Habakkuk 1:5-2:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 Look at the nations and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.(A)
6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.(B)
7 Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.(C)
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.(D)
9 They all come for violence,
with faces pressing[a] forward;
they gather captives like sand.(E)
10 At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress
and heap up earth to take it.(F)
11 Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!(G)
12 Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
You[b] shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.(H)
13 Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?(I)
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.(J)
15 He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his seine,
so he rejoices and exults.(K)
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine,
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and destroying nations without mercy?(L)
God’s Reply to the Prophet’s Complaint
2 I will stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me
and what he[c] will answer concerning my complaint.(M)
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.(N)
3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.(O)
4 Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faithfulness.(P)
5 Moreover, wealth[d] is treacherous;
the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves
and collect all peoples as their own.(Q)
The Woes of the Wicked
6 Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them,
“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?(R)
7 Will not your own creditors suddenly rise
and those who make you tremble wake up?
Then you will be plunder for them.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
all who survive of the peoples shall plunder you—
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who live in them.(S)
9 “Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
setting your nest on high
to be safe from the reach of harm!”(T)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.