Habakkuk 1
1 This is the message that Habakkuk saw in vision.
The message that Habakkuk the prophet received,
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.
“Yahweh, how long will I cry for help, and you will not hear? I cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you will 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 do you make me see iniquity and look upon wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention rises up.
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 is weakened, and justice does not last for any time. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore false justice goes out.”
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.
“Look at the nations and examine them; be amazed and astonished! For I am surely about to do something in your days that you will not believe when it is reported to 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 look! I am about to raise up the Chaldeans—that fierce and impetuous nation— they are marching throughout the breadth of the land to seize homes that were not their own.
7 They are fearsome and terrifying, and so proud of themselves that they set their own rules.
They are terrifying and fearsome; their judgment and splendor proceed from themselves.
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 also are swifter than leopards, quicker than the evening wolves. So their horses stamp, and their horsemen come from a great distance—they fly like an eagle hurrying to eat.
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.
They all come for violence; their multitudes go like the desert wind, and they gather captives like sand.
10 They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh in scorn at fortresses—they pile up earth ramps and capture them.
So they mock kings, and rulers are only a mockery for them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they heap up earth and take them.
11 Then they sweep on by like the wind and are gone. They are guilty because their own strength is their god.
Then the wind will rush on; it will move past—guilty men, those whose might is 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.
“Are you not from ancient times, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh has ordained them for judgment, and you, Rock, have established them for correction.
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?
Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil, and you are not able to look on wrongdoing with favor; why then have you looked favorably on those who betray? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they are?
14 You make people become like fish in the sea, or like crawling insects, that have no ruler.
You make men like fish in the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them.
15 They drag everyone up with hooks, they pull them out with nets, catching them in dragnets. Then they happily celebrate.
He brings all of them up with a fishhook; he drags men away in his fishnet; he gathers them together in his dragnet; so he rejoices and he is glad.
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 he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury, and his food is the richest kind.
17 Will they keep on unsheathing their swords forever, killing nations without mercy?
Will he therefore keep emptying his net, and will he continually slaughter the nations without mercy?”
