Habakkuk’s Complaint
1 The revelation which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 Lord, how long will I cry,
and you will not listen?
I cry out to you “Violence!”
and will you not save?
3 Why do you force me to look at iniquity,
and tolerate perversity?
Destruction and violence are before me.
There is conflict, and contention is rising up.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails,
for the wicked surround the righteous.
Therefore justice comes out perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 “Look among the nations.
Watch and wonder and marvel,
for I am doing a work in your days,
which you will not believe
though it is told to you.
6 For I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and impetuous nation,
that marches throughout the face of the earth,
to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 They are feared and dreaded.
Their justice and their authority
are founded in themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards
and are more fierce than the evening wolves.
Their horsemen press proudly on.
Yes, their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle that swoops down to devour.
9 All of them come for violence.
Their armies advance like the east wind,
gathering prisoners like sand.
10 Yes, they scoff at kings
and mock princes.
They laugh at every stronghold,
for they build earthen ramps
to capture it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind
and move on.
They are indeed guilty
whose power is their god.”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Are you not from everlasting,
my Lord, my God, my Holy One?
You will not die.
Lord, you have appointed the Chaldeans to execute judgment.
You, my Rock, have established them to punish us.
13 You whose eyes are too pure to see evil,
and who cannot look on perversity,
why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously,
and remain silent when the wicked devour someone
who is more righteous than he,
14 and make men like the fish of the sea,
like the creeping things,
that have no ruler over them?
15 He takes up all of them with the hook.
He catches them in his net,
and gathers them in his dragnet.
Therefore he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he makes sacrifices to his net,
and burns incense to his dragnet,
because by them his life is luxurious
and his food is good.
17 Will he therefore continually empty his net,
and kill the nations without mercy?