Habakkuk's Question

1The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

2O LORD, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear! even cry out unto you of violence, and you will not save!

3Why do you show me iniquity, and cause me to behold trouble? for plundering and violence are before me: and there are those that raise up strife and contention.

4Therefore the law is slacked, and justice does never go forth: for the wicked does surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

The LORD'S Answer

5Behold you among the nations, and regard, and wonder and be astonished: for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you.

6For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

7They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed from themselves.

8Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen press proudly on, their horsemen shall come from afar; they shall fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.

9They shall all come for violence: their faces are set like the east wind, and they shall gather captives as the sand.

10And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap up earth, and take it.

11Then shall his mind change, and he shall transgress, and offend, ascribing this his power unto his god.

Habakkuk's Second Question

12Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, you have established them for correction.

13You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look on iniquity: why do you look upon them that deal treacherously, and hold your tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he?

14And make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

15They take up all of them with the hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their dragnet; because by them their portion is luxurious, and their food plentiful.

17Shall they therefore empty their net, and continually slay the nations without mercy?