Habakkuk 1

1 The revelation which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

This is the message that Habakkuk saw in vision.

2 LORD, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save?

Lord, how long do I have to cry out for help and you don't listen? I cry out, “Violence!” but you don't save us from it.

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.

Why do you force me to see this wickedness and suffering? Why do you just observe such destruction and violence? Arguments and fighting happen right in front of me!

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

As a result the law is paralyzed, and justice never wins. The wicked crowd out those who do right so that the course of justice is 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.

Look around at the nations, watch and be surprised and amazed. Something is going to happen in your time that you wouldn't believe even if you were told.

6 For, behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

Watch! I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and brutal people who will march across the world to seize other lands.

7 They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.

They are fearsome and terrifying, and so proud of themselves that they set their own rules.

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.

Their horses are faster than leopards and fiercer than hungry wolves. Their cavalry charges, racing in from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to eat their prey.

9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face forward. They gather prisoners like sand.

Here they come, all intent on violence. Their armies advance in frontal assault as rapidly as the desert wind, capturing so many prisoners they are like sand.

10 Yes, they scoff at kings, and princes are a derision to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they build up an earthen ramp and take it.

They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh in scorn at fortresses—they pile up earth ramps and capture them.

11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. They are indeed guilty, whose strength is their god.”

Then they sweep on by like the wind and are gone. They are guilty because their own strength is their god.

12 Are not you from everlasting, LORD my God, my Holy One? We will not die. LORD, you have appointed them for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish.

Haven't you existed from eternity past? You are Lord my God, my Holy One, you do not die. Lord, you appointed them to execute judgment; God our Rock, you sent them to punish us.

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,

Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil; you cannot stand the sight of wrong. So why do you put up with untrustworthy people? Why are you silent when the wicked destroy those who do less evil than they do?

14 and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things that have no ruler over them?

You make people become like fish in the sea, or like crawling insects, that have no ruler.

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.

They drag everyone up with hooks, they pull them out with nets, catching them in dragnets. Then they happily celebrate.

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.

They worship their nets as if they were gods, making sacrifices and burning incense to them, because by their nets they live in luxury, eating rich food.

17 Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?

Will they keep on unsheathing their swords forever, killing nations without mercy?