Habakkuk

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,

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.

6*** He halts, and earth trembles;

He sees, and nations flinch;

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,

9 With your bow stripped bare,

your quiver crammed with shafts? [Selah]

Earth splits into rivers,

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;

19 The Lord Jehovah is my vigor,

and makes my feet like a wild doe’s

and makes me tread the heights.