20 August - Habakkuk 1-3

Jude Tue Aug 14, 2018 3:30 am

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

HABAKKUK 1

1The message which the prophet Ḥaḇaqquq saw.

2O יהוה, till when shall I cry, and You not hear? I cry to You, “Violence!” and You do not save.

3Why do You show me wickedness, and cause me to see perversity? For ruin and violence are before me. And there is strife, and contention arises.

4Therefore the Torah ceases, and right-ruling never goes forth. For the wrong hem in the righteous, so that right-ruling comes out twisted.

5“Look among the nations and see, and be amazed, be amazed! For a work is being wrought in your days which you would not believe if it were told.

6“See, I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, who is going through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

7“They are frightening and fearsome, their right-ruling and their exaltation proceed from themselves.

8“Their horses shall be swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. And their horsemen shall charge ahead, and their horsemen come from afar. They fly as the eagle, rushing to eat.

9“All of them come for violence, the direction of their faces is like the east wind, and they gather captives like sand.

10“And they scoff at sovereigns, and princes are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they pile up earth and seize it.

11“Then shall he pass on as a wind, and transgress and be guilty, and ascribe this power to his mighty one.”

12Are You not from everlasting, O יהוה my Elohim, my Set-apart One? You do not die! O יהוה, You have appointed them for right-ruling, O Rock, You have established them for reproof.

13You, whose eyes are too clean to see evil, You are not able to look on wrong. Why do You look on those who act treacherously – keep silent when the wrong devours one more righteous than he?

14And would You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping creatures that have no ruler over them?

15The wicked foe has pulled all of them up with a hook, caught them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and exults.

16Therefore he offers to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, for by them is his portion fat and his food is rich.

17Is he therefore to keep on emptying his net, and slaying nations without sparing?

HABAKKUK 2

1I stand at my watch, and station myself on the watch-tower, and wait to see what He says to me, and what to answer when I am reproved.

2And יהוה answered me and said, “Write the vision and inscribe it on tablets, so that he who reads it runs.

3“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it lingers, wait for it, for it shall certainly come, it shall not delay.

4“See, he whose being is not upright in him is puffed up. But the righteous one lives by his steadfastness.

5“And also, because wine betrays him, a man is proud, and he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his appetite as the grave, and he is like death, and is not satisfied, and gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples.

6“Shall not all these lift up a proverb against him, and a mocking riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his! Till when is he to load on himself many pledges’?

7“Do not your creditors rise up suddenly? And those who make you tremble wake up and you be plunder for them?

8“Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you, because of men’s blood, and doing violence to the land, to the city, and to all who dwell in it.

9“Woe to him who is getting evil gain for his house, in order to set his nest on high, to escape the clutches of evil!

10“You have counselled shame for your house, to cut off many peoples, and your being is sinning.

11“For a stone from the wall cries out, and a beam from the timbers answers it.

12“Woe to him who builds a town by blood, and establishes a city by unrighteousness!

13“See, it is not from יהוה of hosts that peoples labour only for fire, and nations weary themselves for naught,

14for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the esteem of יהוה, as the waters cover the seaa!

15“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbour, pouring out your wineskin, and also making him drunk – in order to look on their nakedness!

16“You shall be filled with shame instead of esteem. Drink, you too, and be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the right hand of יהוה shall come around to you, and great shame upon your esteem.

17“For the violence done to Leḇanon is to overwhelm you – and the ravaging of beasts by which you made them afraid – because of men’s blood and the violence to the land, to the city and of all who dwell in it.

18“Of what use shall a carved image be? For its maker has carved it: a moulded image and teacher of falsehood! For the maker trusts what he has made: to make dumb idols!

19“Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Is it a teacher? See, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no spirit at all inside it.

20“But יהוה is in His set-apart Hĕḵal. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

HABAKKUK 3

1A prayer of Ḥaḇaqquq the prophet, on Shig̅ionoth.

2O יהוה, I have heard your report, I was afraid. O יהוה, renew Your work in the midst of the years! Make it known in the midst of the years. In wrath remember compassion.

3Eloah comes from Tĕman, And the Set-apart One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendour shall cover the heavens, And His praise shall fill the earth.

4And the brightness is as the light, He has rays from His hand, And there His power is hidden.

5Before Him goes pestilence, And a burning flame goes forth at His feet.

6He shall stand and measure the earth. He shall look and shake the nations. And the ancient mountains are shattered, The age-old hills shall bow. His ways are everlasting.

7I saw the tents of Kushan under sorrow, The curtains of the land of Miḏyan tremble.

8Shall יהוה burn against the rivers? Is Your displeasure against the rivers, Is Your wrath against the sea, That You ride on Your horses, Your chariots of deliverance?

9You uncover Your bow, The oaths of the rod of the Word. Selah. You cut through the earth with rivers.

10The mountains shall see You, they tremble. The storm of water shall pass over. The deep shall give forth its voice, It shall lift up its hands.

11Sun, moon shall stand still in their places. Like light Your arrows fly, Like lightning is Your glittering spear.

12You step through the earth in rage, You thresh the gentiles in wrath.

13You shall go forth to save Your people, To save Your Anointed. You shall smite the Head from the house of the wrong, By laying bare from foundation to neck. Selah.

14You shall pierce with his own arrows The head of his leaders. They stormed along to scatter me, Rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.

15You shall tread the sea with Your horses, The foaming of many waters.

16I heard, and my body trembled, My lips quivered at the sound, Rottenness came into my bones. And I trembled within myself, That I might rest for the day of distress, To come upon the people who would attack us.

17Though the fig tree does not blossom, And there is no fruit on the vine, The yield of the olive has failed, And the fields brought forth no food, The flock has been cut off from the fold, And there is no herd in the stalls,

18Yet I exult in יהוה, I rejoice in the Elohim of my deliverance.

19יהוה the Master is my strength. And He makes my feet like those of deer, And makes me walk on my high places. To the chief singer with my stringed instruments.