First ReadingHabakkuk 1:12—2:4
From the Book of Habakkuk
12Aren’t you from everlasting, Lord my God, my Holy One?We will not die.Lord, you have appointed them for judgment.You, Rock, have established him to punish.13You who have purer eyes than to see evil,and who cannot look on perversity,why do you tolerate thosewho deal treacherously and keep silentwhen the wicked swallows up the manwho is more righteous than he,14and make men like the fish of the sea,like the creeping things that have no ruler over them?15He takes up all of them with the hook.He catches them in his netand gathers them in his dragnet.Therefore he rejoices and is glad.16Therefore he sacrifices to his netand burns incense to his dragnet,because by them his life is luxuriousand his food is good.17Will he therefore continually empty his net,and kill the nations without mercy?
1I will stand at my watch and set myself on the ramparts,and will look out to see what he will say to me,and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
2The Lord answered me,“Write the vision,and make it plain on tablets,that he who runs may read it.3For the vision is yet for the appointed time,and it hurries toward the end,and won’t prove false.Though it takes time,wait for it, because it will surely come.It won’t delay.4Behold, his soul is puffed up.It is not upright in him,but the righteous will live by his faith.