The prophecya that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

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

The Lord’s Answer

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.

10 They mock kings

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