O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

Wherefore shouldst thou let me see iniquity, and, wrong, shouldst let me behold, and, force and violence, be straight before me, - and there should have ever been someone who, contention and strife, would uphold?

[The Lord replied,] “Look among the nations! See!
Be astonished! Wonder!
For I am doing something in your days—
You would not believe it if you were told.

Art not Thou of old, O Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O Jehovah, For judgment Thou hast appointed it, And, O Rock, for reproof Thou hast founded it.

Being pure of eyes from beholding evil, and wilt not be able to look upon labor: wherefore wilt thou look upon the transgressors? wilt thou be silent in the unjust swallowing the just above him?

And wilt thou make man as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping thing no ruler over him?

I stood upon my watch, and set me upon my bulwark, to look and see what he would say unto me, and what answer I should give him that reproveth me.

Thou wilt counsel shame to thy house, cutting off many peoples, and causing thy soul to sin.

For [the] violence of Lebanon will cover you, and [the] destruction of wild animals will shatter them on account of the blood of humanity, and [the] violence [against the] land, [against] a city and all the inhabitants in it.

What good is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? Why would its creator place his trust in it and make such mute, worthless things?

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to wild and enthusiastic music.

O Yahweh, I have heard tidings of thee, I am afraid. O Yahweh! Thy work - in the midst of the years, O revive it, in the midst of the years, wilt thou make known? In trouble, wilt thou remember, compassion?

He stood, and measured the earth; He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; And the eternal mountains were scattered; The everlasting hills did bow; His goings were as of old.

Against the rivers, is Yahweh wroth? Against the rivers, is thine anger? Against the sea, is thine indignation? For thou wilt ride on Thy horses, Thy chariots, shall be salvation!

In nakedness thou shalt raise thy bow, the oaths of the tribes, he said. Silence. Thou wilt divide the earth with rivers.

In wrath thou wilt march through the land in anger, thou wilt thresh the nations

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: