A reading from
the Book of the Prophet Habakkuk 1:12–2:4
Are you not from eternity, O Lord,/ my holy God, immortal?/ O Lord, you have marked him for judgment,/ O Rock, you have readied him for punishment!/ Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil,/ and the sight of misery you cannot endure./ Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence/ while the wicked man devours/ one more just than himself?/ You have made man like the fish of the sea,/ like creeping things without a ruler./ He brings them all up with his hook,/ he hauls them away with his net,/ He gathers them in his seine;/ and so he rejoices and exults./ Therefore he sacrifices to his net,/ and burns incense to his seine;/ for thanks to them his portion is generous,/ and his repast sumptuous./ Shall he, then, keep on brandishing his sword/ to slay peoples without mercy?
I will stand at my guard post,/ and station myself upon the rampart,/ And keep watch to see what he will say to me,/ and what answer he will give to my complaint.
Then the Lord answered me and said:/ Write down the vision/ Clearly upon the tablets,/ so that one can read it readily./ For the vision still has its time,/ presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;/ If it delays, wait for it,/ it will surely come, it will not be late./ The rash man has no integrity;/ but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.
The word of the Lord.
