Habakkuk 1–3

1ST CHAPTER

Habakkuk’s Vision

¹The divine revelation that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 

Habakkuk’s Question

²How long, O Lord, am I to cry for help, 

but you will not listen? 

I cry out to you, “There’s violence!” 

yet you will not come to the rescue. 

³Why do you make me see wrongdoing? 

And why do you watch wickedness? 

Destruction and violence are in front of me. 

Quarrels and disputes arise. 

⁴That is why your teaching is numbed, 

and justice is never carried out. 

Wicked people surround righteous people 

so that when justice is carried out, it’s perverted. 

The Lord’s Answer

⁵Look among the nations and watch. 

Be amazed and astonished. 

I am going to do something in your days 

that you would not believe even if it were reported to you. 

⁶I am going to send the Babylonians, 

that fierce and reckless nation. 

They will march throughout the earth 

to take possession of lands that don’t belong to them. 

⁷They will be terrifying and fearsome. 

They will carry out their own kind of justice and honor. 

⁸Their horses will be faster than leopards 

and quicker than wolves in the evening. 

Their riders will gallop along proudly. 

Their riders will come from far away. 

They will fly like an eagle that swoops down for its prey. 

⁹They will all come for violence. 

Every face will be directed forward. 

They will gather prisoners like sand. 

¹⁰They will make fun of kings and treat rulers as a joke. 

They will laugh at every fortified city 

and build a dirt ramp to capture it. 

¹¹They will move quickly and pass through like the wind. 

So they will be guilty, 

because their own strength is their god. 

Habakkuk’s Question

¹²Didn’t you exist before time began, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? 

We will not die! 

O Lord, you have appointed the Babylonians to bring judgment. 

O Rock, you have destined them to correct us. 

¹³Your eyes are too pure to look at evil. 

You can’t watch wickedness. 

Why do you keep watching treacherous people? 

Why are you silent when wicked people swallow those 

who are more righteous than they are? 

¹⁴You make all people like the fish in the sea, 

like schools of sea life that have no ruler. 

¹⁵The Babylonians pull them all up with fishhooks, 

drag them away in nets, 

and gather them in dragnets. 

So they rejoice and are happy. 

¹⁶That is why they sacrifice to their nets and burn incense to their dragnets. 

They are rich and well fed because of them. 

¹⁷Will they keep on emptying their nets 

and always kill nations without mercy? 

2ND CHAPTER

Habakkuk Waits for the Lord’s Answer

¹I will stand at my guard post. 

I will station myself on the wall. 

I will watch to see what he will say to me 

and what answer I will get to my complaint. 

The Lord’s Answer

²Then the Lord answered me, 

“Write the vision. 

Make it clear on tablets 

so that anyone can read it quickly. 

³The vision will still happen at the appointed time. 

It hurries toward its goal. 

It won’t be a lie. 

If it’s delayed, wait for it. 

It will certainly happen. 

It won’t be late. 

⁴“Look at the proud person. He is not right in himself. 

But the righteous person will live because of his faithfulness.^a

⁵Also because wine is treacherous 

he is arrogant and never rests. 

He has a large appetite like the grave. 

He is like death—never satisfied. 

He gathers all the nations to himself. 

He collects all the people to himself. 

⁶Won’t all of them ridicule him, 

directing clever sayings and riddles at him, like: 

“ ‘How horrible it will be for the one who makes himself rich 

with what is not his own 

and makes himself wealthy on loans. 

How long will this go on?’ 

⁷Won’t your creditors suddenly rise up 

and those who are going to shake you wake up? 

Then you will become their prize. 

⁸You have looted many nations. 

All the rest of the people will loot you 

because of the slaughter and violence done 

to lands, cities, and all their inhabitants. 

⁹“ ‘How horrible it will be for the one who uses violence 

to get things for his own household 

in order to set his nest up high 

and save himself from disaster.’ 

¹⁰You have planned disgrace for your household 

by cutting off many people and forfeiting your own life. 

¹¹A stone in the wall will cry out. 

