How long, O Yahweh, have I called out, and thou wouldst not hear me? Have I kept crying unto thee of violence, and thou wouldst not save?

Behold ye, among the nations, and look around, Yea stand stock still - stare, - for, a work, is being wrought in your days, ye will not believe, when it is recounted.

And, he, over kings, will make merry, and, nobles, will be a scorn to him: he, at any fortress, will laugh, once he hath heaped up dust, he hath captured it!

So wouldst thou have made Men, like the fishes of the sea, - like the creeping thing that hath no ruler over it:

Upon my watch-tower, will I stand, and will station myself upon the bulwark, - so will I keep outlook, to see - what he will speak with me, and what I shall reply, when I am reproved.

Then Yahweh answered me, and said, Write the vision, Yea, make it plain on tablets, that one may swiftly read it;

For yet is the vision for an appointed time, still, it presseth towards an end, and will not deceive, - if it tarry, wait thou for it, for it, surely cometh, - will not be too late.

Shall not, these, all of them, against him, take up - a taunt, a mocking poem, enigmatical sentences - concerning him? And say - Alas! for him who maketh abundance in what is not his own, How long? that he should be burdening himself with heavy debts?

Will not thy creditors, suddenly rise up? and they who shall violently shake thee, all at once become active? Then shalt thou serve for booties, unto them!

Surely, the stone out of the wall, will make outcry, - and, the tie out of the timber, will answer it.

Lo! is it not from Yahweh of hosts - that peoples labour for fire, and, populations, for emptiness, weary themselves?

What hath a carved image, profited, though the fashioner thereof, carved it? a molten image, and a teacher of falsehood, - though the fashioner of his fashioned thing trusted therein? that men should make Dumb Nonentities!

Alas! for him who saith to wood, Awake, bestir thee! to a silent stone, he, shall teach! Though he is overlaid with gold and silver, yet, no spirit whatsoever, is in him!

A prayer by Habakkuk the prophet, - in the manner of an Ode.

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?

And, a brightness, as light, appeareth, Rays, out of his hand, hath he, - and, there, is the hiding of his power.

Before him, marcheth pestilence, - and fever, goeth forth, at his feet:

Thou hast come forth to the salvation of thy people, to salvation, with thine Anointed One, - Thou hast crushed the Head out of the house of the lawless one, baring the foundation up to the neck, Selah.

I heard, and I trembled within me, at the voice, my lips, quivered, decay, entered, my bones, and, in my limbs, I trembled, - though I am to find rest, in the day of distress, when their invader, cometh up against the people.

Though, the fig-tree, should not blossom, and there be no sprouting in the vines, the yield of the olive, should have deceived, and, the fields, not have brought forth food, - the flock, have been consumed out of the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls,

Yet, I, in Yahweh, will rejoice, - I will exult in the God of my salvation.