At every street corner.
Lots were cast for her honored men,
And all her nobles were bound in chains.
11You too shall be drunk
And utterly overcome;a
You too shall seek
A refuge from the enemy.
12All your forts are fig trees
Withf ripe fruit;
If shaken they will fall
Into the mouths of devourers.
13Truly, the troops within you are women;
The gates of your land have opened themselves
To your enemies;
Fire has consumed your gate bars.
14Draw water for the siege,
Strengthen your forts;
Tread the clay,
Trample the mud,
Grasp the brick mold!
15There fire will devour you,
The sword will put an end to you;
It will devour you like the grub.
a-Multiply like grubs,
Multiply like locusts!-a
16You had more traders
Than the sky has stars—
The grubs cast their skins and fly away.
17Your guards were like locusts,
Your marshals like piles of hoppers
Which settle on the stone fences
On a chilly day;
When the sun comes out, they fly away,
And where they are nobody knows.
18Your shepherds are slumbering,
O king of Assyria;
Your sheepmasters are g-lying inert;-g
Your people are scattereda over the hills,
And there is none to gather them.
19There is no healingh for your injury;
Your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
Clap their hands over you.
For who has not suffered
From your constant malice?
a Lit. “bud.”
b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain; emendation yields “those who oppose Him.”
d Cf. Ugaritic srt.
e Vv. 11–14 would read well after 2.1.
f I.e., the days of your affliction.
g Heb. “you.”
a This verse would read well after v. 3.
b-b “Jacob” refers to the northern kingdom (cf. Amos 6.8; 8.7); Israel refers to the southern kingdom,
c Emendation yields “vine.”
d Understanding peladoth as equivalent to lappidoth.
e-e Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “The horsemen charge”; cf. 3.3.
f-f Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
g-g To protect the crews that swung the battering rams.
h-h I.e., the walls are breached and the palace is overrun.
i-i Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “And its mistress is led out and exiled.”
j-j Emendation yields “moan.”
k-k Meaning of Heb. uncertain; cf. note at Joel 2.6.
l Emendation yields “cave.”
m-m Emendation yields “your thicket in fire.”
n Emendation yields “devouring.”
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Amon was the tutelary deity of No (Thebes; cf. Jer. 46.25), which the Assyrians had sacked in 663 B.C.E.
c Heb. “sea.”
d-d Change of vocalization yields “water.”
e Heb. “your.”
f Emendation yields “Your troops are”; cf. next verse.
g-g Lit. “dwelling”; emendation yields “asleep.”
h Heb. kehah, a varient of gehah; see Prov. 17.22.
Habakkuk
1 The pronouncement made by the prophet Habakkuk.
2How long, O LORD, shall I cry out
And You not listen,
Shall I shout to You, “Violence!”
And You not save?
3Why do You make me see iniquity
a-[Why] do You look-a upon wrong?—
Raiding and violence are before me,
Strife continues and contention b-goes on.-b
4That is why decision fails
And justice never emerges;
For the villain hedges in the just man—
Therefore judgment emerges deformed.
5“Look among the nations,
Observe well and be utterly astounded;
For a work is being wrought in your days
Which you would not believe if it were told.
6For lo, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
That fierce, impetuous nation,
Who cross the earth’s wide spaces
To seize homes not their own.
7They are terrible, dreadful;
c-They make their own laws and rules.-c
8Their horses are swifter than leopards,
Fleeter than wolves of the steppe.d
Their steeds gallop—e-their steeds-e
Come flying from afar.
Like vultures rushing toward food,
9They all come, bent on rapine.
The thrustb of their van is forward,
And they amass captives like sand.
10Kings they hold in derision,
And princes are a joke to them;
They laugh at every fortress,
They pile up earth and capture it.
11b-Then they pass on like the wind,
They transgress and incur guilt,
For they ascribe their might to their god.”-b
12You, O LORD, are from everlasting;
My holy God, Youf never die.
O LORD, You have made them a subject of contention;
O Rock, You have made them a cause for complaint.
13You whose eyes are too pure to look upon evil,
Who cannot countenance wrongdoing,
Why do You countenance treachery,
And stand by idle
While the one in the wrong devours
The one in the right?
14You have made mankind like the fish of the sea,
Like creeping things g-that have no ruler.-g
15He has fished them all up with a line,
Pulled them up in his trawl,
And gathered them in his net.
That is why he rejoices and is glad.
16That is why he sacrifices to his trawl
And makes offerings to his net;
For through them his portionh is rich
And his nourishment fat.
17Shall he then keep i-emptying his trawl,-i
And slaying nations without pity?
2
I will stand on my watch,
Take up my station at thea post,
And wait to see what He will say to me,
What Heb will reply to my complaint.
2The LORD answered me and said:
Write the prophecy down,
Inscribe it clearly on tablets,
So that it can be read easily.
3For c-there is yet a prophecy-c for a set term,
A truthful witness for a time that will come.
Even if it tarries, wait for it still;
For it will surely come, without delay:
4d-Lo, his spirit within him is puffed up, not upright,
But-d the righteous man is rewarded with life
For his fidelity.
