| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. | 1This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision. Habakkuk’s Complaint |
| 2O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will 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 make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. | 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. |
| 4So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth 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 |
| 5“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. | 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. |
| 6For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. | 6I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. |
| 7They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. | 7They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. |
| 8Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift 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. |
| 9They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. | 9“On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. |
| 10At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take 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 go on, guilty men, whose own might 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 everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. | 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. |
| 13You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? | 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 make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. | 14Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader? |
| 15He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. | 15Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate? |
| 16Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. | 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. |
| 17Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever? | 17Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests? |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | 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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