Habakkuk 3

1A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. According to Shigionoth.

2Yahweh, I have heard the news about you, and I stand in fear. Yahweh, bring your work to life in the course of the years; in the course of the years make it known. In wrath remember compassion.

3God came from Teman; the Holy One came from Mount Paran. Selah. His majesty blanketed the heavens, and his praise filled the earth.

4His brilliance was like daylight; rays shone out from his hand, and there his strength lay concealed.

5Pestilence walked ahead of him, and fiery plague came out at his feet.

6He stood and set the earth shaking; he looked and made nations start in fear. The age-old mountains burst apart; the ancient hills bowed low. The ancient paths are his.

7I saw the tents of Cushan weighed down by trouble; the curtains of Midian’s land were shaking.

8Yahweh, did you burn with anger against the rivers? Was your anger aimed at the rivers, or your fury at the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation?

9You laid your bow bare; oaths were declared over the arrows. Selah. With rivers you split the earth open.

10When the mountains saw you, they writhed; a flood of water swept past. The deep gave voice and raised its hands on high.

11The sun and moon stood still in their high dwelling, at the light of your arrows flying past, at the lightning gleam of your spear.

12Raging, you strode across the land; angry, you threshed the nations.

13You went out to bring salvation to your people, salvation to your anointed. You smashed the head of the wicked one’s house, stripping it bare from foundation to neck. Selah.

14With his own shafts you pierced the head of his fighters when they stormed out to scatter me; their delight was like that of one who devours the poor in secret.

15With your horses you trod upon the sea, through the foaming of many waters.

16I heard, and my belly quaked; at the sound my lips trembled. Rot crept into my bones, and I shook where I stood. Yet I will wait calmly for the day of distress to come upon the people who attack us.

17Even if the fig tree does not flower, and there is no yield on the vines; if the olive tree’s produce disappoints, and the fields provide no food; if the flock is cut off from the fold, and there are no cattle in the barns,

18yet I will exult in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God who saves me.

19Yahweh the Lord is my strength. He gives me feet like a deer’s and lets me stride on my heights. For the choir director. With stringed instruments.