Habakkuk 1

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

This is the Balanced text at the default settings. The notes, the reasoning behind each verse and the reader settings need JavaScript..disputed-note .fn-pop-more { display: none; }

Habakkuk complains, and the LORD answers

¹The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. ²How long, LORD, must I cry for help while you do not listen? \q I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save. ³Why do you make me see wrongdoing? Why do you put up with trouble? \q Ruin and violence are in front of me; \q quarrels and conflict break out. ⁴So the instruction loses its force, \q and justice never wins out. \q The wicked hem in the righteous, \q so justice comes out twisted. ⁵Look at the nations and watch, \q and be utterly astonished! \q For I am doing something in your days \q that you would not believe even if you were told. ⁶For I am raising up the Chaldeans, \q that fierce and reckless nation, \q who sweep across the wide earth \q to seize homes that are not their own. ⁷They are feared and dreaded; \q they set their own law and claim their own honor. ⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards, \q fiercer than wolves at dusk. \q Their horsemen charge ahead; \q their riders come from far away; \q they swoop like an eagle rushing to devour. ⁹They all come intent on violence; \q their faces are set straight ahead, \q and they gather captives like sand. ¹⁰They scoff at kings \q and make fun of rulers; \q they laugh at every fortress, \q for they pile up earth and take it. ¹¹Then they sweep past like the wind and go on, guilty men \q whose own strength is their god. ¹²Are you not from everlasting, LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. \q LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; \q Rock, you have set them in place to bring correction. ¹³Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, \q and you cannot look on wrongdoing. \q Why then do you look on the treacherous, \q and keep silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? ¹⁴You have made people like fish in the sea, \q like creatures that crawl, with no ruler over them. ¹⁵The enemy pulls them all up with a hook; \q he drags them away in his net \q and gathers them in his fishing net; \q so he rejoices and celebrates. ¹⁶So he offers sacrifices to his net \q and burns incense to his fishing net, \q for by them he lives in plenty \q and eats the richest food. ¹⁷Will he keep on emptying his net, \q killing nations without mercy, never stopping?