Habakkuk 1
1
1This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
2How long, O Lord, must I call for help?
But you do not listen!
“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,
but you do not come to save.
3Must I forever see these evil deeds?
Why must I watch all this misery?
Wherever I look,
I see destruction and violence.
I am surrounded by people
who love to argue and fight.
4The law has become paralyzed,
and there is no justice in the courts.
The wicked far outnumber the righteous,
so that justice has become perverted.
The Lord’s Reply
5The Lord replied,
“Look around at the nations;
look and be amazed!#1:5 Greek version reads Look, you mockers; / look and be amazed and die. Compare Acts 13:41.
For I am doing something in your own day,
something you wouldn’t believe
even if someone told you about it.
6I am raising up the Babylonians,#1:6 Or Chaldeans.
a cruel and violent people.
They will march across the world
and conquer other lands.
7They are notorious for their cruelty
and do whatever they like.
8Their horses are swifter than cheetahs#1:8 Or leopards.
and fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their charioteers charge from far away.
Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9“On they come, all bent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind,
sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10They scoff at kings and princes
and scorn all their fortresses.
They simply pile ramps of earth
against their walls and capture them!
11They sweep past like the wind
and are gone.
But they are deeply guilty,
for their own strength is their god.”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—
surely you do not plan to wipe us out?
O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us,
to punish us for our many sins.
13But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil.
Will you wink at their treachery?
Should you be silent while the wicked
swallow up people more righteous than they?
14Are we only fish to be caught and killed?
Are we only sea creatures that have no leader?
15Must we be strung up on their hooks
and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?
16Then they will worship their nets
and burn incense in front of them.
“These nets are the gods who have made us rich!”
they will claim.
17Will you let them get away with this forever?
Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?
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Habakkuk 1: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Habakkuk 1
1
1The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. 3Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and look upon perverseness? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there is strife, and contention riseth up. 4Therefore the law is slacked, and judgement doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore judgement goeth forth perverted.
5Behold ye among the nations, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I work a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told you. 6For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation; which march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7They are terrible and dreadful: their judgement and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen spread themselves: yea, their horsemen come from far; they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour. 9They come all of them for violence; their faces are set eagerly as the east wind; and they gather captives as the sand. 10Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a derision unto him: he derideth every strong hold; for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it. 11Then shall he sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over, and be guilty: even he whose might is his god.
12Art not thou from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained him for judgement; and thou, O Rock, hast established him for correction. 13Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that canst not look on perverseness, wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy peace when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he; 14and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15He taketh up all of them with the angle, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them in his drag: therefore he rejoiceth and is glad. 16Therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; because by them his portion is fat, and his meat plenteous. 17Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?
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