Habakkuk 1:1-17

  • The prophet’s cry for help (1-4)

    • “How long, O Jehovah?” (2)

    • “Why do you tolerate oppression?” (3)

  • The Chaldeans, God’s tool for judgment (5-11)

  • The prophet pleads with Jehovah (12-17)

    • ‘My God, you do not die’ (12)

    • ‘You are too pure to look at evil’ (13)

1  A pronouncement that Ha·bakʹkuk* the prophet received in a vision:  2  How long, O Jehovah, must I cry for help, but you do not hear?+ How long must I ask for help from violence, but you do not intervene?*+  3  Why do you make me witness wrongdoing? And why do you tolerate oppression? Why are destruction and violence before me? And why do quarreling and conflict abound?  4  So law is paralyzed,And justice is never carried out. For the wicked surround the righteous;That is why justice is perverted.+  5  “Look among the nations and pay attention! Stare in amazement and be astounded;For something will happen in your daysThat you will not believe even if it is told to you.+  6  For here I am raising up the Chal·deʹans,+The ruthless and impetuous nation. They sweep through vast stretches of the earthTo seize homes not theirs.+  7  They are frightening and fearsome. They establish their own justice and authority.*+  8  Their horses are swifter than leopards,And they are fiercer than wolves in the night.+ Their warhorses gallop forward;Their horses come from far away. They swoop down like the eagle rushing to feed.+  9  All of them come bent on violence.+ The assembling of their faces is like the east wind,+And they scoop up captives like sand. 10  They scoff at kingsAnd laugh at high officials.+ They laugh at every fortified place;+They pile up a dirt ramp and capture it. 11  Then they move forward like the wind and pass through,But they will become guilty,+Because they credit their power to their god.”*+ 12  Are you not from everlasting, O Jehovah?+ O my God, my Holy One, you do not die.*+ O Jehovah, you appointed them to execute judgment;My Rock,+ you established them for punishment.*+ 13  Your eyes are too pure to look on what is evil,And you cannot tolerate wickedness.+ Why, then, do you tolerate the treacherous+And keep silent when a wicked man swallows up someone more righteous than he is?+ 14  Why do you make man like the fish of the sea,Like creeping things that have no ruler? 15  All of these he* hauls up with a fishhook. He catches them in his dragnet,And he gathers them in his fishing net. That is why he rejoices greatly.+ 16  That is why he offers sacrifices to his dragnetAnd makes sacrifices* to his fishing net;For by them his portion is rich,*And his food is choice. 17  Will he then keep emptying out his dragnet?* Will he go on slaughtering nations without compassion?+

Footnotes

Possibly meaning “Ardent Embrace.”
Or “save.”
Or “dignity.”
Or possibly, “their power is their god.”
Or possibly, “we will not die.”
Or “for reproving.”
That is, the Chaldean enemy.
Or “sacrificial smoke.”
Lit., “well-oiled.”
Or possibly, “keep drawing his sword?”