Habakkuk 1:12-2:5

English Standard Version

Habakkuk's Second Complaint

¹²Are you not ^(A)from everlasting,
    O Lord my God, my Holy One?
    ^(B)We shall not die.
O Lord, ^(C)you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O ^(D)Rock, have established them for reproof.
¹³You who are ^(E)of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
^(F)why do you idly look at traitors
    and ^(G)remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
¹⁵^(H)He^[a] brings all of them up ^(I)with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
    so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶^(J)Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,^[b]
    and his food is rich.
¹⁷Is he then to keep on emptying his net
    ^(K)and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2 I will ^(L)take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and ^(M)look out to see ^(N)what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

²And the Lord answered me:

^(O)“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
³For still ^(P)the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, ^(Q)wait for it;
    ^(R)it will surely come; it will not delay.

⁴“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but ^(S)the righteous shall live by his faith.^[c]

⁵“Moreover, wine^[d] is ^(T)a traitor,
    an arrogant man who is never at rest.^[e]
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
    like death ^(U)he has never enough.
^(V)He gathers for himself all nations
    and collects as his own all peoples.”