Habakkuk 1

1The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2How long, LORD, must I cry for help while you do not listen? I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save. 3Why do you make me see wrongdoing? Why do you put up with trouble? Ruin and violence are in front of me; quarrels and conflict break out. 4So the instruction loses its force, and justice never wins out. The wicked hem in the righteous, so justice comes out twisted. 5Look at the nations and watch, and be utterly astonished! For I am doing something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told. 6For I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and reckless nation, who sweep across the wide earth to seize homes that are not their own. 7They are feared and dreaded; they set their own law and claim their own honor. 8Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their horsemen charge ahead; their riders come from far away; they swoop like an eagle rushing to devour. 9They all come intent on violence; their faces are set straight ahead, and they gather captives like sand. 10They scoff at kings and make fun of rulers; they laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 11Then they sweep past like the wind and go on, guilty men whose own strength is their god. 12Are you not from everlasting, LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; Rock, you have set them in place to bring correction. 13Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing. Why then do you look on the treacherous, and keep silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? 14You have made people like fish in the sea, like creatures that crawl, with no ruler over them. 15The enemy pulls them all up with a hook; he drags them away in his net and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices and celebrates. 16So he offers sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his fishing net, for by them he lives in plenty and eats the richest food. 17Will he keep on emptying his net, killing nations without mercy, never stopping?