2 O Yahweh, how long shall I cry for help

and you will not listen?

How long will I cry out to you, “Violence!”

and you will not save?

3 Why do you cause me to see evil

while you look at trouble?

Destruction and violence happen before me;

contention and strife arise.

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice does not go forth perpetually.a

For the wicked surround the righteous;

therefore justice goes forth perverted.

God’s Answer to Habakkuk

5 “Look among the nations and see;

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 For look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,

the bitter and impetuous nation,

the one who walks through the spacious places of earth

to take possession of dwellings not belonging to it.b

7 Theyc are dreadful and awesome;

theird justice and theire dignity proceed from themselves.f

8 Theirg horses are more swift than leopards;

they are more menacing than wolves at dusk.

Theirh horsemen gallop; theiri horsemen come from afar;

they fly like an eagle that is swift to devour.

9 All of themj come for violence,

their faces pressing forward.

They gather captives like the sand.

10 And they themselves scoff at kings

and rulers are a joke to them.

They laugh at every fortification,

and they heap up earth and take it.

11 Then they sweep like the wind and pass on;

they become guilty, whose might is theirk god!”