outrun leopards and are sharper than evening wolves {ze'ev erev: dusk predators}; their riders fan out, coming from far away; they swoop like an eagle {nesher: soaring predator} rushing in to eat.
9 All of them come bent on violence {chamas: Ruthless Destruction}; their faces are set forward, and they collect captives like sand {chol: Numberless Multitude}.
10 He scoffs {yitkallas: harsh derision} at kings; he laughs at rulers. He makes light of every fortress by piling up dust {afar: siege material} and capturing it.
11 Then he passes through like the wind {ruach: swift force} and moves on, and he becomes guilty; this strength of his is his god {elohho: object of devotion}.
12 Are You not from ancient times, O LORD {YHWH, Covenant LORD}, my God, my Holy One? We shall not perish. O LORD, You have appointed them to carry out judgment, and You, O Rock {Tzur: unshakeable foundation}, have established them for reproof.
13 You {YHWH, Covenant Lord} have eyes too pure to approve evil and cannot look on wrong; why then do You watch those who deal treacherously and remain silent when the wicked swallows up a righteous one {tsaddiq: just individual}?
14 And You {YHWH, Sovereign Governor} make humankind like fish of the sea, like creeping things that lack a ruler {moshel: possessing authority} over them.
15 He lifts every one of them with a hook {chakkah: barbed fishing implement}; he pulls them in with his net and collects them in his dragnet {mikhmeret: large sweeping net}; so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net {cherem: catching net} and burns incense to his dragnet; because by them his portion is fat and his food is rich {beriah: overflowing abundance}.
17 Is he to keep emptying {yarik: intentional draining} his net and keep killing nations without sparing {yachmol: revealing compassion} them?