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Habakkuk’s Complaint
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
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Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
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Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
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The Lord’s Answer
“Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
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I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.
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They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.
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they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.
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Then they sweep past like the wind and go on— guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”
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Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
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Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
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You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
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The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad.
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Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.
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Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?
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I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
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The Lord’s Answer
Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
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For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
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“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—
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indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.
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“Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’
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Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey.
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Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
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The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.
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“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice!
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Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
