[1] The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. [2] LORD, how long will I call for help and you not listen? I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you don’t deliver us. [3] Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish so that devastation and violence are before me? There is strife, and conflict abounds. [4] The Instruction is ineffective. Justice does not endure because the wicked surround the righteous. Justice becomes warped. [5] Look among the nations and watch! Be astonished and stare because something is happening in your days that you wouldn’t believe even if told. [6] I am about to rouse the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which travels throughout the earth to possess dwelling places it does not own. [7] The Chaldean is dreadful and fearful. He makes his own justice and dignity. [8] His horses are faster than leopards; they are quicker than wolves of the evening. His horsemen charge forward; his horsemen come from far away. They fly in to devour, swiftly, like an eagle. [9] They come for violence, the horde with all their faces set toward the desert. He takes captives like sand. [10] He makes fun of kings; rulers are ridiculous to him. He laughs at every fortress, then he piles up dirt and takes it. [11] He passes through like the wind and invades; but he will be held guilty, the one whose strength is his god. [12] LORD, aren’t you ancient, my God, my holy one? Don’t let us die. LORD, you put the Chaldean here for judgment. Rock, you established him as a rebuke. [13] Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you are unable to look at disaster. Why would you look at the treacherous or keep silent when the wicked swallows one who is more righteous? [14] You made humans like the fish of the sea, like creeping things with no one to rule over them. [15] The Chaldean brings all of them up with a fishhook. He drags them away with a net; he collects them in his fishing net, then he rejoices and celebrates. [16] Therefore, he sacrifices to his net; he burns incense to his fishing nets, because due to them his portion grows fat and his food becomes luxurious. [17] Should he continue to empty his net and continue to slay nations without sparing them?
