Habakkuk 1:5-11
International Standard Version
God’s Response: The Coming Chaldean Invasion
5 “Look out at the nations and pay attention!
Be astounded! Be really astounded!
Because something is happening in your lifetime
that you won’t believe, even if it were described down to the smallest detail.[a]
6 Watch out! For I am bringing in the Chaldeans,[b]
that cruel and impetuous[c] people,
who sweep across the earth
dispossessing people[d] from homes not their own.
7 They are terrible and fearsome;
their brand of justice and sense of honor derive only from themselves!
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
and more cunning than wolves that attack at night.
Their horsemen are galloping
as they approach from far away.
They swoop in like ravenous vultures.[e]
9 “They all come to oppress—
hordes of them, their faces pressing onward—
they take prisoners as numerous as[f] the desert sand!
10 They make fun of kings,
deriding those who rule.
They laugh at all of the fortified places,
constructing ramps to seize them.
11 Then like[g] the wind sweeping by
they will pass through—
they’re guilty because they say[h] their power is their god.”
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 1:5 The Heb. lacks down to the smallest detail
- Habakkuk 1:6 I.e. Babylonian invaders
- Habakkuk 1:6 Or rash
- Habakkuk 1:6 The Heb. lacks people
- Habakkuk 1:8 Or eagles
- Habakkuk 1:9 The Heb. lacks as numerous as
- Habakkuk 1:11 The Heb. lacks like
- Habakkuk 1:11 The Heb. lacks they say
Habakkuk 1:5-11
Lexham English Bible
God’s Answer to Habakkuk
5 “Look among the nations and see;
be astonished and astounded.
For a work is about to be done in your days
that you will not believe if it is told.
6 For look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,
the bitter and impetuous nation,
the one who walks through the spacious places of earth
to take possession of dwellings not belonging to it.[a]
7 They[b] are dreadful and awesome;
their[c] justice and their[d] dignity proceed from themselves.[e]
8 Their[f] horses are more swift than leopards;
they are more menacing than wolves at dusk.
Their[g] horsemen gallop; their[h] horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle that is swift to devour.
9 All of them[i] come for violence,
their faces pressing forward.
They gather captives like the sand.
10 And they themselves scoff at kings
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortification,
and they heap up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep like the wind and pass on;
they become guilty, whose might is their[j] god!”
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 1:6 Or “him”
- Habakkuk 1:7 Hebrew “He”
- Habakkuk 1:7 Hebrew “his”
- Habakkuk 1:7 Hebrew “his”
- Habakkuk 1:7 Hebrew “him”
- Habakkuk 1:8 Hebrew “His”
- Habakkuk 1:8 Hebrew “His”
- Habakkuk 1:8 Hebrew “his”
- Habakkuk 1:9 Hebrew “him”
- Habakkuk 1:11 Hebrew “his”
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