1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 Yahweh, how
long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will
you not save? 3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For
destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises
up. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for
the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5 “Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am
working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is
told you. 6 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty
nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling
places that are not theirs. 7 They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment
and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter
than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen
press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle
that hurries to devour. 9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face
the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand. 10 Yes, he scoffs at kings,
and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he
builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it. 11 Then he sweeps by like the
wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god.”
12 Aren’t you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will
not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have
established him to punish. 13 You who have purer eyes than to see evil,
and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal
treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is
more righteous than he, 14 and make men like the fish of the sea, like the
creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15 He takes up all of them
with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet.
Therefore he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net,
and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and
his food is good. 17 Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill
the nations without mercy?
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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