Habakkuk 1:4

Therefore is the law powerless, and justice cometh not forth victorious; for the wicked encompasseth about the righteous; therefore doth justice come forth perverted.

Leeser Tanakh

In The King James Version

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

In Context

3Why wilt thou let me see wickedness, and wilt look on trouble, and the robbery and violence [that are] before me: while there is strife, and contention lifteth up [its head]?

5Look ye about among the nations, and behold and be astonished and astounded; for [God] will fulfill a work in your days, ye would not believe it, if it were only told you.

Read all of Habakkuk 1

Cross References

Exodus 23:2Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to incline after many, to wrest judgment.

Deuteronomy 16:19Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, and thou shalt not take a bribe; for the bribe blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

Job 21:7Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, grow strong in power?

Psalms 22:16(22:17) For dogs have encompassed me; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: like lions [they threaten] my hands and my feet.

Psalms 59:2(59:3) Deliver me from the workers of wickedness, and from men of blood do thou save me.

Psalms 82:1“A psalm of Assaph.” God standeth in the congregation of God, in the midst of judges doth he judge.

Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 1:2-5

Habakkuk It is a very foolish fancy of some of the Jewish rabbin that this prophet was the son of the Shunamite woman that was at first miraculously given, and afterwards raised to life, by Elisha ( 2 Kings iv. ), as they say also that the prophet Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, which Elijah raised to life. It is a more probable conjecture of their modern chronologers that he lived and prophesied in the reign of king Manasseh, when wickedness abounded, and destruction was hastening on, destruction by… Read the whole commentary →

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