Habakkuk 1:5-11

The Voice

⁵ Eternal One: Take a look at the nations and watch what happens!
        You will be shocked and amazed.
    For in your days, I am doing a work,
        a work you will never believe even if someone tells you plainly!^[a]
6     Look! I am provoking and raising up the bitter and thieving Babylonian warriors from Chaldea;
        they are moving out across the earth
    And seizing others’ homes and property in their path.

⁷ That nation is terrifying people, is feared by everyone.
    It makes the rules and serves only its own interests.
⁸ Babylonia’s horses run faster than leopards,
    are fiercer than wolves when the sun goes down.
Its horsemen rush ahead with deadly force, galloping great distances;
    the troops swoop down like eagles ready to devour,
⁹ And Babylonia keeps on coming, hungry for violence.
    Hordes of determined faces are on the move like a hot east wind,
Scooping up captives like sand.
¹⁰ Their leader mocks kings and ridicules those in authority.
    He laughs at every fortress
And builds ramps of dirt against their walls to capture it.
¹¹ He blows through like the wind and then presses on to the next attack.
    For their king, his god is his strength, but he will be held responsible.