The Book of Hambakuk
1 The boding that the prophet Hambakuk beheld.
2 How long, Jehovah, shall I have been clamoring and you not listen, shall I cry foul play and you not interfere? 3* why do you show me villainy and look on at mischief, and I am confronted with rapine and outrage, and disputes break out and raise quarrels? 4* Therefore religion is numbed, and justice comes out nevermore, because a criminal brings numbers against the one who has right on his side and therefore justice comes out on the wrong track.
5* See among the nations, look, be mystified, be mazed: for he is doing a deed in your days that you will not believe when it is told; 6*** for here he is setting in motion the Chaldeans, the truculent and hasty nation that goes through the length and breadth of earth to take possession of abodes that do not belong to it. 7* It is terrible and formidable; it looks to itself for its laws and its standing; 8* and its ponies are swifter than leopards and brisker than evening wolves, and its horsemen come from far, they fly. Like vultures hurrying to eat, 9* it all comes for outrage; their massed faces are toward the east; and it has gathered up slaves like the sand, 10 while it gibes at kings and takes potentates for its butt; it laughs at every fortification and has piled up earth and taken it, 11** then taken breath and passed on, and made this strength of its own its god.
12** Are you not from of old, Jehovah? God of my devotion, you will not die. Jehovah, you established him for judgment and planted him as a rock for correction. 13* Why should you, too clean-eyed to see wickedness and unable to look at mischief, look on at faithless men, lie still while a rascal chews up a more honest man, 14* and have made mankind like fish in the sea, like insects without a government? 15* he brings them all up with a hook, hauls them in in his net, gathers them in his seine. Therefore he is glad and gay; 16 therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his seine, because by those his takings are fat and his diet rich; 17 is he therefore to empty his net and be always killing nations unsparingly?
2** I will stand at my post and station myself on guard and be on the lookout to see what he will say by me and what response I shall make to my reproach.
2* And Jehovah answered me and said “Write a vision and set it forth clearly on the tablets to be read swiftly; 3** for there is yet a vision for the date, to depose of the end, and it will not lie. If it delays, wait for it; for come it will, and not be belated.”
4** Now in the timeserver he takes no satisfaction, but the honest man shall live by his steadfastness; 5 how much less shall a faithless brute be pleasing, a haughty man, who has distended his appetite like the grave, being like death insatiable, and has gathered in all the nations and swept up all the peoples! 6* Shall not all these strike up a lay of him and propound a satire on him, and say “Ha, you who amass—for how long?—what is not yours, and load yourself up with things you have taken in pawn! 7* Will not your creditors stand up suddenly and your worriers wake, and you be for their pillaging? 8 Because you have despoiled many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall despoil you, for bloodshed of men and outrage to earth, town and all who live in it.
9 “Ha, you who make hurtful winnings for your house, placing your nest aloft, to come off safe out of the clutch of disaster! 10* You have contrived shame for your house, maiming many peoples and letting your life be the forfeit; 11* for stones will cry out from walls, and joists out of woodwork will back them up.
12 “Ha, you who build a city by bloodshed and found a town by foul play!” 13 (Is not that from Jehovah of Armies?) “And peoples toil to feed fire, and folk upon folk spends itself bootlessly.” 14 (For the earth shall be full of knowledge of Jehovah’s glory like water that covers a sea.)
15** “Ha, you who have your friend drink out of your bowl and your bag, and befuddle him too, in order to look at their nudity! 16* You are fuller loaded with ignominy than with glory; drink yourself and show off your uncircumcised body; the cup in Jehovah’s right hand shall come round to you, and shabbiness come over your glory. 17** For the outrage to Lebanon shall cover you, and the havoc of beasts shall dismay you, for bloodshed of men and outrage to earth, town and all who live in it.”
18 Of what use is a statue that its sculptor should have carved it, a bronze and a lying oracle that its modeler should have put his confidence in it, so as to make dumb trumperies? 19 Ha, you who say to wood “Wake up, stir yourself!” of silent stone “That will give instructions”! There is that cased in gold and silver, with no soul within it. 20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple: silence before him, all the earth!
3* (A prayer of the prophet Hambakuk in dithyrambics.)
2** Jehovah, I have heard your story,
have feared, Jehovah, at your dealing;
As years draw on bring it to life,
as years draw on making it known,
fiercely remembering tenderness.
3 God is coming from Teman,
the Holy from the highlands of Paran. (Selah)
His majesty covers the sky
and the earth is full of his praise,
4* And there is under him a radiance like fire,
he has beams of light at his side,
and there is the hiding of his power.
