Habakkuk 1
1 aThe oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.Habakkuk’s Complaint
2O Lord, bhow long shall I cry for help,and you will not hear?
Or cry to you c“Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 dWhy do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction eand violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 fSo the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
gFor the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 h“Look among the nations, and see;wonder and be astounded.
iFor I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6For behold, jI am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
kwho march through the breadth of the earth,
lto seize dwellings not their own.
7They are dreaded and fearsome;
mtheir justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 nTheir horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than othe evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
pthey fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9They all come qfor violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives rlike sand.
10At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
sThey laugh at every fortress,
for tthey pile up earth and take it.
11Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
uguilty men, vwhose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12Are you not wfrom everlasting,O Lord my God, my Holy One?
xWe shall not die.
O Lord, yyou have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O zRock, have established them for reproof.
13You who are aaof purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
abwhy do you idly look at traitors
and acremain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 adHe ▼
▼That is, the wicked foe
brings all of them up afwith a hook;he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
16 agTherefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury, ▼
▼Hebrew his portion is fat
and his food is rich.
17Is he then to keep on emptying his net
aiand mercilessly killing nations forever?
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