Habakkuk 1
1
1This is the message that the LORD revealed to the prophet Habakkuk.
Habakkuk Complains of Injustice
2O LORD, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from violence? 3Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you endure to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are all round me, and there is fighting and quarrelling everywhere. 4The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.
The LORD's Reply
5 #
Acts 13.41
Then the LORD said to his people, “Keep watching the nations round you, and you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you will not believe when you hear about it. 6#2 Kgs 24.2I am bringing the Babylonians to power, those fierce, restless people. They are marching out across the world to conquer other lands. 7They spread fear and terror, and in their pride they are a law to themselves.
8“Their horses are faster than leopards, fiercer than hungry wolves. Their horsemen come riding from distant lands; their horses paw the ground. They come swooping down like eagles attacking their prey.
9“Their armies advance in violent conquest, and everyone is terrified as they approach.#1.9 Probable text and everyone… approach; Hebrew unclear. Their captives are as numerous as grains of sand. 10They treat kings with contempt and laugh at high officials. No fortress can stop them — they pile up earth against it and capture it. 11Then they sweep on like the wind and are gone, these men whose power is their god.”
Habakkuk Complains to the LORD Again
12 LORD, from the very beginning you are God. You are my God, holy and eternal. LORD, my God and protector, you have chosen the Babylonians and made them strong so that they can punish us. 13But how can you stand these treacherous, evil men? Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong. So why are you silent while they destroy people who are more righteous than they are?
14How can you treat people like fish or like a swarm of insects that have no ruler to direct them? 15The Babylonians catch people with hooks, as though they were fish. They drag them off in nets and shout for joy over their catch! 16They even worship their nets and offer sacrifices to them, because their nets provide them with the best of everything.
17Are they going to use their swords for ever and keep on destroying nations without mercy?
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Habakkuk 1: GNBUK
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Havakuk (Hab) 1
1
1This is the prophecy which Havakuk the prophet saw:
2Adonai, how long must I cry
without your hearing?
“Violence!” I cry to you,
but you don’t save.
3Why do you make me see wrongdoing,
why do you permit oppression?
Pillage and cruelty confront me,
so that strife and discord prevail.
4Therefore Torah is not followed;
justice never gets rendered,
because the wicked fence in the righteous.
This is why justice comes out perverted.
5“Look around among the nations!
What you see will completely astound you!
For what is going to be done in your days
you will not believe, even when you are told.
6I am raising up the Kasdim,
that bitter and impetuous nation,
who march far and wide over the earth
to seize homes that are not their own.
7Fearsome and dreadful they are;
their rules and strength come from themselves.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at night.
Their cavalry gallop in from afar,
flying like vultures rushing to feed.
9All of them come for violence,
their faces set eagerly forward,
scooping up captives like sand.
10They scoff at kings;
princes they deride.
They laugh at any fortress;
they pile up earth and take it.
11Then they sweep on like the wind,
but they become guilty,
because they make their strength their god.”
12Adonai, haven’t you existed forever?
My God, my holy one, we will not die.
Adonai, you appointed them to execute judgment.
Rock, you commissioned them to correct us.
13Your eyes are too pure to see evil,
you cannot countenance oppression.
So why do you countenance traitors?
Why are you silent when evil people
swallow up those more righteous than they?
14You make people like fish in the sea,
like reptiles that have no ruler.
15The evil haul them all up with their hooks,
catch them in their fish net,
or gather them in their dragnet.
Then they rejoice and make merry,
16offering sacrifices to their fishnet
and burning incense to their dragnet;
because through them they live in luxury,
with plenty of food to eat.
17Should they, therefore, keep emptying their nets?
Should they keep slaughtering the nations without pity?
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