Habakkuk
1 A pronouncement that Ha·bakʹkuk* the prophet received in a vision:
2 How long, O Jehovah, must I cry for help, but you do not hear?+
How long must I ask for help from violence, but you do not intervene?*+
3 Why do you make me witness wrongdoing?
And why do you tolerate oppression?
Why are destruction and violence before me?
And why do quarreling and conflict abound?
4 So law is paralyzed,
And justice is never carried out.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
That is why justice is perverted.+
5 “Look among the nations and pay attention!
Stare in amazement and be astounded;
For something will happen in your days
That you will not believe even if it is told to you.+
They sweep through vast stretches of the earth
To seize homes not theirs.+
7 They are frightening and fearsome.
They establish their own justice and authority.*+
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
And they are fiercer than wolves in the night.+
Their warhorses gallop forward;
Their horses come from far away.
They swoop down like the eagle rushing to feed.+
9 All of them come bent on violence.+
The assembling of their faces is like the east wind,+
And they scoop up captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings
And laugh at high officials.+
They laugh at every fortified place;+
They pile up a dirt ramp and capture it.
11 Then they move forward like the wind and pass through,
But they will become guilty,+
12 Are you not from everlasting, O Jehovah?+
O my God, my Holy One, you do not die.*+
Why, then, do you tolerate the treacherous+
And keep silent when a wicked man swallows up someone more righteous than he is?+
14 Why do you make man like the fish of the sea,
Like creeping things that have no ruler?
15 All of these he* hauls up with a fishhook.
He catches them in his dragnet,
And he gathers them in his fishing net.
That is why he rejoices greatly.+
16 That is why he offers sacrifices to his dragnet
And makes sacrifices* to his fishing net;
For by them his portion is rich,*
And his food is choice.
17 Will he then keep emptying out his dragnet?*
Will he go on slaughtering nations without compassion?+