Habakkuk 1
1 This is the message that Habakkuk saw in vision.
The message seen by 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, Lord, have I cried out and without you hearing me! I cry to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not help.
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 look upon wickedness and behold trouble? Destruction and violence are before my eyes, and fighting and quarrelling.
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 weak, and justice is never rendered; for the wicked surround the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
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, look well, be shocked and amazed. For I am about to do a work in your days; you will not believe it when it is told.
6 Watch! I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and brutal people who will march across the world to seize other lands.
For I am about to raise up the Chaldeans, a nation grim and quick of action who sweep over the whole breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are fearsome and terrifying, and so proud of themselves that they set their own rules.
They bring fear and terror. They write their own rules.
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, quicker than wolves hunting at dusk. From afar they come swooping down, like an eagle attacking its prey.
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 to do violence, a horde like a desert wind, they gather up 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.
At kings they scoff, and princes are sport to them. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to 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 they sweep on like the wind, Their strength 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 eternal, Lord, my holy one, who does not die? Lord you have appointed them to execute judgment, my rock, you have established them to punish.
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 look at evil, you cannot condone iniquity. So why do you regard the treacherous in silence, while the wicked swallows the upright?
14 You make people become like fish in the sea, or like crawling insects, that have no ruler.
You have made people like the fish of the sea, like 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.
The wicked sweep them all into their nets, and gather them into their drag-nets, and rejoice and celebrate.
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 offerings to their drag-net; for by their nets are their portions generous, and their food is rich.
17 Will they keep on unsheathing their swords forever, killing nations without mercy?
Will they empty their nets continually, slaughter nations unpityingly?
