Habakkuk 1:1–11
The prophecya that Habakkuk the prophet received.
2 How long,b Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?c
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?d
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you toleratee wrongdoing?f
Destruction and violenceg are before me;
there is strife,h and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the lawi is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justicej is perverted.k
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.l
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.m
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,a n
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole eartho
to seize dwellings not their own.p
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;q
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifterr than leopards,
fiercer than wolvess at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
9 they all come intent on violence.
Their hordesb advance like a desert wind
and gather prisonerst like sand.
and scoff at rulers.u
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen rampsv they capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the windw and go on—
guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”x