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The Prophet’s Second Complaint

12 “Haven’t you existed forever,
    Lord my God, my Holy One?
        We won’t die!
Lord, you’ve prepared them[a] for judgment;
    Rock, you’ve sentenced them[b] to correction.
13 Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil;
    and you cannot tolerate wickedness.
So why do you tolerate the treacherous?
    And why do you stay silent
        while the wicked devour those who are more righteous than they are?

14 “You have fashioned mankind like fish in the ocean,
    like creeping things that have no ruler.
15 The adversary[c] captures them with a hook,
    gathering them up in a fishing net.
He collects them with a dragnet,
    rejoicing and gloating over his catch.[d]
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his fishing net,
    and burns incense in the presence of his dragnet,
because by them his assets increase
    and he gets plenty of food.
17 Is he to continue to empty his fishing net?
    Will he ever stop killing entire[e] nations without mercy?”

Habakkuk Waits for God’s Answer

“I will stand at my guard post
and station myself on a tower.
I will wait and see what the Lord[f] will say about me
    and what I[g] will answer when he reprimands me.[h]

Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 1:12 I.e. the Babylonian invaders
  2. Habakkuk 1:12 I.e. the Babylonian invaders
  3. Habakkuk 1:15 I.e. the Babylonian invaders
  4. Habakkuk 1:15 The Heb. lacks over his catch
  5. Habakkuk 1:17 The Heb. lacks entire
  6. Habakkuk 2:1 The Heb. lacks the Lord
  7. Habakkuk 2:1 Syr he
  8. Habakkuk 2:1 Lit. answer at my reprimand

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12 Are you not from of old,
    O Yahweh my God, my Holy One?
    You[a] shall not die.
O Yahweh, you have marked them[b] for judgment;
    O Rock, you have established them[c] for reproof.
13 Your eyes are too pure to see evil,
    and you are not able to look at wrongdoing.[d]
Why do you look at the treacherous?
Why are you silent when the wicked swallows up
    someone more righteous than him?
14 You make humankind like fish of the sea,
    like crawling creatures that have no ruler among them.
15 He brings up all of them with a fishhook;
    he drags them up with a fishnet;
he gathers them in his dragnet.
    Therefore, he rejoices and exults.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his fishnet
    and makes offerings to his dragnet,
for by them he makes a good living[e]
    and his food is rich.
17 Will he therefore empty his fishnet
    and continually kill nations without showing mercy?

The Righteous Will Live by Faith

I will stand at my post,
    and station myself on the rampart.
And I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
    and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 1:12 Hebrew “we shall not die,” considered a deliberate scribal change of the text to avoid offensive language toward Yahweh
  2. Habakkuk 1:12 Hebrew “him”
  3. Habakkuk 1:12 Hebrew “him”
  4. Habakkuk 1:13 Or “trouble”
  5. Habakkuk 1:16 Literally “his portion is fat”