| Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1The pronouncement that the prophet Habakkuk saw. | 1This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision. Habakkuk’s Complaint |
| 2How long, LORD, must I call for help and you do not listen or cry out to you about violence and you do not save? | 2How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. |
| 3Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates. | 3Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. |
| 4This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted. | 4The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted. The LORD’s Reply |
| 5Look at the nations and observe--be utterly astounded! For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it. | 5The LORD replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. |
| 6Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter, impetuous nation that marches across the earth's open spaces to seize territories not its own. | 6I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. |
| 7They are fierce and terrifying; their views of justice and sovereignty stem from themselves. | 7They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. |
| 8Their horses are swifter than leopards and more fierce than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead; their horsemen come from distant lands. They fly like eagles, swooping to devour. | 8Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey. |
| 9All of them come to do violence; their faces are set in determination. They gather prisoners like sand. | 9“On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. |
| 10They mock kings, and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture it. | 10They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! |
| 11Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their strength is their god. | 11They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.” Habakkuk’s Second Complaint |
| 12Are you not from eternity, LORD my God? My Holy One, you will not die. LORD, you appointed them to execute judgment; my Rock, you destined them to punish us. | 12O LORD my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O LORD, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. |
| 13Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are you silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself? | 13But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they? |
| 14You have made mankind like the fish of the sea, like marine creatures that have no ruler. | 14Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader? |
| 15The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook, catch them in their dragnet, and gather them in their fishing net; that is why they are glad and rejoice. | 15Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate? |
| 16That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet and burn incense to their fishing net, for by these things their portion is rich and their food plentiful. | 16Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. “These nets are the gods who have made us rich!” they will claim. |
| 17Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy? | 17Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests? |
| The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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