Habakkuk’s second complaint

12 Then I said, “Yahweh, you have certainly [RHQ] always/forever been God.

You are my Holy One; you will not die.

So why have you appointed those men from Babylonia to judge and get rid of us?

You are like [MET] a huge rock under which we are protected/safe,

so why have you sent them to punish us?

13 You [SYN] are pure, and you cannot endure looking at what is evil,

so why are you ignoring men who are treacherous?

Why do you do nothing

to punish those wicked men from Babylonia

who destroy people who are more righteous than they are?

14 Do you consider that we are like fish in the sea,

or like other creatures in the sea, that have no ruler?

15 The soldiers of Babylonia think that we are fish [RHQ] for them to pull out of the sea with hooks

or to catch in their nets,

while they rejoice and celebrate.

16 If they catch us, they will worship their weapons [MET] with which they captured us, and offer sacrifices to them

and burn incense in front of them!

They will say ‘Those weapons have enabled us to become rich and be able to eat expensive food.’

17 Will you allow them to continue to conquer people [MET] forever?

Will you allow them to destroy people of other nations without their being merciful to anyone?”

2 After I said that, I said to myself, “I will climb up into my watchtower,

and stand there at my guard post.

I will wait there to find out what Yahweh will say,

what he will reply to what I have complained about.”