The burden which Ḥavaqquq the prophet did see.

O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! I cry out to Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save!

Why dost Thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold mischief? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there is strife; and contention raises its head.

Therefore Tora is slackened, and justice does not go out triumphantly: for the wicked man besets the righteous, so that justice goes out perverted.

Look among the nations, and behold, and be struck with amazement: for a deed will be performed in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you.

For, lo, I raise up the Kasdim, a bitter and impetuous nation, who shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

They are terrible and dreadful: their justice and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the wolves of the desert: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly like a vulture hastening to devour.

They shall come all of them to do violence; their faces set towards the east: and they shall gather captives like sand.

And they shall scoff at kings, and princes shall be a scorn to them: they shall denote every stronghold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

Then he shall vanish, and be gone like the wind, bearing his guilt: such is the strength imputed to his god.

Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

Thou art of eyes too pure to behold evil, canst not look on iniquity: why dost Thou look upon them that deal treacherously, and dost hold Thy peace when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he?

And dost make men like the fishes of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their food plenteous.

Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?