Habakkuk 1
1 [I am] Habakkuk, a prophet. This is the [message that Yahweh] gave to me in a vision.
The message that Habakkuk the prophet received,
2 [I said, ] “Yahweh, how long must I continue to call [to you] for help before you respond? I cry out to you [for help], saying that [people are acting] violently [everywhere], but you do not rescue us!
“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 (Must I/I do not want to) continue seeing people doing what is unjust [RHQ]. Why do you not punish people who are doing what is wrong [RHQ]? I see people destroying things and [acting] violently. There is fighting and quarreling [everywhere].
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 No one obeys laws [PRS], and judges [PRS] never do what is fair/just. Wicked people always defeat righteous people [in the courts], with the result that matters are never decided fairly/justly.”
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 [Yahweh replied to me, ] “[I know that what you say is true, but] look around at [what is happening in] the other nations; [if you look, ] you will be amazed, because I am doing something during this time that you would not believe [would happen], even if someone told you about it.
“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 The soldiers of Babylonia are fierce/cruel and swift. And now I am causing them [to become very powerful]; they will march across the world and conquer [many] other countries.
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 people whom [others] fear very much [DOU], and they do whatever they want to, paying no attention to the laws of other countries.
They are terrifying and fearsome; their judgment and splendor proceed from themselves.
8 The horses [that pull their chariots] go faster than leopards, and they are fiercer than wolves are in the evening. The horses on which the soldiers ride gallop swiftly; the soldiers riding them come from distant places. They are like [SIM] eagles that swoop down to [snatch and] kill small animals.
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 As they ride along, [they are] determined to act violently. They advance like [SIM] a wind from the desert, gathering prisoners that are as [numerous as grains of] sand.
They all come for violence; their multitudes go like the desert wind, and they gather captives like sand.
10 They make fun of kings and princes [of other countries], and they ridicule all the cities that have high walls around them. They pile dirt [outside those walls] [in order to climb up] and capture those cities.
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 They rush past like the wind, and then they go [to attack other cities]. But they are very guilty, because [they think that] their own power is their god.”
Then the wind will rush on; it will move past—guilty men, those whose might is their god.”
12 [Then I said, ] “Yahweh, you have certainly [RHQ] always/forever been God. You are my Holy One; you will not die. So [why] have you appointed those men [from Babylonia] to judge and get rid of [us]? You are like [MET] a huge rock [under which we are protected/safe], so why have 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 You [SYN] are pure, and you cannot endure looking at what is evil, [so why] are you ignoring men who are treacherous? Why do you do nothing [to punish] those wicked men [from Babylonia] who destroy people who are more righteous than they [are]?
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 [Do you consider that] we are like fish in the sea, or like other creatures in the sea, that have no ruler?
You make men like fish in the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them.
15 [The soldiers of Babylonia think that we are fish] [RHQ] for them to pull out of the sea with hooks or to catch in their nets, while they rejoice and 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 If they catch us, they will [worship] their weapons [MET] with which they captured us, and offer sacrifices to them and burn incense in front of them! [They will say] ‘Those weapons have enabled us to become rich and be able to eat expensive 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 you allow] them to continue [to conquer people] [MET] forever? [Will you allow] them to destroy people of other nations without their being merciful [to anyone]?”
Will he therefore keep emptying his net, and will he continually slaughter the nations without mercy?”
