Habakkuk 1:3-11
New International Version
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate(A) wrongdoing?(B)
Destruction and violence(C) are before me;
there is strife,(D) and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law(E) is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice(F) is perverted.(G)
The Lord’s Answer
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.(H)
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.(I)
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,[a](J)
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth(K)
to seize dwellings not their own.(L)
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;(M)
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifter(N) than leopards,
fiercer than wolves(O) at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
9 they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes[b] advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners(P) like sand.
10 They mock kings
and scoff at rulers.(Q)
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen ramps(R) they capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind(S) and go on—
guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”(T)
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 1:6 Or Chaldeans
- Habakkuk 1:9 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
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