¹ The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

² How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
³ Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
⁵ “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
⁶ I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷ They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
⁹ they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
¹⁰ They mock kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen ramps they capture them.
¹¹ Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
¹²  Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
¹³ Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
¹⁴ You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
¹⁵ The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
¹⁷ Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?