Habakkuk 1:4

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

World English Bible

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 do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.

5“Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days which you will not believe though it is told you.

Read all of Habakkuk 1

Cross References

Exodus 23:2“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice.

Deuteronomy 16:19You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

Job 21:7“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

Psalms 22:16For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.

Psalms 59:2Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.

Psalms 82:1God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods.

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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