A beam in the roof will answer it. 

¹²“ ‘How horrible it will be for the one who builds a city by slaughter 

and founds a town by crime.’ 

¹³Isn’t it from the Lord of Armies 

that people grow tired only to feed the flames 

and nations exhaust themselves for nothing? 

¹⁴But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory 

like the water covers the sea. 

¹⁵“ ‘How horrible it will be for the one who makes his neighbor drink 

from the bowl of God’s rage, 

making him drunk in order to stare at his nakedness.’ 

¹⁶You are filled with disgrace rather than glory. 

Drink! Yes you! And expose yourself as godless. 

The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, 

and disgrace will cover your glory. 

¹⁷The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, 

and the destruction done to the animals will terrify you 

because of the slaughter and violence done 

to lands, cities, and all their inhabitants. 

¹⁸“What benefit is there in a carved idol 

when its maker has carved it? 

What benefit is there in a molded statue, a teacher of lies, 

when its maker has molded it? 

The one who formed it trusts himself 

to make worthless idols that cannot speak. 

¹⁹‘How horrible it will be for the one 

who says to a piece of wood, “Wake up!” 

and to a stone that cannot talk, “Get up!” ’ 

Can that thing teach ⸤anyone⸥? 

Just look at it! 

It’s covered with gold and silver, 

but there’s absolutely no life in it.” 

²⁰The Lord is in his holy temple. 

All the earth should be silent in his presence. 

3RD CHAPTER

A Psalm

¹A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk; according to shigionoth.^a

²Lord, I have heard the report about you. 

Lord, I fear your work. 

In the course of the years, renew it. 

In the course of the years, reveal it. 

In all this chaos, remember to be merciful. 

³God comes from Teman. 

The Holy One comes from Mount Paran. 

Selah 

His splendor covers the heavens. 

His praise fills the earth. 

⁴His brightness is like the sunlight. 

Rays of light ⸤stream⸥ from his hand. 

That is where his power is hidden. 

⁵Diseases go ahead of him. 

Plagues follow after him. 

⁶He stands and shakes the earth. 

He casts a glance and startles the nations. 

The oldest mountains break apart. 

The ancient hills sink. 

The ancient paths belong to him. 

⁷I see trouble in the tents of Cushan. 

I see trembling in the tents of Midian. 

⁸The Lord is not angry with the rivers, is he? 

If you are angry with the rivers, 

if you are furious with the sea, 

⸤why⸥ do you ride your horses, 

your chariots of salvation? 

⁹You get your bow ready for action, 

for the arrows ⸤you⸥ promised. 

Selah 

You split the land with rivers. 

¹⁰The mountains look at you. They writhe in pain. 

Floodwaters pass by. 

The deep ocean roars. Its waves rise up high. 

¹¹The sun and the moon stand still. 

They scatter at the light of your arrows, 

at the bright lightning of your spear. 

¹²You march through the earth with fury. 

You trample the nations in anger. 

¹³You go out to save your people, 

to save your anointed.^b

You crush the leader of the wicked household, 

stripping him bare from head to toe. 

Selah 

¹⁴You pierce the leader of his gang with his own arrows. 

His soldiers come like a violent storm to scatter me. 

They are arrogant like those who secretly eat up the poor. 

¹⁵You march with your horses into the sea, 

into the mighty raging waters. 

¹⁶I have heard, so there’s trembling within me. 

At the report my lips quivered. 

A rotten feeling has entered me. 

I tremble where I stand. 

I wait for the day of trouble 

to come to the people who will attack us. 

¹⁷Even if the fig tree does not bloom 

and the vines have no grapes, 

even if the olive tree fails to produce 

and the fields yield no food, 

even if the sheep pen is empty 

and the stalls have no cattle— 

¹⁸even then, 

I will be happy with the Lord. 

I will truly find joy in God, who saves me. 

¹⁹The Lord Almighty is my strength. 

He makes my feet like those of a deer. 

He makes me walk on the mountains. 

For the choir director; on stringed instruments.