5 Before him goes pestilence,
and back of him firebolts go out.
And primeval mountains burst,
immemorial hills stoop,
7 The packtrains of ‘Us are alarmed,
the caravans of Ishbak are dismayed,
The homes of Cushan are disquieted,
the tents of the Midianite country.
8* Are you angry with the rivers, Jehovah,
or is your wrath against the sea,
That you are riding your ponies,
your victory-bringing chariot,
10** mountains have seen you, they writhe,
Clouds pelt down water,
the deep utters its voice,
The sun forgets its lofty radiance,
11 the moon stands still in its lodge,
At the light of your arrows as they go,
at the radiant flash of your spear;
12 In hostility you tread earth,
in anger you trample nations.
13*** You have gone out for the succor of your people,
to give victory to your anointed;
You have shattered head from wicked man’s house,
baring foundation to neck; (Selah)
14* You have pierced with his shafts the heads of his warriors
coming tempestuously to scatter me,
Their exultation as if to eat up
a wretch in concealment.
15 You have trod your ponies in the sea
the clay of great waters.
16*** I heard, and my body quivered,
my lips purred aloud;
Decay comes into my bones,
my insteps quiver under me,
I moan at a day of distress
to come for a nation that raids us.
17*** For fig-trees are bearing no fruit
and nothing grows on the grapevine,
Olive-trees’ work is disappointing
and terraces are making no food,
Sheep have disappeared from fold
and there are no cattle in the stalls.
18 But I will glory in Jehovah,
I will exult in my God of salvation;
(of the Director; with string accompaniment.)
MARGINAL NOTES FOR HAMBAKUK
Hab 1:3 Var. and I look on
1:4 Lit. a criminal surrounds the one
1:5 Var. I am doing
1:6 Codd. I am setting
1:6 Conj. the Macedonians or omit the name of the nation
1:6 Lit. goes by the breadths of earth
1:7 Lit. its right and its standing go out from it
1:8 Codd. and its horses curvet, its horses come from far (var. they come from far)
1:9 (their massed faces are toward the east) Susp.
1:11 Unc.; susp.
1:11 Codd. passed on and become guilty, whose strength is its goad
1:12 Codd.* my God, my Holy One, we shall (var. you will)
1:12 (end) Susp.
1:13 (chews up) Lit. swallows
1:14 Lit. without a ruler
1:15 Or with a spear
2:1 Or to me
2:1 Var. he will make
2:2 (to be read swiftly) Lit. in order that the reader may run
2:3 Conj. for vision is witness for the set time, to depose
2:3 Or end and not lie
2:4-5a Susp.
2:4 Var. I take
2:6 Codd. and he shall say or and one shall say
2:7 Or Will not your biters
2:10 (maiming) Unc.
2:11 Or a stone will cry out from a wall, and a joist out of woodwork will back it up
2:15 Or your neighbor
2:15 Codd. have your friend drink, add your venom, and befuddle
2:16 Or You have your fill of ignominy out of glory
2:17 (last half) Susp.
2:17 Or more than bloodshed
3:1 (end) Unc.; var. with string accompaniment
3:2 Var. seen, Jehovah, your dealing
3:2 Var.* making yourself known
3:4 Codd. And it is a radiance like light
3:6 Var. halts, and measures earth
3:6 Codd.* and makes nations flinch
3:6-7 (The packtrains etc.) Susp.; codd. He has immemorial goings, under trouble I saw the homes of Cushan, the tents of the Midianite country are disquieted
3:8 Codd. Is it with the rivers, Jehovah, or with the rivers you are angry, or is your wrath against the sea
3:10 Var. peoples have seen Conj. the waters have seen
3:10 Lit. the loftiness of its radiance Codd. Loftiness raises its hands; (11) the sun, the moon, stands still Var. The sun’s bright loftiness pauses, the moon stands still
3:13 Var. shattered the heads of wicked men
3:13 Conj. rock
3:13-15 (baring . . . sea) the nakedness of their parties is fleeting; you have pierced his neck with your shafts, potentates’ heads go flying. To hurl an overweening man from his foothold, to bring his mockery to an end in obscurity, your ponies tread the sea
3:14 (coming tempestuously) Unc.
3:16 (insteps) Unc.
3:16 (my . . . moan) Codd. I quiver where I stand, that I rest
3:16 (raids us) Unc.
3:17 Var. bearing no shoots
3:17 Or Olive-tree work
3:17 Codd. lit. One has cut away sheep from fold