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Yahweh Has Placed Them to Judge

12 Are You not from (A)everlasting,
O Yahweh, my God, my Holy One?
We will not die.
You, O Yahweh, have (B)placed them to judge;
And You, O (C)Rock, have established them to reprove.
13 Your eyes are too (D)pure to see evil,
And You cannot look on trouble.
Why do You (E)look
On those who deal (F)treacherously?
Why are You (G)silent when the wicked (H)swallow up
Those more righteous than they?
14 And You have made men like the fish of the sea,
Like creeping things without a ruler over them.
15 The Chaldeans (I)bring all of them up with a hook,
(J)Drag them away with their net,
And gather them together in their fishing net.
Therefore they are glad and rejoice.
16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net
And [a]burn incense to their fishing net
Because through (K)these things their portion is rich
And their food is fat.
17 Will they therefore empty their (L)net
And continually (M)kill nations without sparing?

The Righteous Will Live by His Faith

I will (N)stand on my guard post
And station myself on the fortification;
And I will (O)keep watch to see (P)what He will speak to me
And how I may respond [b]when I am reproved.

Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 1:16 Or sacrifice
  2. Habakkuk 2:1 Lit upon my reproof

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