Habakkuk
Chapter 1 of 3
1The burden that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2How long, O LORD, will we cry out, and you will not hear us? We cry to you when we are oppressed, and you do not save us. 3Why then have you shown us toil and trouble, so that I look on misery and ruin? Strife is before me, and the judge takes bribes. 4Because of this they have broken your law, and just judgment does not go out, for the wicked oppress the righteous. Because of this, crooked judgment goes out. 5Look then, you scoffers! Watch and be amazed, marvel and perish, for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe even if someone told you. 6Look, I am sending against you the Persians, a warlike people, bitter and swift, who march across the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings that are not their own. 7Their appearance is terrible. Their own judgment comes from themselves, and their burden goes out from them. 8Their horses leap like leopards and are swifter than the wolves of Arabia. Their horsemen swoop like an eagle that hurries to devour, and they come from far away. 9Destruction comes on the wicked who stand against them face to face, and they gather captives like sand. 10He reigns over them and is insolent toward them. Mighty men are his sport. He laughs at all their fortresses, heaps up earth over them and takes them. 11Then his spirit changes, and he passes by and escapes. This is the power of my God. 12Are you not from the beginning, O LORD my God, my Holy One, who does not die? O LORD, you have appointed him for judgment, and you sent me to rebuke by his correction. 13Your eye is too pure to look on evil, trouble and pain. Why then are you silent while you watch those who do evil, and the wicked swallows up the righteous? 14You make people like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler. 15He brings him up with his hook to destroy him, drags him off in his net, and gathers him in his dragnet. 16So his heart rejoices; so he sacrifices to his hook and burns incense to his net, for through them his portion is made rich and his food is choice. 17So he keeps casting his net, and he never stops killing the nations and shows them no mercy. ‹
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Habakkuk · Chapter 1 of 3