Habakkuk 1
1 This is the message that Habakkuk saw in vision.
The prophecy which was revealed to the prophet Habakkuk.
2 Lord, how long do I have to cry out for help and you don't listen? I cry out, “Violence!” but you don't save us from it.
How long, O Jehovah, do I cry, and thou dost not hear! How long do I complain to thee of violence, and thou dost not save!
3 Why do you force me to see this wickedness and suffering? Why do you just observe such destruction and violence? Arguments and fighting happen right in front of me!
Why dost thou suffer me to see iniquity, And why dost thou look upon wickedness? For spoiling and violence are before me; There is contention, and strife exalteth itself.
4 As a result the law is paralyzed, and justice never wins. The wicked crowd out those who do right so that the course of justice is perverted.
Therefore the law faileth, And judgment is not pronounced according to truth; For the wicked encompasseth the righteous, Therefore wrong judgment is pronounced.
5 Look around at the nations, watch and be surprised and amazed. Something is going to happen in your time that you wouldn't believe even if you were told.
Behold ye among the nations, and look! Yea, wonder, and be astonished! For I do a work in your days Which ye will not believe though it be told you.
6 Watch! I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and brutal people who will march across the world to seize other lands.
For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, A fierce and swift people, Which go over the breadth of the earth, To take possession of dwelling-places that are not their own.
7 They are fearsome and terrifying, and so proud of themselves that they set their own rules.
They are terrible and dreadful; From themselves go forth their law and their dignity.
8 Their horses are faster than leopards and fiercer than hungry wolves. Their cavalry charges, racing in from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to eat their prey.
Their horses are swifter than leopards, And fiercer than evening wolves. Their horsemen leap proudly; Their horsemen come from far; They fly like an eagle, hastening to devour.
9 Here they come, all intent on violence. Their armies advance in frontal assault as rapidly as the desert wind, capturing so many prisoners they are like sand.
All of them come for violence; The multitude of their faces is directed forwards, And they gather captives as sand.
10 They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh in scorn at fortresses—they pile up earth ramps and capture them.
They also scoff at kings, And princes are to them a laughing-stock; They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep on by like the wind and are gone. They are guilty because their own strength is their god.
Then their spirit is uplifted, and they transgress, and become guilty; This their strength is made their god.
12 Haven't you existed from eternity past? You are Lord my God, my Holy One, you do not die. Lord, you appointed them to execute judgment; God our Rock, you sent them to punish us.
Art thou not from everlasting, O Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? We shall not die! Thou, O Jehovah, hast appointed them for judgment; Thou, O Rock, hast ordained them for chastisement.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil; you cannot stand the sight of wrong. So why do you put up with untrustworthy people? Why are you silent when the wicked destroy those who do less evil than they do?
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, And canst not look on wickedness; Why then dost thou look on transgressors, And art silent, when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he?
14 You make people become like fish in the sea, or like crawling insects, that have no ruler.
And why makest thou men as the fishes of the sea, As the reptiles that have no ruler?
15 They drag everyone up with hooks, they pull them out with nets, catching them in dragnets. Then they happily celebrate.
They take up all of them with the hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their drag; Therefore they rejoice and exult.
16 They worship their nets as if they were gods, making sacrifices and burning incense to them, because by their nets they live in luxury, eating rich food.
Therefore they sacrifice to their net, And burn incense to their drag; Because by them their portion is fat, And their food plenteous.
17 Will they keep on unsheathing their swords forever, killing nations without mercy?
Shall they therefore empty the net, And slay the nations continually without mercy?
