Habakkuk 1
1
Habakkuk Complains to God
1This is the message that was given to Habakkuk the prophet.
2Lord, I continue to ask for help. When will you listen to me? I cried to you about the violence, but you did nothing! 3People are stealing things and hurting others. They are arguing and fighting. Why do you make me look at these terrible things? 4The law is weak and not fair to people. Evil people win their fights against good people. So the law is no longer fair, and justice does not win anymore.
The Lord Answers Habakkuk
5“Look at the other nations! Watch them, and you will be amazed. I will do something in your lifetime that will amaze you. You would not believe it even if you were told about it. 6I will make the Babylonians#1:6 Babylonians Literally, “Chaldeans,” a tribe of Arameans who gained control in Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar was from this tribe. a strong nation. They are cruel and powerful fighters. They will march across the earth. They will take houses and cities that don’t belong to them. 7The Babylonians will scare the other people. They will do what they want to do and go where they want to go. 8Their horses will be faster than leopards and more dangerous than wolves at sunset. Their horse soldiers will come from faraway places. They will attack their enemies quickly, like a hungry eagle swooping down from the sky. 9The one thing they all want to do is fight. Their armies will march fast like the wind in the desert. And the Babylonian soldiers will take many prisoners—as many as the grains of sand.
10“The Babylonian soldiers will laugh at the kings of other nations. Foreign rulers will be like jokes to them. The Babylonian soldiers will laugh at the cities with tall, strong walls. They will simply build dirt roads up to the top of the walls and easily defeat the cities. 11Then they will leave like the wind and go on to fight against other places. The only thing the Babylonians worship is their own strength.”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12Lord, you are the one who lives forever!
You are my holy God who never dies!#1:12 Lord, you are … never dies Or “Lord, you have been my holy God forever! Surely we will not die.”
Lord, you created the Babylonians to do what must be done.
Our Rock, you created them to punish people.
13Your eyes are too good to look at evil.
You cannot stand to see people doing wrong.
So why do you permit such evil?
How can you watch while the wicked destroy people who are so much better?
14You made people like fish in the sea.
They are like little sea animals without a leader.
15The enemy catches all of them with hooks and nets.
The enemy catches them in his net and drags them in,
and the enemy is very happy with what he caught.
16His net helps him live like the rich
and enjoy the best food.
So the enemy worships his net.
He makes sacrifices and burns incense to honor his net.
17Will he continue to take riches with his net?
Will he continue destroying people without showing mercy?
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Habakkuk 1
1
1 # See Nah. 1:1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
2O Lord, #Ps. 13:1; 89:46 how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you #Mic. 6:12“Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 # See Jer. 9:2-6 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction #[See ver. 2 above]and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 # [Mic. 7:3] So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
# [Job 21:7; Jer. 12:1] For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 # Cited Acts 13:41 “Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
# [Isa. 28:21; 29:14] For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6For behold, #See Jer. 5:15 I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
# [ch. 2:5] who march through the breadth of the earth,
# [ch. 2:6] to seize dwellings not their own.
7They are dreaded and fearsome;
# [ver. 10, 11] their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 #
Jer. 4:13 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than #Jer. 5:6; Zeph. 3:3 the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
# See Deut. 28:49 they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9They all come #[ch. 2:17] for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives #See Josh. 11:4like sand.
10At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
# [Nah. 3:12] They laugh at every fortress,
for #[Ezek. 4:2]they pile up earth and take it.
11Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
# [Hos. 13:16] guilty men, #[ver. 7]whose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12Are you not #Deut. 33:27; Ps. 90:2; 93:2 from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
# [Mal. 3:6] We shall not die.
O Lord, #See Isa. 10:5-7 you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O #See Deut. 32:4Rock, have established them for reproof.
13You who are #[Ps. 5:5] of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
#
Jer. 12:1 why do you idly look at traitors
and #Ps. 35:22remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 #
Jer. 16:16; Amos 4:2 He#1:15 That is, the wicked foe brings all of them up #[Isa. 19:8]with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
16 # [ver. 11] Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,#1:16 Hebrew his portion is fat
and his food is rich.
17Is he then to keep on emptying his net
# [ch. 2:10] and mercilessly killing nations forever?
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