5How much less then shall the defiante go unpunished,
The treacherous, arrogant man
Who has made his maw as wide as Shcol,
Who is as insatiable as Death,
Who has harvested all the nations
And gathered in all the peoples!
6Surely all these shall pronounce a satire against him,
A pointed epigram concerning him.
They shall say:
Ah, you who pile up what is not yours—
How much longer?—
And make ever heavier your load of indebtedness!
7Right suddenly will your creditorsf arise,
And those who remindg you will awake,
And you will be despoiled by them.
8Because you plundered many nations,
All surviving peoples shall plunder you—
breath within him—/And….”
For crimes against men and wrongs against lands,
Against cities and all their inhabitants.
9Ah, you who have acquired gains
To the detriment of your own house,
h-Who have destroyed many peoples-h
In order to set your nest on high
To escape disaster!
10You have plotted shame for your own house,
And guilt for yourself;
11For a stone shall cry out from the wall,
And a rafter shall answer it from the woodwork.
12Ah, you who have built a town with crime,
And established a city with infamy,
13So that peoples have had to toil for the fire,i
And nations to weary themselves for naught!
jBehold, it is from the LORD of Hosts:
14k-For the earth shall be filled
With awe for the glory of the LORD
As water covers the sea.-k
15Ah, you who make others drink to intoxication
l-As you pour out-l your wrath,
In order to gaze upon their nakedness!m
16You shall be sated with shame
Rather than glory:
Drink in your turn and stagger!n
The cup in the right hand of the LORD
Shall come around to you,
And o-disgrace to-o your glory.
17p-For the lawlessness against Lebanon shall cover you,
The destruction of beasts shall overwhelm you-p—
For crimes against men and wrongs against lands,
Against cities and all their inhabitants.
18qWhat has the carved image availed,
That he who fashioned it has carved it
For an image and a false oracle—
That he who fashioned his product has trusted in it,
Making dumb idols?
19Ah, you who say, “Wake up” to wood,
“Awaken,” to inert stone!
Can that give an oracle?
Why, it is encased in gold and silver,
But there is no breath inside it.
20But the LORD in His holy Abode—
Be silent before Him all the earth!
3
A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. In the mode of Shigionoth.a
2O LORD! I have learned of Your renown;
I am awed, O LORD, by Your deeds.
Renew them in these years,
Oh, make them known in these years!
Though angry, may You remember compassion.
3God is coming from Teman,
The Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.b
His majesty covers the skies,
His splendor fills the earth:
4c-It is a brilliant light
Which gives off rays on every side—
And therein His glory is enveloped.-c
5Pestilence marches before Him,
And plague comes forth at His heels.
6When He stands, He makes the earth shake;d
When He glances, He makes nations tremble.
The age-old mountains are shattered,
The primeval hills sink low.
c-His are the ancient routes:
7As a scene of havoc I behold-c
The tents of Cushan;
Shaken are the pavilions
Of the land of Midian!
8Are You wroth, O LORD, with Neharim?
Is Your anger against Neharim,
Your rage against Yame—
That You are driving Your steeds,
Your victorious chariot?
9All bared and ready is Your bow.
c-Sworn are the rods of the word.-c Selah.
You make the earth burst into streams,
10The mountains rock at the sight of You,
A torrent of rain comes down;
Loud roars the deep,
c-The sky returns the echo.-c
11Sun [and] moon stand still on high
As Your arrows fly in brightness,
Your flashing spear in brilliance.
12You tread the earth in rage,
You trample nations in fury.
13You have come forth to deliver Your people,
To deliver Your anointed.f
g-You will smash the roof of the villain’s house,
Raze it from foundation to top. Selah.
14You will crack [his] skull with Yourh bludgeon;
Blown away shall be his warriors,
Whose delight is to crush me suddenly,
To devour a poor man in an ambush.-g
15i-You will make Your steeds tread the sea,
Stirring the mighty waters.
16I heard and my bowels quaked,
My lips quivered at the sound;
Rot entered into my bone,
I trembled where I stood.
Yet I wait calmly for the day of distress,
For a people to come to attack us.
17Though the fig tree does not bud
And no yield is on the vine,
Though the olive crop has failed
And the fields produce no grain,
Though sheep have vanished from the fold
And no cattle are in the pen,-i
18Yet will I rejoice in the LORD,
Exult in the God who delivers me.
19My Lord GOD is my strength:
He makes my feet like the deer’s
And lets me stride upon the heights.
c-For the leader; with instrumental music.-c
a-a Targum and Syriac “So that I look.”
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Lit. “Their law and majesty proceed from themselves.”
d Understanding ‘creb as synonymous with ‘arabah; cf. Jer. 5.6.
e-e The Qumran Habakkuk commentary (hereafter 1QpHab) reads “and spread [wings].”
f Heb. “we,” a change made by a pious scribe.
g-g 1QpHab “[for him] to rule over”; cf. Gen. 1.28; Ps. 8.7–9.
h Emendation yields “bread”; cf. Gen. 49.20.
i-i 1QpHab “drawing his sword.”
a 1QpHab reads “my.”
b Taking ’ashib as equivalent to yashib.
c-c Emendation yields “the prophecy is a witness.”
d-d Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “Lo there is a reward for
