Habakkuk’s First Complaint

1This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:

2How long, O LORD, must I call for help but You do not hear, or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save?

3Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.

4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

The LORD’s Answer

5“Look at the nations and observe— be utterly astounded! ⁰For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe
even if someone told you. ¹

6For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans ²— that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

7They are dreaded and feared; from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.

8Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.

9All of them come bent on violence; their hordes advance like the east wind;
they gather prisoners like sand.

10They scoff at kings and make rulers an object of scorn. They laugh at every fortress and build up siege ramps to seize it.

11Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their own strength is their god.”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One?
We will not die. O LORD, You have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, You have established them for correction.

13Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

14You have made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler.

15The foe pulls all of them up ³with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.

16Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.

17Will he, therefore, empty his net and continue to slay nations without mercy?