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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”

12 Aren’t you from everlasting, Yahweh my God,[a] my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish. 13 You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he, 14 and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15 He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good. 17 Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?

I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

Footnotes

  1. 1:12 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).