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Habakkuk 1:1-17

Habakkuk 1:1-17 CSB

The pronouncement  that the prophet Habakkuk saw.  How long,  LORD, must I call for help  and you do not listen or cry out to you about violence  and you do not save? Why do you force me to look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate   wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict  the righteous; therefore, justice  comes out perverted. Look at the nations  , and observe   — be utterly astounded!  For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe  when you hear about it.  Look! I am raising up  the Chaldeans,  that bitter,  impetuous nation that marches across the earth’s open spaces to seize territories not its own. They are fierce  and terrifying; their views of justice and sovereignty stem from themselves. Their horses are swifter  than leopards  and more fierce  than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead; their horsemen come from distant lands. They fly like eagles, swooping to devour.  All of them come to do violence; their faces  are set in determination.  They gather  prisoners like sand.  They mock   kings, and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh  at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture   it. Then they sweep  by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty;  their strength is their god. Are you not from eternity, LORD  my God?  My Holy One,  you   will not die. LORD, you appointed them to execute judgment; my Rock,  you destined them to punish us. Your eyes  are too pure  to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous?  Why are you silent while one  who is wicked swallows up one  who is more righteous than himself? You have made mankind like the fish of the sea,  like marine creatures that have no ruler. The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook, catch them in their dragnet,  and gather them in their fishing net; that is why they are glad and rejoice. That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet and burn incense to their fishing net, for by these things their portion is rich and their food plentiful.  Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?

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