Habakkuk 1:1-17
1 A pronouncement that Ha·bakʹkuk* the prophet received in a vision:
2 How long, O Jehovah, must I cry for help, but you do not hear?+
How long must I ask for help from violence, but you do not intervene?*+
3 Why do you make me witness wrongdoing?
And why do you tolerate oppression?
Why are destruction and violence before me?
And why do quarreling and conflict abound?
4 So law is paralyzed,And justice is never carried out.
For the wicked surround the righteous;That is why justice is perverted.+
5 “Look among the nations and pay attention!
Stare in amazement and be astounded;For something will happen in your daysThat you will not believe even if it is told to you.+
6 For here I am raising up the Chal·deʹans,+The ruthless and impetuous nation.
They sweep through vast stretches of the earthTo seize homes not theirs.+
7 They are frightening and fearsome.
They establish their own justice and authority.*+
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,And they are fiercer than wolves in the night.+
Their warhorses gallop forward;Their horses come from far away.
They swoop down like the eagle rushing to feed.+
9 All of them come bent on violence.+
The assembling of their faces is like the east wind,+And they scoop up captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kingsAnd laugh at high officials.+
They laugh at every fortified place;+They pile up a dirt ramp and capture it.
11 Then they move forward like the wind and pass through,But they will become guilty,+Because they credit their power to their god.”*+
12 Are you not from everlasting, O Jehovah?+
O my God, my Holy One, you do not die.*+
O Jehovah, you appointed them to execute judgment;My Rock,+ you established them for punishment.*+
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on what is evil,And you cannot tolerate wickedness.+
Why, then, do you tolerate the treacherous+And keep silent when a wicked man swallows up someone more righteous than he is?+
14 Why do you make man like the fish of the sea,Like creeping things that have no ruler?
15 All of these he* hauls up with a fishhook.
He catches them in his dragnet,And he gathers them in his fishing net.
That is why he rejoices greatly.+
16 That is why he offers sacrifices to his dragnetAnd makes sacrifices* to his fishing net;For by them his portion is rich,*And his food is choice.
17 Will he then keep emptying out his dragnet?*
Will he go on slaughtering nations without compassion?+
Footnotes
^ Possibly meaning “Ardent Embrace.”
^ Or “save.”
^ Or “dignity.”
^ Or possibly, “their power is their god.”
^ Or possibly, “we will not die.”
^ Or “for reproving.”
^ That is, the Chaldean enemy.
^ Or “sacrificial smoke.”
^ Lit., “well-oiled.”
^ Or possibly, “keep drawing his sword?”