Habakkuk 1
1The message that Habakkuk the prophet received, 1
2“Yahweh, how long will I cry for help, and you will not hear? 1 I cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you will not save. 1
3Why do you make me see iniquity and look upon wrongdoing? 1 Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention rises up. 1
4Therefore the law is weakened, and justice does not last for any time. 1 For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore false justice goes out.” Yahweh replies to Habakkuk 1
5“Look at the nations and examine them; be amazed and astonished! 1 For I am surely about to do something in your days that you will not believe when it is reported to you. 1
6For look! I am about to raise up the Chaldeans—that fierce and impetuous nation— 1 they are marching throughout the breadth of the land to seize homes that were not their own. 1
7They are terrifying and fearsome; their judgment and splendor proceed from themselves. 1
8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, quicker than the evening wolves. 1 So their horses stamp, 1 and their horsemen come from a great distance—they fly like an eagle hurrying to eat. 1
9They all come for violence; 1 their multitudes go like the desert wind, and they gather captives like sand. + 1:9 The Hebrew text translated here as their multitudes go like the desert wind is very difficult; many modern versions have other interpretations. 1
10So they mock kings, and rulers are only a mockery for them. 1 They laugh at every stronghold, for they heap up earth and take them. 1
11Then the wind will rush on; it will move past—guilty men, those whose might is their god.” Habakkuk asks Yahweh another question 1
12“Are you not from ancient times, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. 1 Yahweh has ordained them for judgment, and you, Rock, have established them for correction. 1
13Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil, and you are not able to look on wrongdoing with favor; 1 why then have you looked favorably on those who betray? 1 Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they are? 1
14You make men like fish in the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them. 1
15He brings all of them up with a fishhook; 1 he drags men away in his fishnet; 1 he gathers them together in his dragnet; 1 so he rejoices and he is glad. 1
16Therefore he sacrifices to his net 1 and burns incense to his dragnet, 1 for by his net he lives in luxury, 1 and his food is the richest kind. 1
17Will he therefore keep emptying his net, 1 and will he continually slaughter the nations without mercy?”