Onus quod vidit Habacuc propheta.

The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.

This burden following was revealed to the prophet Habacuc.

Usquequo, Domine, clamabo, et non exaudies? vociferabor ad te, vim patiens, et non salvabis?

How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? shall I cry out to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt not save?

Lord, must I ever cry out to thee, and gain hearing never? Plead against tyranny, and no deliverance be granted me?

Quare ostendisti mihi iniquitatem et laborem, videre prædam et injustitiam contra me? Et factum est judicium, et contradictio potentior.

Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice before me? and there is a judgment, but opposition is more powerful.

Must I nothing see but wrong and affliction; turn where I will, nothing but robbery and oppression; pleading at law everywhere, everywhere contention raising its head?

Propter hoc lacerata est lex, et non pervenit usque ad finem judicium; quia impius prævalet adversus justum, propterea egreditur judicium perversum.

Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment cometh not to the end:because the wicked prevaileth against the just, therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.

What marvel if the old teachings are torn up, and redress is never to be found? Innocence by knavery circumvented still, and false award given!

Aspicite in gentibus, et videte; admiramini, et obstupescite: quia opus factum est in diebus vestris, quod nemo credet cum narrabitur.

Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told.

Have you no eyes for the world about you? Look upon it with wonder and awe; in your own days here be strange deeds a-doing, so strange, a man would scarce credit them if they were told in story.

Quia ecce ego suscitabo Chaldæos, gentem amaram et velocem, ambulantem super latitudinem terræ, ut possideat tabernacula non sua.

For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not their own.

What a nation is this I am spurring on to battle, the Chaldaean folk, so implacable, so swift! Ready to march the wide world over, so there be lands, not theirs, to covet!

Horribilis et terribilis est: ex semetipsa judicium et onus ejus egredietur.

They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.

A grim nation and a terrible; no right they acknowledge, no title, but what themselves bestow.

Leviores pardis equi ejus, et velociores lupis vespertinis: et diffundentur equites ejus: equites namque ejus de longe venient; volabunt quasi aquila festinans ad comedendum.

Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.

Not leopard so lithe as horse of theirs, not wolf at evening so fast; wide the sweep of their horsemen, that close in, close in from afar, flying like vultures hungry for their prey.

Omnes ad prædam venient, facies eorum ventus urens; et congregabit quasi arenam captivitatem.

They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.

Plunderers all; eager as the sirocco their onset, whirling away, like sand-storm, their captives.

Et ipse de regibus triumphabit, et tyranni ridiculi ejus erunt; ipse super omnem munitionem ridebit, et comportabit aggerem, et capiet eam.

And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.

Here be men that hold kings in contempt, make princes their sport; no fortress but is a child’s game to such as these; let them but make a heap of dust, it is theirs.

Tunc mutabitur spiritus, et pertransibit, et corruet: hæc est fortitudo ejus dei sui.

Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.

Veers wind, and he is gone; see him fall down and ascribe the victory to his god!

Numquid non tu a principio, Domine, Deus meus, sancte meus, et non moriemur? Domine, in judicium posuisti eum, et fortem, ut corriperes, fundasti eum.

Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.

But thou, Lord, my God and all my worship, thou art from eternity! And wilt thou see us perish? Warrant of thine they hold, take their strength from thee, only to make known thy justice, thy chastening power!

Mundi sunt oculi tui, ne videas malum, et respicere ad iniquitatem non poteris. Quare respicis super iniqua agentes, et taces devorante impio justiorem se?

Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more just than himself?

So pure those eyes, shall they feast on wrong-doing? Wilt thou brook the sight of oppression, look on while treason is done? Innocence the prey of malice, and no word from thee?

Et facies homines quasi pisces maris, et quasi reptile non habens principem.

And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.

As well had men been fishes in the sea, or creeping things, that ruler have none!

Totum in hamo sublevavit, traxit illud in sagena sua, et congregavit in rete suum. Super hoc lætabitur, et exsultabit.

He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in his drag, and gathered them into his net: for this he will be glad and rejoice.

And indeed it nothing spares, hook of yonder Chaldaean; seine and drag he spreads for all, and great joy has he of his sport.

Propterea immolabit sagenæ suæ, et sacrificabit reti suo, quia in ipsis incrassata est pars ejus, et cibus ejus electus.

Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he will sacrifice to his net: because through them his portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.

Nay, seine must have its victims, incense be offered to drag; whom else thanks he for the rich fare on his plate, viands most dainty?

Propter hoc ergo expandit sagenam suam, et semper interficere gentes non parcet.

For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually to slay the nations.

Trust me, wider still yonder net shall be flung; sword of his will never have done with massacre.