A Translation of Calvin's Version
1856 by Calvin Translation Society

Habakkuk Chapter 1

Hab 1:1 the burden which Habakkuk the Prophet saw:
Hab 1:2 How long, Jehovah, shall I cry, And thou wilt not hear? And cry aloud to thee of violence, And thou wilt not save?
Hab 1:3 Why showest thou me iniquity, And makest me to see trouble? And why are violence and plunder in my sight, And he who excites strife and contention?
Hab 1:4 Therefore dissolved is the law, And judgment does not continually go forth; For the wicked surrounds the just, Therefor go forth does perverted judgment.
Hab 1:5 Look ye among the Gentiles and see, And be astonished, be astonished; For a work will I work in your days, Which ye will not believe, though it be told you:
Hab 1:6 For behold, I will rouse the Chaldeans—A nation bitter and hasty, Which shall march through the breadths of the earth, To possess habitations not its own:
Hab 1:7 Terrible and fearful shall it be, From itself shall its judgment and its dignity proceed:
Hab 1:8 And swifter than leopards shall be its horses, And fiercer than the evening wolves; And numerous shall be its horsemen; And its horsemen from far shall come, They shall fly as an eagle hastening to devour:
Hab 1:9 The whole of it for booty shall come; The aspect of their faces will be like the east-wind; And he will gather captives like the sand:
Hab 1:10 And at kings he will laugh, And princes shall be a scorn to him: Every fortress he will scorn, He will gather dust and take it:
Hab 1:11 Then will be change his spirit, And pass through and act impiously, Ascribing this his power to his god.
Hab 1:12 Art not thou, Jehovah, from the beginning, my God? My holy One! we shall not die: Thou, Jehovah, for judgment hast set him; And thou strong One, for correction hast established him.
Hab 1:13 Pure art thou of eyes, so as not to behold evil, And on trouble thou canst not look: —Why lookest thou on transgressors, And takest no notice, when the ungodly devours One more righteous than himself?
Hab 1:14 Thou makest man like the fish of the sea, Like the reptile, which is without a leader:
Hab 1:15 The whole by his hook will he draw up, Collect into his drag, and gather into his net; He will therefore rejoice and exult:
Hab 1:16 Hence sacrifice will he to his drag, And incense will he offer to his net; For through them fat will be his portion, And his meat will be rich. —
Hab 1:17 Shall he therefore extend his drag, And continue to slay the nations, so as not to spare them?