Draw water for the siege, strengthen thy forts!
Get thee down to the mud, and tramp in the clay!
Grip fast the brick mould!
There fire consumes thee, the sword cuts thee off!
Asleep are thy shepherds, O king of Assyria,
Thy nobles do slumber;
Thy people are strewn on the mountains,
Without any to gather.
There is no healing of thy wreck,
Fatal thy wound.
All who hear of thy fall shall clap their hands at thee,
For upon whom hath not thy cruelty passed without ceasing?
[Footnote: This translation is, in part, that of George Adam Smith.]
HABAKKUK
(The little book of Habakkuk was written just before the fall of Jerusalem. This prophet is dealing with a problem new to Israel. It was, Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? It came from the rapid rise of the great, cruel empire of Babylon. Assyria had fallen, but instead of Israel being free as the people had expected they would be when Assyria was out of the way, it found itself under the power of the New Babylonian government. Why did God allow this? the people asked, in sad despair at the hopeless political situation. The prophet Habakkuk attempted to answer the question. He called himself a watchman, set to see if God would not answer this question. And the answer comes. It is in a sort of enigma: "Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him; but the just shall live by his faith." Then the rest of the book is the expansion of the thought of this enigma. And what is its meaning? It could be expressed somewhat in this way: "Be patient; hold faith in God. In faith in him is the promise of life. Wickedness contains the germs of its own destruction, and will inevitably fall, Wait and you will see that this is so.")
I
WARNINGS OF THE WATCHMAN
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will speak with me, and what I shall answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me, and said, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not [{393}] delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."
Woe to him that getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.