Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk's Complaint

1 a The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 O Lord, b how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you c "Violence!"
and you will not save?
3 d Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction c and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 e So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
f For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.

The Lord's Answer

5 g "Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
h For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, i I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
j who march through the breadth of the earth,
k to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
l their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 m Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than n the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
o they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come p for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives r like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
s They laugh at every fortress,
for t they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
u guilty men, v whose own might is their god!"

Habakkuk's Second Complaint

12 Are you not w from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
x We shall not die.
O Lord, y you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O z Rock, have established them for reproof.
13 You who are a of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
b why do you idly look at traitors
and c remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 d He brings all of them up e with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
16 f Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury, 1
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
g and mercilessly killing nations forever?

  1. Cross References
    Nahum 1:1
    An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
  2. Cross References
    Psalms 13:1
    How long, O Lord ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
    Psalms 89:46
    How long, O Lord ? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?
  3. Cross References
    Micah 6:12
    Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
  4. Cross References
    Jeremiah 9:2 - 6
    Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.
  5. Cross References
    Habakkuk 1:2
    O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?
  6. Cross References
    Micah 7:3
    Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together.
  7. Cross References
    Job 21:7
    Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
    Jeremiah 12:1
    Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
  8. Cross References
    Acts 13:41
    "'Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.'"
  9. Cross References
    Isaiah 28:21
    For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed - strange is his deed! and to work his work - alien is his work!
    Isaiah 29:14
    Therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.
  10. Cross References
    Jeremiah 5:15
    Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.
  11. Cross References
    Habakkuk 2:5
    "Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples."
  12. Cross References
    Habakkuk 2:6
    Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, "Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own - for how long? - and loads himself with pledges!
  13. Cross References
    Habakkuk 1:10 - 11
    At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.
  14. Cross References
    Jeremiah 4:13
    Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles - woe to us, for we are ruined!
  15. Cross References
    Jeremiah 5:6
    Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down; a wolf from the desert shall devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.
    Zephaniah 3:3
    Her officials within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning.
  16. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 28:49
    The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand.
  17. Cross References
    Habakkuk 2:17
    The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.
  18. Cross References
    Joshua 11:4
    And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.
  19. Cross References
    Nahum 3:12
    All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs - if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.
  20. Cross References
    Ezekiel 4:2
    And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
  21. Cross References
    Hosea 13:16
    Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
  22. Cross References
    Habakkuk 1:7
    They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
  23. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 33:27
    The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy.
    Psalms 90:2
    Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
    Psalms 93:2
    Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
  24. Cross References
    Malachi 3:6
    For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
  25. Cross References
    Isaiah 10:5 - 7
    Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!
  26. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:4
    The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
  27. Cross References
    Psalms 5:5
    The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.
  28. Cross References
    Jeremiah 12:1
    Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
  29. Cross References
    Psalms 35:22
    You have seen, O Lord ; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!
  30. Cross References
    Jeremiah 16:16
    Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
    Amos 4:2
    The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.
  31. Cross References
    Isaiah 19:8
    The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets on the water.
  32. Cross References
    Habakkuk 1:11
    Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!
  33. Cross References
    Habakkuk 2:10
    You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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