Habakkuk’s Complaint

• 2 and you will not listen?
• How long will I cry out to you, “Violence!”
  • and you will not save?
  • 3  while you look at trouble?
• Destruction and violence happen before me;
  • contention and strife arise.
  • 4  and justice does not go forth perpetually.[fn]
• For the wicked surround the righteous;
  • therefore justice goes forth perverted.

God’s Answer to Habakkuk

• 5 be astonished and astounded.
• For a work is about to be done in your days
  • that you will not believe if it is told.
  • 6  the bitter and impetuous nation,
• the one who walks through the spacious places of earth
  • to take possession of dwellings not belonging to it.[fn]
  • 7 [fn] are dreadful and awesome; their[fn] justice and their[fn] dignity proceed from themselves.[fn]
  • 8 [fn] horses are more swift than leopards; they are more menacing than wolves at dusk.
• Their[fn] horsemen gallop; their[fn] horsemen come from afar;
  • they fly like an eagle that is swift to devour.
  • 9 [fn] come for violence, their faces pressing forward.
  • They gather captives like the sand.
  • 10  and rulers are a joke to them.
• They laugh at every fortification,
  • and they heap up earth and take it.
  • 11 like the wind and pass on; they become guilty, whose might is their[fn] god!”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

• 12 O Yahweh my God, my Holy One?
• You[fn] shall not die.
• O Yahweh, you have marked them[fn] for judgment;
  • O Rock, you have established them[fn] for reproof.
  • 13 are too pure to see evil, and you are not able to look at wrongdoing.[fn]
• Why do you look at the treacherous?
• Why are you silent when the wicked swallows up
  • someone more righteous than him?
  • 14  like crawling creatures that have no ruler among them.
  • 15  he drags them up with a fishnet;
• he gathers them in his dragnet.
  • Therefore, he rejoices and exults.
  • 16  and makes offerings to his dragnet,
• for by them[fn]
  • and his food is rich.
  • 17  and continually kill nations without showing mercy?

The Righteous Will Live by Faith

• and station myself on the rampart.
• And I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
  • and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
• 2  “Write the vision and make it plain on the tablet
  • so that[fn]
  • 3 there is yet a vision for the appointed time; it will give witness to the end, and it will not lie.
• If it tarries, wait for it,
  • for it will surely come and not delay.
  • 4  it is not upright.
  • But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness.
  • 5 [fn] the defiant;[fn] the arrogant, treacherous man?
• He who broadens his throat like Sheol,
  • and who, like death, is not satisfied,
• and who gathers to himself all the nations,
  • and harvested for himself all the peoples,
  • will not succeed.
  • 6  with ridicule and riddles against him, saying,
• ‘Woe to him who heaps up what is not his’?
  • For how long?
  • And, ‘ Woe to him who makes himself heavy with pledges’?
  • 7  and awaken those who make you tremble?
  • Then you shall be as plunder for them.
  • 8  all the remaining nations will plunder you
• on account of the blood of humanity
  • and violence against the land,
  • and against cities and all who live in them.
  • 9 him who obtains profit from evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high,
  • to be saved from the hand of misfortune!
  • 10  cutting off many peoples
  • and sinning against your life.
  • 11  and the plaster from the wood will answer it.
  • 12 him who builds a city by bloodguilt, and who founds a city by wickedness!
  • 13 Is it not from Yahweh of hosts that people labor for mere fire,
  • and nations exhaust themselves for mere vanity?
  • 14  with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,
  • like the waters covering the sea.
  • 15 him who gives a drink to his neighbors, pouring out your wrath and also making them drunk
  • in order to see their nakedness!
  • 16  Drink also yourself, and expose yourself!
• The cup of the right hand of Yahweh
  • will come around upon you
  • and disgrace upon your glory.
  • 17 the violence of Lebanon will cover you, and the destruction of wild animals will shatter them
• on account of the blood of humanity,
  • and the violence against the land,
  • against a city and all the inhabitants in it.
  • 18 is an idol when its carver has fashioned it,
  • a molten idol, a teacher of lies?
• For he who fashioned his creation trusts in it,
  • though making mute idols!
  • 19 him who says to the wood, ‘Wake up!’ And to a lifeless stone, ‘Arise!’
  • Can he teach?
• Look, it is covered with gold and silver,
  • and there is no breath within it.
  • 20 is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”

The Prayer of Habakkuk

• 2 O Yahweh, I stand in awe of your works.
• In the midst of the years, revive it!
  • In the midst of the years, make it known!
  • In wrath, may you remember to show compassion.
  • 3  the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
• His splendor covers the heavens,
  • and his praise fills the earth.
  • 4 the light; flashing rays came from his hand for him;
  • And there is the covering of his strength.
  • 5 [fn] and Pestilence[fn] went out at his feet.
  • 6  he looked and made the nations tremble.
• Then the mountains of old were shattered;
  • the hills of old collapsed.
  • The ways of old belong to him.
  • 7  the tent curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
  • 8  Was your wrath against the rivers,
  • or your fury against the sea,
• when you mounted upon your horses,
  • upon your victory chariot?
  • 9  swearing oaths with the arrows of your word.
  • You split the earth with rivers.
  • 10 When the mountains saw you they writhed; a torrent of waters swept by;
• the deep gave its voice;
  • it raised its hands on high.
  • 11 and moon stood still in their place; at the light of your arrows they moved about;
  • at the gleam of the flashing of your spear.
  • 12 the earth; in anger you trampled the nations.
  • 13  for the salvation of your anointed.
• You crushed the head of the house of wickedness,
  • laying bare from the foundation to the top.[fn]
  • 14 they came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
  • their exultation like one who devours the afflicted in ambush.
  • 15 with your horses, the churning of many waters.
  • 16  my lips quiver at the sound;
• infection enters my bones;
  • that which is beneath me trembles;
• I wait quietly for the day of trouble
  • to come upon the people attacking us.
  • 17 does not blossom, nor there be fruit on the vines;
• the yield of the olive tree fails,
  • and the cultivated fields do not yield food;
• the flock is cut off from the animal pen,
  • and there is no cattle in the stalls,
  • 18  I will exult in the God of my salvation.
  • 19 is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer;
  • he causes me to walk on my high places.
• To the choirmaster with stringed instruments.