Habakkuk, 3

1. A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk; tone as for dirges.

2. Yahweh, I have heard of your renown; your work, Yahweh, inspires me with dread. Make it live again in our time, make it known in our time; in wrath remember mercy.

3. Eloah comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Pause His majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth.

4. His brightness is like the day, rays flash from his hands, that is where his power lies hidden.

5. Pestilence goes before him and Plague follows close behind.

6. When he stands up, he makes the earth tremble, with his glance he makes the nations quake. And the eternal mountains are dislodged, the everlasting hills sink down, his pathway from of old.

7. I saw the tents of Cushan in trouble, the tent-curtains of Midian shuddering.

8. Yahweh, are you enraged with the rivers, are you angry with the sea, that you should mount your chargers, your rescuing chariots?

9. You uncover your bow, and give the string its fill of arrows. PauseYou drench the soil with torrents;

10. the mountains see you and tremble, great floods sweep by, the abyss roars aloud, lifting high its waves.

11. Sun and moon stay inside their dwellings, they flee at the light of your arrows, at the flash of your lightning-spear.

12. In rage you stride across the land, in anger you trample the nations.

13. You marched to save your people, to save your anointed one; you wounded the head of the house of the wicked, laid bare the foundation to the rock. Pause

14. With your shafts you pierced the leader of his warriors who stormed out with shouts of joy to scatter us, as if they meant to devour some poor wretch in their lair.

15. With your horses you trampled through the sea, through the surging abyss!

16. When I heard, I trembled to the core, my lips quivered at the sound; my bones became disjointed and my legs gave way beneath me. Calmly I await the day of anguish which is dawning on the people now attacking us.

17. (For the fig tree is not to blossom, nor will the vines bear fruit, the olive crop will disappoint and the fields will yield no food; the sheep will vanish from the fold; no cattle in the stalls.)

18. But I shall rejoice in Yahweh, I shall exult in God my Saviour.

19. Yahweh my Lord is my strength, he will make my feet as light as a doe's, and set my steps on the heights. For the choirmaster; on stringed instruments.