aThe oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
2 O Lord, ahow long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you b“Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 aWhy do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction band violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 aSo the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
bFor the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 a“Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
bFor I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, aI am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
bwho march through the breadth of the earth,
cto seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
atheir justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 aTheir horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than bthe evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
cthey fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come afor violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives blike sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
aThey laugh at every fortress,
for bthey pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
aguilty men, bwhose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Are you not afrom everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
bWe shall not die.
O Lord, cyou have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O dRock, have established them for reproof.
13 You who are aof purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
bwhy do you idly look at traitors
and cremain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 aHe brings all of them up bwith a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
16 aTherefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
aand mercilessly killing nations forever?