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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 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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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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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?
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“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
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You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed! The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory.
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The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
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“Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
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Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”
