Habakkuk 1

1 This is the message that Habakkuk saw in vision.

The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

2 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.

Jehovah, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto thee, Violence! and thou dost not save.

3 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!

Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.

4 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.

Therefore the law is powerless, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked encompasseth the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted.

5 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.

See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for [I] work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared [to you].

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

For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marcheth through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.

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

They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.

8 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.

And their horses are swifter than the leopards, and are more agile than the evening wolves; and their horsemen prance proudly, and their horsemen come from afar: they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour.

9 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.

They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.

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

Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a scorn unto him; he derideth every stronghold: for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it.

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

Then will his mind change, and he will pass on, and become guilty: this his power is become his god.

12 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.

— Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction.

13 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?

[Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on mischief: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [and] keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a [man] more righteous than he?

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

And thou makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them.

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

He taketh up all of them with the hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag; therefore he rejoiceth and is glad:

16 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.

therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty.

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

Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?