Habakkuk 1

¹The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

²How long, Lord, must I call for help,

but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, “Violence!”

but you do not save?

³Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me;

there is strife, and conflict abounds.

⁴Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice never prevails.

The wicked hem in the righteous,

so that justice is perverted.

The Lord’s Answer

⁵“Look at the nations and watch—

and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days

that you would not believe,

even if you were told.

⁶I am raising up the Babylonians,

that ruthless and impetuous people,

who sweep across the whole earth

to seize dwellings not their own.

⁷They are a feared and dreaded people;

they are a law to themselves

and promote their own honor.

⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards,

fiercer than wolves at dusk.

Their cavalry gallops headlong;

their horsemen come from afar.

They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;

⁹they all come intent on violence.

Their hordes advance like a desert wind

and gather prisoners like sand.

¹⁰They mock kings

and scoff at rulers.

They laugh at all fortified cities;

by building earthen ramps they capture them.

¹¹Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—

guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

¹²Lord, are you not from everlasting?

My God, my Holy One, you will never die.

You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;

you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.

¹³Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;

you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?

Why are you silent while the wicked

swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

¹⁴You have made people like the fish in the sea,

like the sea creatures that have no ruler.

¹⁵The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,

he catches them in his net,

he gathers them up in his dragnet;

and so he rejoices and is glad.

¹⁶Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and burns incense to his dragnet,

for by his net he lives in luxury

and enjoys the choicest food.

¹⁷Is he to keep on emptying his net,

destroying nations without mercy?