1: The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. |
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2: O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry
out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! |
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3:
Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold
grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that
raise up strife and contention. |
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4: Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go
forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong
judgment proceedeth. |
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5: Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder
marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not
believe, though it be told you. |
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6: For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty
nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess
the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. |
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7: They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their
dignity shall proceed of themselves. |
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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 as
the eagle that hasteth to eat. |
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9: They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as
the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. |
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10: And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a
scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall
heap dust, and take it. |
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11: Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and
offend, imputing this his power unto his god. |
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12: Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One?
we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O
mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. |
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13: Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not
look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal
treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man
that is more righteous than he? |
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14: And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping
things, that have no ruler over them? |
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15: They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in
their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are
glad. |
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16: Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense
unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat
plenteous. |
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17: Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare
continually to slay the nations? |