The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Habakkuk 01
1 The revelation which Habakkuk the
prophet saw.
2 Yahweh,† how long will I cry, and you
will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!”
and will you not save?
3 Why do you show me iniquity, and
look at perversity? For destruction and
violence are before me. There is strife, and
contention rises up.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and
justice never prevails; for the wicked
surround the righteous; therefore justice
comes out perverted.
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.
6 For, behold,‡ I am raising up the
Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation
who march through the width ofthe earth,
to possess dwelling places that are not
theirs.
7 They are feared and dreaded. Their
judgment and their dignity proceed from
themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
and are more fierce than the evening
wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on.
Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They
fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
9 All of them come for violence. Their
hordes face forward. They gather prisoners like sand.
10 Yes,they scoff at kings, and princes are
a derision to them. They laugh at every
stronghold, for they build up an earthen
ramp and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind
and go on. They are indeed guilty, whose
strength is their god.”
12 Aren’t you from everlasting, Yahweh
my God,§ my Holy One? We will not
die. Yahweh, you have appointed them
for judgment. You, Rock, have established
him to punish.
13 You who have purer eyes than to see
evil, and who cannot look on perversity,
why do you tolerate those who dealtreacherously
and keep silent when the wicked swallows up
the man who is more righteous than he,
14 and make men like the fish of the sea,
like the creeping things that have no ruler
over them?
15 He takes up all of them with the hook.
He catches them in his net and gathers
them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices
and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and
burns incense to his dragnet, because by
them his life is luxurious and his food is
good.
17 Will he therefore continually empty
hisnet, andkillthenations withoutmercy?