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Learning How to Trust God

This is the message that was given to Habakkuk the prophet.

Habakkuk Complains

Lord, I continue to ask for help.
    How long will you ignore me?
I cry out to you about violence,
    but you do not save us!
Why do you let me see wrong things?
    Why do you put up with evil?
People are destroying things and hurting others while I am looking.
    They are arguing and fighting.
People are not forced to obey the teachings.
    No one receives a fair trial.
Evil people gain while good people lose.
    The judges no longer make fair decisions.

The Lord Answers

“You and your people, look at the nations!
    Watch them and be amazed.
I will do something in your lifetime that will amaze you.
    You won’t believe it even when you are told about it.
I will use the Babylonian people to punish the evil people.
    The Babylonians are cruel and powerful fighters.
They march across the earth.
    They take lands that don’t belong to them.
The Babylonians frighten other people.
    They do what they want to do.
    They are good only to themselves.
Their horses are faster than leopards
    and more cruel than wolves at sunset.
Their horse soldiers attack quickly.
    They come from places that are far away.
They attack quickly, like an eagle swooping down for food.
    They all come to fight.
Their armies march quickly like a whirlwind in the desert.
    Their prisoners are as many as the grains of sand.
10 The Babylonian soldiers laugh at kings.
    They make fun of rulers.
They laugh at all the strong, walled cities.
    They build dirt roads up to the top of the walls.
    They capture the cities.
11 Then they leave like the wind and move on.
    They are guilty of worshiping their own strength.”

Habakkuk Complains Again

12 Lord, you are the Lord who lives forever.
    You are my God, my holy God.
    You will not let those who trust you die.
Lord, you have chosen the Babylonians to punish people.
    Our Rock, you created them to punish the people.
13 Your eyes are too good to look at evil.
    You cannot stand to see people do wrong.
So how can you put up with those evil people?
    How can you be quiet when wicked people defeat people who are better than they are?
14 You treat people like fish in the sea.
    You treat them like sea animals without a leader.
15 The enemy catches all of them with hooks.
    He catches them in his net.
He drags them in.
    He is glad that he has caught them.
16 The enemy offers sacrifices to his net.
    He burns incense to worship it.
This is because his net lets him live like a rich man.
    His net lets him enjoy the best food.
17 Will he keep on taking riches with his net?
    Will he go on destroying people without showing mercy?

The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you.

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not their's.

They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.

12 Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

以下是哈巴谷先知得到的启示。

哈巴谷的抱怨

耶和华啊,
我要向你呼救到何时,
你才垂听呢?
暴虐横行,我向你呼求,
你却不拯救。
你为何让我目睹罪恶?
你为何容忍邪恶?
我眼前尽是毁灭和暴力,
到处是纷争和冲突。
因此律法失效,
正义不彰,
恶人包围义人,
正义被扭曲。

耶和华的答复

耶和华说:“你们环顾列国,
仔细察看,
必惊奇不已,
因为我要在你们的时代行一件事,
即使你们听说了也不会相信。
我要使凶残、暴虐的迦勒底人兴起。
他们要席卷天下,
强占别人的家园。
他们任意妄为,
令人胆战心惊。

“他们的马比豹子还快,
比夜狼还猛。
他们的骑兵从远方飞驰而来,
如鹰扑食。
他们残暴成性,
像狂风一样扑来,
抓获的俘虏多如尘沙。
10 他们嘲笑君王,讥讽首领,
对一切坚城嗤之以鼻,
修筑高台将其攻取。
11 他们如狂风横扫而过,
这些有罪的人把自己的力量奉为神明。”

哈巴谷再次抱怨

12 耶和华,
我的上帝,我的圣者啊,
你从亘古就存在,
你永不消逝[a]
耶和华啊,你派迦勒底人来审判;
磐石啊,你立他们作施罚者。
13 你的眼目极为清洁,
见不得邪恶,
也不能容忍罪恶。
但你为何容忍奸恶之人呢?
恶人吞灭比他们公义的人,
你为何默然不语呢?

14 你为何使人像海里的鱼,
像没有首领的爬虫呢?
15 迦勒底人用钩子钩住他们,
用渔网网住他们,
用拖网把他们聚在一起,
并因此而欢喜快乐。
16 迦勒底人向渔网献祭,
向渔网烧香,
因为他们靠渔网而富裕,
食物充足。
17 难道他们要无休止地撒网,
无情地毁灭列国吗?

Footnotes

  1. 1:12 你永不消逝”另有希伯来文抄本作“我们不会死”。

The prophecy(A) that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

How long,(B) Lord, must I call for help,
    but you do not listen?(C)
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
    but you do not save?(D)
Why do you make me look at injustice?
    Why do you tolerate(E) wrongdoing?(F)
Destruction and violence(G) are before me;
    there is strife,(H) and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law(I) is paralyzed,
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
    so that justice(J) is perverted.(K)

The Lord’s Answer

“Look at the nations and watch—
    and be utterly amazed.(L)
For I am going to do something in your days
    that you would not believe,
    even if you were told.(M)
I am raising up the Babylonians,[a](N)
    that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth(O)
    to seize dwellings not their own.(P)
They are a feared and dreaded people;(Q)
    they are a law to themselves
    and promote their own honor.
Their horses are swifter(R) than leopards,
    fiercer than wolves(S) at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
    their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
    they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes[b] advance like a desert wind
    and gather prisoners(T) like sand.
10 They mock kings
    and scoff at rulers.(U)
They laugh at all fortified cities;
    by building earthen ramps(V) they capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind(W) and go on—
    guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”(X)

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12 Lord, are you not from everlasting?(Y)
    My God, my Holy One,(Z) you[c] will never die.(AA)
You, Lord, have appointed(AB) them to execute judgment;
    you, my Rock,(AC) have ordained them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure(AD) to look on evil;
    you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.(AE)
Why then do you tolerate(AF) the treacherous?(AG)
    Why are you silent while the wicked
    swallow up those more righteous than themselves?(AH)
14 You have made people like the fish in the sea,
    like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
15 The wicked(AI) foe pulls all of them up with hooks,(AJ)
    he catches them in his net,(AK)
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
    and so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and burns incense(AL) to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
    and enjoys the choicest food.
17 Is he to keep on emptying his net,
    destroying nations without mercy?(AM)

Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 1:6 Or Chaldeans
  2. Habakkuk 1:9 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  3. Habakkuk 1:12 An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition; Masoretic Text we