Habakkuk 1:1–11

This is the message Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk Complains

²Lord, how long must I ask for help

and you ignore me?

I cry out to you about violence,

but you do not save us!

³Why do you make me see wrong things

and make me look at trouble?

People are destroying things and hurting others in front of me;

they are arguing and fighting.

⁴So the teachings are weak,

and justice never comes.

Evil people gain while good people lose;

the judges no longer make fair decisions.

The Lord Answers

⁵“Look at the nations!

Watch them and be amazed and shocked.

I will do something in your lifetime

that you won’t believe even when you are told about it.

⁶I will use the Babylonians,

those cruel and wild people

who march across the earth

and take lands that don’t belong to them.

⁷They scare and frighten people.

They do what they want to do

and are good only to themselves.

⁸Their horses are faster than leopards

and quicker than wolves at sunset.

Their horse soldiers attack quickly;

they come from places far away.

They attack quickly, like an eagle swooping down for food.

⁹They all come to fight.

Nothing can stop them.

Their prisoners are as many as the grains of sand.

¹⁰They laugh at kings

and make fun of rulers.

They laugh at all the strong, walled cities

and build dirt piles to the top of the walls to capture them.

¹¹Then they leave like the wind and move on.

They are guilty of worshiping their own strength.”