Habakkuk 1
1
Habakkuk’s Complaint
1The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2O Yahweh, how long shall I cry for help
and you will not listen?
How long will I cry out to you, “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3Why do you cause me to see evil
while you look at trouble?
Destruction and violence happen before me;
contention and strife arise.
4Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice does not go forth perpetually.#Or “forever”
For the wicked surround the righteous;
therefore justice goes forth perverted.
God’s Answer to Habakkuk
5“Look among the nations and see;
be astonished and astounded.
For a work is about to be done in your days
that you will not believe if it is told.
6For look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,
the bitter and impetuous nation,
the one who walks through the spacious places of earth
to take possession of dwellings not belonging to it.#Or “him”
7They#Hebrew “He” are dreadful and awesome;
their#Hebrew “his” justice and their#Hebrew “his” dignity proceed from themselves.#Hebrew “him”
8Their#Hebrew “His” horses are more swift than leopards;
they are more menacing than wolves at dusk.
Their#Hebrew “His” horsemen gallop; their#Hebrew “his” horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle that is swift to devour.
9All of them#Hebrew “him” come for violence,
their faces pressing forward.
They gather captives like the sand.
10And they themselves scoff at kings
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortification,
and they heap up earth and take it.
11Then they sweep like the wind and pass on;
they become guilty, whose might is their#Hebrew “his” god!”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12Are you not from of old,
O Yahweh my God, my Holy One?
You#Hebrew “we shall not die,” considered a deliberate scribal change of the text to avoid offensive language toward Yahweh shall not die.
O Yahweh, you have marked them#Hebrew “him” for judgment;
O Rock, you have established them#Hebrew “him” for reproof.
13Your eyes are too pure to see evil,
and you are not able to look at wrongdoing.#Or “trouble”
Why do you look at the treacherous?
Why are you silent when the wicked swallows up
someone more righteous than him?
14You make humankind like fish of the sea,
like crawling creatures that have no ruler among them.
15He brings up all of them with a fishhook;
he drags them up with a fishnet;
he gathers them in his dragnet.
Therefore, he rejoices and exults.
16Therefore he sacrifices to his fishnet
and makes offerings to his dragnet,
for by them he makes a good living#Literally “his portion is fat”
and his food is rich.
17Will he therefore empty his fishnet
and continually kill nations without showing mercy?
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Habakkuk 1: LEB
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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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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. 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.