Hab 1 | ESV | STEP | The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw .

2 O 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.
6 For 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.
7 They 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.
9 They all come ^qfor violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives ^rlike sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
^sThey laugh at every fortress,
for ^tthey pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
^uguilty men, ^vwhose own might is their god!”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12 Are 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.
13 You 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?
14 You 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.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
^aiand mercilessly killing nations forever?