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1. Habakkuk's Complaints

¹ The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

    ² How long, LORD, must I call for help,
   but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
   but you do not save?
³ Why do you make me look at injustice?
   Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
   there is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed,
   and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
   so that justice is perverted.

The LORD’s Answer

    ⁵ “Look at the nations and watch—
   and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
   that you would not believe,
   even if you were told.
⁶ I am raising up the Babylonians, Or Chaldeans
   that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
   to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷ They are a feared and dreaded people;
   they are a law to themselves
   and promote their own honor.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
   fiercer than wolves 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 hordes The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. advance like a desert wind
   and gather prisoners like sand.
¹⁰ They mock kings
   and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
   by building earthen ramps they capture them.
¹¹ Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
   guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

    ¹² LORD, are you not from everlasting?
   My God, my Holy One, you An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition; Masoretic Text we will never die.
You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment;
   you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
¹³ Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
   you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
   Why are you silent while the wicked
   swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
¹⁴ You have made people like the fish in the sea,
   like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
¹⁵ The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
   he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
   and so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
   and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
   and enjoys the choicest food.
¹⁷ Is he to keep on emptying his net,
   destroying nations without mercy?

This verse is added by the Prophet as an explanation; for it was not enough to speak generally of God’s work, without reminding them that their destruction by the Chaldeans was nigh at hand. He does not indeed in this verse explain what would be the character of that judgement which he had mentioned in the last verse Habakkuk 1:5; but he will do this in what follows. Now the Prophets differ from Moses in this respect, for they show, as it were by the finger, what he threatened generally, and they declare the special judgements of God; as it is indeed evident from the demonstrative adverb, “Behold.” How necessary this was, we may gather from the perverseness of that people; for how distinctly soever the Prophets showed to them God’s judgements, so that they saw them with their eyes, yet so great was their insensibility, that they despised denunciations so apparent. What, then, would have been done, if the Prophets had only said in general, ‘God will not spare you!’ This, then, is the reason why the Prophet, having spoken of God’s terrible vengeance, now declares in express terms, that the Chaldeans were already armed by Him to execute His judgement. The rest we leave for tomorrow.