Habakkuk asks how long the LORD will ignore violence and injustice in Judah. God says he is raising up the Babylonians, a fierce and dreaded nation. Habakkuk then asks how God can use a nation more wicked than Judah, and says he will wait for an answer.
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see .
2 O LORD , how long shall I cry , and thou wilt not hear ! even cry out unto thee of violence , and thou wilt not save !
3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity , and cause me to behold grievance ? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention .
4 Therefore the law is slacked , and judgment doth never go forth : for the wicked doth compass about the righteous ; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth .
5 Behold ye among the heathen , and regard , and wonder marvellously : for I will work a work in your days , which ye will not believe , though it be told you.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans , that bitter and hasty nation , which shall march through the breadth of the land , to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful : their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards , and are more fierce than the evening wolves : and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far ; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat .
9 They shall come all for violence : their faces shall sup up as the east wind , and they shall gather the captivity as the sand .
10 And they shall scoff at the kings , and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold ; for they shall heap dust , and take it.
11 Then shall his mind change , and he shall pass over , and offend , imputing this his power unto his god .
12 Art thou not from everlasting , O LORD my God , mine Holy One ? we shall not die . O LORD , thou hast ordained them for judgment ; and, O mighty God , thou hast established them for correction .
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil , and canst not look on iniquity : wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously , and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea , as the creeping things , that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with the angle , they catch them in their net , and gather them in their drag : therefore they rejoice and are glad .
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net , and burn incense unto their drag ; because by them their portion is fat , and their meat plenteous .
17 Shall they therefore empty their net , and not spare continually to slay the nations ?