---
title: "Habakkuk 1 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/habakkuk/1/
description: "The prophet complains of the wickedness of the people: God reveals to him the… Habakkuk 1 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk 1 is chapter 1 of 3 in the Book of Habakkuk. Here are all 17 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The prophet complains of the wickedness of the people: God reveals to him the vengeance he is going to take of them by the Chaldeans.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Habakkuk 1 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. The burden that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2. How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not heed? Shall I shout to you while suffering violence, and you will not save?
3. Why have you revealed to me iniquity and hardship, to see plunder and injustice opposite me? And there has been judgment, but the opposition is more powerful.
4. Because of this, the law has been torn apart, and judgment does not persevere to its conclusion. For the impious prevail against the just. Because of this, a perverse judgment is issued.
5. Gaze among the nations, and see. Admire, and be astounded. For a work has been done in your days, which no one will believe when it is told.
6. For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift people, marching across the width of the earth, to possess tabernacles not their own.
7. It is dreadful and terrible. From themselves, judgment and their burden will issue.
8. Their horses are more nimble than leopards and swifter than wolves in the evening; their horsemen will spread out. And then their horsemen will approach from far away; they will fly like the eagle, hurrying to devour.
9. They will all approach towards the prey; their face is like a burning wind. And they will gather captives together like sand.
10. And concerning kings, he will triumph, and sovereign rulers will be his laughingstock, and he will laugh over every fortress, and he will transport a rampart and seize it.
11. Then his spirit will be altered, and he will cross over and fall. Such is his strength from his god.
12. Have you not existed from the beginning, Lord my God, my holy one, and so we shall not die? Lord, you have stationed him for judgment, and you have established that his strength will be swept away.
13. Your eyes are pure, you do not behold evil, and you cannot look towards iniquity. Why do you look upon the agents of iniquity, and remain silent, while the impious is devouring one who is more just than himself?
14. And you will make men like the fish of the sea and like the creeping things that have no ruler.
15. He lifted up everything with his hook. He drew them in with his dragnet, and gathered them into his netting. Over this, he will rejoice and exult.
16. For this reason, he will offer victims to his dragnet, and he will sacrifice to his netting. For through them, his portion has been made fat, and his meals elite.
17. Because of this, therefore, he expands his dragnet and will not be lenient in continually putting to death the peoples.

## Habakkuk 1 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Onus quod vidit Habacuc propheta.
2. Usquequo, Domine, clamabo, et non exaudies? vociferabor ad te, vim patiens, et non salvabis?
3. Quare ostendisti mihi iniquitatem et laborem, videre prædam et injustitiam contra me? Et factum est judicium, et contradictio potentior.
4. Propter hoc lacerata est lex, et non pervenit usque ad finem judicium; quia impius prævalet adversus justum, propterea egreditur judicium perversum.
5. Aspicite in gentibus, et videte; admiramini, et obstupescite: quia opus factum est in diebus vestris, quod nemo credet cum narrabitur.
6. Quia ecce ego suscitabo Chaldæos, gentem amaram et velocem, ambulantem super latitudinem terræ, ut possideat tabernacula non sua.
7. Horribilis et terribilis est: ex semetipsa judicium et onus ejus egredietur.
8. Leviores pardis equi ejus, et velociores lupis vespertinis: et diffundentur equites ejus: equites namque ejus de longe venient; volabunt quasi aquila festinans ad comedendum.
9. Omnes ad prædam venient, facies eorum ventus urens; et congregabit quasi arenam captivitatem.
10. Et ipse de regibus triumphabit, et tyranni ridiculi ejus erunt; ipse super omnem munitionem ridebit, et comportabit aggerem, et capiet eam.
11. Tunc mutabitur spiritus, et pertransibit, et corruet: hæc est fortitudo ejus dei sui.
12. Numquid non tu a principio, Domine, Deus meus, sancte meus, et non moriemur? Domine, in judicium posuisti eum, et fortem, ut corriperes, fundasti eum.
13. Mundi sunt oculi tui, ne videas malum, et respicere ad iniquitatem non poteris. Quare respicis super iniqua agentes, et taces devorante impio justiorem se?
14. Et facies homines quasi pisces maris, et quasi reptile non habens principem.
15. Totum in hamo sublevavit, traxit illud in sagena sua, et congregavit in rete suum. Super hoc lætabitur, et exsultabit.
16. Propterea immolabit sagenæ suæ, et sacrificabit reti suo, quia in ipsis incrassata est pars ejus, et cibus ejus electus.
17. Propter hoc ergo expandit sagenam suam, et semper interficere gentes non parcet.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: “Burden” … Such prophecies more especially are called burdens, as threaten grievous evils and punishments.
- Verse 11: Viz., the spirit of the king of Babylon. It alludes to the judgment of God upon Nabuchodonosor, recorded Dan. 4., and to the speedy fall of the Chaldean empire.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sat, Aug 12, 2028 (computed): Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Habakkuk 1:12—2:4
- Sun, Oct 8, 2028 (computed): Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).