Aramaic Peshitta Bible Repository
Lamsa OT - Habakkuk
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1 ¶ THE vision which Habakkuk the prophet saw: 2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I cry to thee because of the plunderers, and thou wilt not deliver! 3 Why dost thou show me iniquity and deceit? For I see violence and evil; justice was on my side, but the judge accepted bribes. 4 Therefore the law is slacked, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surely does evil to the righteous; thus justice goes forth perverted.""
5 ¶ Behold, O you presumptuous, see, wonder, and be amazed! for I will do a work in your days that you would not believe if a man should declare it to you. 6 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that hasty and bitter nation, who shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are mighty and dreadful; their judgment and their notable doings proceed of themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than eagles and more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen shall swoop down and shall come from afar; they shall fly like an eagle that hastens to eat. 9 They all come for plunder; the appearance of their faces is fearful, and they shall gather booty as the sand. 10 They scoff at kings, and princes they mock; and they laugh at every stronghold; for they heap up earth and capture it. 11 Then shall his wind change and pass away, and his army shall be found guilty before his god.""
12 ¶ Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? Art thou without a law, O LORD? For thou hast ordained them for judgment, and thou hast created us for chastisement. 13 Thine eyes are too pure, they do not behold evil, and thou canst not look on wicked men; why dost thou look on presumptuous men, and art silent when the wicked devours the righteous man? 14 And thou didst make men as the fish of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them. 15 They take up all of them with the hook, they catch them in a net, and gather them in their drag; and when they gather them, they rejoice and are glad. 16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag, because by them their portion is made rich, and their food dainty. 17 Therefore they cast their net continually, they slay peoples without pity.""
2:1 ¶ I WILL stand upon my place and set me upon the rock tower, and I will watch to see what he will say to me and what I shall answer because of my chastisement. 2 And the LORD answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he who reads it may understand it clearly. 3 For the vision will come to pass at its appointed time, and it shall be fulfilled at the end, it shall not lie; and if it should delay, do not be impatient, because it will surely come, it will not delay. 4 For his soul does not delight in iniquity, but the righteous man shall live by faith.""
5 ¶ The arrogant and greedy man is never satisfied, because he has enlarged his appetite like Sheol; and like death, he has never enough, but gathers to him all peoples, and draws near to him all the nations. 6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him who gathers and increases that which is not his! How long will he load himself with earthly goods? 7 Behold, they shall rise up suddenly, those who shall bite you, and awake those who shall cause you trouble, and you shall be for spoil to them. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, so the remnant of the people shall plunder you; because of men’s blood and the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 9 Woe to him who defrauds and heaps up evil for himself, who sets his nest on high that he may be delivered from evil! 10 You have devised shame to your house, you have plundered many peoples and caused your soul to sin. 11 For the stone shall cry out from the wall, and the nail in the wood shall answer it. 12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity! 13 All these things are from the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in fire, and the nations shall labor in vain. 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.""
15 ¶ Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink the dregs of fury, and makes them drunk that he may look on their nakedness! 16 You are filled with dishonor instead of glory; drink yourself also and stagger, for the cup of the LORD’S right hand shall come round to you, and shame shall cover your glory. 17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the plundering of the beasts shall trouble you because of the blood of men, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all who dwell therein. 18 What profit is a graven image that its maker has fashioned? The molten image is a false doctrine, for the heart of its maker trusts in it, to fashion a dumb idol 19 Woe to him who says to the wood, Awake! to the dumb stone, Arise! They are vain; even though they are overlaid with gold, there is no breath at all in them. 20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth tremble before him.""
3:1 ¶ A PRAYER of Habakkuk the prophet: 2 O LORD, I have heard thy name and am afraid. O LORD, thy works are in the midst of the years of life, in the midst of years they shall be known; in wrath remember thy mercy.""
3 ¶ God came from the south, and the Holy One from mount Paran. The heavens were covered with the brightness of his glory, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 And his brightness was as the light; in the city which his hands had established shall he store his power. 5 Before him went pestilence, and birds went forth before his feet. 6 He stood and measured the earth; he beheld and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the eternal hills were brought low; his ways are everlasting. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; and the curtains of the tents of Midian did tremble. 8 Was the LORD angry against the rivers? Was thy anger against the rivers? Was thy rage against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thy horses and upon the chariots of thy salvation? 9 Thy bow was made ready, the arrows were abundant at the command of thy glorious word. Thou didst furrow the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw thee and they quaked; the downpour of the waters passed by; the deep uttered its voice and lifted up its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitations; at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spears. 12 Thou didst tread upon the earth in thy indignation, thou didst thresh the nations in thine anger. 13 Thou wentest forth to save thy people and to save thine anointed; thou didst cut off the head out of the house of the wicked, thou hast laid him bare from his foundations even to the neck for ever. 14 Thou didst break with his own staves the heads of his princes; for they trusted in their savagery to devour the poor secretly. 15 Thou didst tread upon the sea with thy horses, through the heap of great waters.""
16 ¶ When I heard it, my body trembled, confusing the words of my mouth; fear entered into my bones and my knees trembled, for he searched me out and declared to me the day of trouble that comes upon the people. 17 Though the fig tree has not blossomed and there are no leaves on the vine, though the produce of the olive tree has failed, the threshing-floors have not yielded grain, the sheep are cut off from the flocks, and there are no oxen in the herd; 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, and I will joy in the God my Saviour. 19 The LORD God is my strength, for he has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and made me stand on my high places that I may sing his praise."