Habakkuk’s First Complaint

¹ This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:

² How long, O LORD, must I call for help

but You do not hear,

or cry out to You, “Violence!”

but You do not save?

³ Why do You make me see iniquity?

Why do You tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me.

Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.^*

⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked hem in the righteous,

so that justice is perverted.

The LORD’s Answer

⁵ “Look at the nations and observe—

be utterly astounded!

For I am doing a work in your days

that you would never believe

even if someone told you.

⁶ For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans —

that ruthless and impetuous nation

which marches through the breadth of the earth

to seize dwellings not their own.

⁷ They are dreaded and feared;

from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.^*

⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,

fiercer than wolves of the night.

Their horsemen^* charge ahead,

and their cavalry^* comes from afar.

They fly like a vulture,

swooping down to devour.

⁹ All of them come bent on violence;

their hordes advance like the east wind;^*

they gather prisoners like sand.

¹⁰ They scoff at kings

and make rulers an object of scorn.

They laugh at every fortress

and build up siege ramps to seize it.

¹¹ Then they sweep by^* like the wind

and pass through.

They are guilty;

their own strength is their god.”^*

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

¹² Are You not from everlasting,

O LORD, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

O LORD, You have appointed them

to execute judgment;

O Rock, You have established them

for correction.

¹³ Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil,

and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

So why do You tolerate the faithless?

Why are You silent

while the wicked^* swallow up

those more righteous than themselves?

¹⁴ You have made men like the fish of the sea,

like creeping things^* that have no ruler.

¹⁵ The foe pulls all of them up with a hook;

he catches them in his dragnet,

and gathers them in his fishing net;

so he rejoices gladly.

¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet

and burns incense^* to his fishing net,

for by these things his portion^* is sumptuous

and his food is rich.

¹⁷ Will he, therefore, empty^* his net

and continue to slay nations without mercy?