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Habakkuk Calls for Help

¹ The ^(F1)(C1)oracle which Habakkuk the prophet beheld.

^2 (C1)How long, O ^(F1)Yahweh, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to You, "Violence!"
Yet You do ^(C2)not save.

³ Why do You make me ^(C1)see wickedness
And cause me to look on trouble?
Indeed, ^(C2)devastation and violence are before me;
^(C3)And there is strife, and contention is lifted up.

⁴ Therefore the ^(C1)law is ^(F1)ignored,
And justice never comes forth.
For the wicked ^(C2)surround the righteous;
Therefore justice comes forth ^(C3)perverted.

Yahweh Raises the Dreaded Chaldeans

⁵ "^(C1)See among the nations! And look!
Be also astonished! ^(C2)Be astounded!
Because I am doing ^(C3)something in your days—
You would not believe if it was recounted to you.

⁶ "For behold, I am ^(C1)raising up the Chaldeans,
That bitter and hasty nation
Who walks on the breadth of the land
To ^(C2)possess dwelling places which are not theirs.

⁷ "They are dreaded and ^(C1)feared;
Their ^(C2)justice and exaltation come forth from themselves.

⁸ "Their ^(C1)horses are swifter than leopards
And ^(F1)sharper than ^(C2)wolves in the evening.
Their ^(F2)horsemen come galloping;
Their horsemen come from afar;
They fly like an ^(C3)eagle swooping down to devour.

⁹ "All of them come for violence.
^(F1)Their horde of ^(C1)faces moves forward.
And they gather captives like sand.

¹⁰ "And they ^(C1)mock at kings,
And rulers are a laughing matter to them.
They ^(C2)laugh at every fortress
And ^(C3)heap up dirt and capture it.

¹¹ "Then they will sweep through like the ^(C1)wind and pass on.
But they will be held ^(C2)guilty,
They whose ^(C3)power is their god."

Yahweh Has Placed Them to Judge

¹² Are You not from ^(C1)everlasting,
O Yahweh, my God, my Holy One?
We will not die.
You, O Yahweh, have ^(C2)placed them to judge;
And You, O ^(C3)Rock, have established them to reprove.

¹³ Your eyes are too ^(C1)pure to see evil,
And You cannot look on trouble.
Why do You ^(C2)look
On those who deal ^(C3)treacherously?
Why are You ^(C4)silent when the wicked ^(C5)swallow up
Those more righteous than they?

¹⁴ And You have made men like the fish of the sea,
Like creeping things without a ruler over them.

¹⁵ The Chaldeans ^(C1)bring all of them up with a hook,
^(C2)Drag them away with their net,
And gather them together in their fishing net.
Therefore they are glad and rejoice.

¹⁶ Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net
And ^(F1)burn incense to their fishing net
Because through ^(C1)these things their portion is rich
And their food is fat.

¹⁷ Will they therefore empty their ^(C1)net
And continually ^(C2)kill nations without sparing?