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Habakkuk 1.vv.1-13

1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?

3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous- therefore judgement 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.

6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

7 Dread and fearsome are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.

8 Their 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.

9 They all come for violence, with faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand.

10 At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it.

11 Then 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 judgement; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.

13 Your 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?

Habakkuk 2.vv.1-4

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.

2 Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.

3 For 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.

4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

Habakkuk 3.vv.17-19

17 Though 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,

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.

19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.