Habakkuk 1
1
1The pronouncement#Is 13:1; 30:6; Jr 18:18; Ezk 12:10; Hab 1:1; Zch 9:1; 12:1; Mal 1:1 that the prophet Habakkuk saw.#Nm 24:4; Jb 19:26; Is 13:1
Habakkuk’s First Prayer
2How long,#Ps 4:2; 6:3; 13:1 Lord, must I call for help#Jb 19:7; Ps 5:2; Lm 3:8
and you do not listen
or cry out to you about violence#Jr 6:7; Ezk 7:11,23; 8:17; 12:19; 45:9; Mc 6:12; Hab 1:9; 2:8,17
and you do not save?
3Why do you force me to look at injustice?#Jb 4:8; Ps 5:5; Is 5:7
Why do you tolerate#1:3 Lit observe, also in v. 13 wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.
4This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict#Jdg 20:43; Ps 22:12 the righteous;
therefore, justice#Ex 23:6 comes out perverted.
God’s First Answer
5Look at the nations#1:5 DSS, LXX, Syr read Look, you treacherous people#Ps 2:1 and observe#Gn 15:5 —
be utterly astounded!#Gn 43:33; Ps 48:5; Ec 5:8
For I am doing something in your days
that you will not believe#Gn 15:6
when you hear about it.#Ac 13:41
6Look! I am raising up#Ru 4:5 the Chaldeans,#1:6 = the Babylonians
that bitter,#Jdg 18:25 impetuous nation
that marches across the earth’s open spaces
to seize territories not its own.
7They are fierce#Sg 6:4,10 and terrifying;
their views of justice and sovereignty
stem from themselves.
8Their horses are swifter#2Sm 1:23 than leopards#Is 11:6; Jr 5:6; 13:23; Hs 13:7
and more fierce#1:8 Or and quicker than wolves of the night.
Their horsemen charge ahead;
their horsemen come from distant lands.
They fly like eagles, swooping to devour.#Dt 28:49
9All of them come to do violence;
their faces#Gn 48:11 are set in determination.#1:9 Hb obscure
They gather#Dt 11:14 prisoners like sand.#Jos 11:4
10They mock#2Kg 2:23 kings,
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh#2Ch 30:10 at every fortress
and build siege ramps to capture#Nm 21:32 it.
11Then they sweep#Is 8:8 by like the wind
and pass through.
They are guilty;#1:11 Or wind, and transgress and incur guilt their strength is their god.
Habakkuk’s Second Prayer
12Are you not from eternity, Lord my God?#1Ch 29:10; Ps 90:2; 93:2; 103:17; Mc 5:2
My Holy One,#Is 1:4 you#1:12 Alt Hb tradition reads we will not die.
Lord, you appointed them to execute judgment;
my Rock,#Dt 32:4; Ps 18:2 you destined them to punish us.
13Your eyes#2Ch 6:20; 16:9 are too pure#Ex 25:11; Ps 12:6; 19:9; 51:10; Pr 22:11; Ezk 36:25 to look on evil,
and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous?#Jdg 9:23
Why are you silent
while one#1:13 = Babylon who is wicked swallows up
one#1:13 = Judah who is more righteous than himself?
14You have made mankind
like the fish of the sea,#Ec 9:12
like marine creatures that have no ruler.
15The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook,
catch them in their dragnet,#2Kg 19:28; 2Ch 33:11; Is 37:29; Jr 16:16; Ezk 19:4,9; 29:4; 38:4; Am 4:2
and gather them in their fishing net;
that is why they are glad and rejoice.
16That 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.#Dt 8:17; Is 10:13; 37:24–25
17Will they therefore empty their net
and continually slaughter nations without mercy?
Currently Selected:
Habakkuk 1: CSB
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Ḥaḇaqquq (Habakkuk) 1
1
1The message which the prophet Ḥaḇaqquq saw.
2O יהוה, till when shall I cry, and You not hear? I cry to You, “Violence!” and You do not save.
3Why do You show me wickedness, and cause me to see perversity? For ruin and violence are before me. And there is strife, and contention arises.
4Therefore the Torah ceases, and right-ruling never goes forth. For the wrong hem in the righteous, so that right-ruling comes out twisted.
5“Look among the nations and see, and be amazed, be amazed! For a work is being wrought in your days which you would not believe if it were told.
6“See, I am raising up the Kasdim, a bitter and hasty nation, who is going through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7“They are frightening and fearsome, their right-ruling and their exaltation proceed from themselves.
8“Their horses shall be swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. And their horsemen shall charge ahead, and their horsemen come from afar. They fly as the eagle, rushing to eat.
9“All of them come for violence, the direction of their faces is like the east wind, and they gather captives like sand.
10“And they scoff at sovereigns, and princes are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they pile up earth and seize it.
11“Then shall he pass on as a wind, and transgress and be guilty, and ascribe this power to his mighty one.”
12Are You not from everlasting, O יהוה my Elohim, my Set-apart One? You do not die! O יהוה, You have appointed them for right-ruling, O Rock, You have established them for reproof.
13You, whose eyes are too clean to see evil, You are not able to look on wrong. Why do You look on those who act treacherously – keep silent when the wrong devours one more righteous than he?
14And would You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping creatures that have no ruler over them?
15The wicked foe has pulled all of them up with a hook, caught them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and exults.
16Therefore he slaughters to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, for by them is his portion fat and his food is rich.
17Is he therefore to keep on emptying his net, and killing nations without sparing?
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Copyright© 1993 – 2015 by the Institute for Scripture Research (ISR). All rights reserved.