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.
Habakkuk 1
1
1The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. 2Jehovah, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto thee, Violence! and thou dost not save. 3Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up. 4Therefore the law is powerless, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked encompasseth the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted.
5See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for I work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared to you. 6For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marcheth through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs. 7They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8And their horses are swifter than the leopards, and are more agile than the evening wolves; and their horsemen prance proudly, and their horsemen come from afar: they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour. 9They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand. 10Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a scorn unto him; he derideth every stronghold: for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it. 11Then will his mind change, and he will pass on, and become guilty: this his power is become his god#godHebrew: eloah
12— Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God#GodHebrew: Elohim my Holy One? We shall not die. Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction. 13Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on mischief: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a man more righteous than he? 14And thou 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 hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag; therefore he rejoiceth and is glad: 16therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty. 17Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.