1The pronouncement that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
Habakkuk’s First Prayer
2How long, Lord, must I call for help
and you do not listen
or cry out to you about violence
and you do not save?
3Why do you force me to look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.
4This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous;
therefore, justice comes out perverted.
God’s First Answer
5Look at the nations and observe —
be utterly astounded!
For I am doing something in your days
that you will not believe
when you hear about it.
6Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter, impetuous nation
that marches across the earth’s open spaces
to seize territories not its own.
7They are fierce and terrifying;
their views of justice and sovereignty
stem from themselves.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards
and more fierce than wolves of the night.
Their horsemen charge ahead;
their horsemen come from distant lands.
They fly like eagles, swooping to devour.
9All of them come to do violence;
their faces are set in determination.
They gather prisoners like sand.
10They mock kings,
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortress
and build siege ramps to capture it.
11Then they sweep by like the wind
and pass through.
They are guilty; their strength is their god.
Habakkuk’s Second Prayer
12Are you not from eternity, Lord my God?
My Holy One, you will not die.
Lord, you appointed them to execute judgment;
my Rock, you destined them to punish us.
13Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous?
Why are you silent
while one who is wicked swallows up
one who is more righteous than himself?
14You have made mankind
like the fish of the sea,
like marine creatures that have no ruler.
15The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook,
catch them in their dragnet,
and gather them in their fishing net;
that is why they are glad and rejoice.
16That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet
and burn incense to their fishing net,
for by these things their portion is rich
and their food plentiful.
17Will they therefore empty their net
and continually slaughter nations without mercy?