Category: Habakkuk

Chaldeans Used to Punish Judah

1 Theoracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 How long, O Lord, will I call for help,

And You will not hear?

I cry out to You, “Violence!”

Yet You do not save.

3 Why do You make me see iniquity,

And causemeto look on wickedness?

Yes, destruction and violence are before me;

Strife exists and contention arises.

4 Therefore the law is ignored

And justice is never upheld.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

Therefore justice comes out perverted.

5 “Look among the nations! Observe!

Be astonished! Wonder!

BecauseI amdoing something in your days—

You would not believe if you were told.

6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

That fierce and impetuous people

Who march throughout the earth

To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.

7 They are dreaded and feared;

Their justice and authority originate with themselves.

8 Their horses are swifter than leopards

And keener than wolves in the evening.

Their horsemen come galloping,

Their horsemen come from afar;

They fly like an eagle swoopingdownto devour.

9 All of them come for violence.

Their horde of facesmovesforward.

They collect captives like sand.

10 They mock at kings

And rulers are a laughing matter to them.

They laugh at every fortress

And heap up rubble to capture it.

11 Then they will sweep throughlikethe wind and pass on.

But they will be held guilty,

They whose strength is their god.”

12 Are You not from everlasting,

O Lord, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge;

And You, O Rock, have established them to correct.

13 Youreyes are too pure to approve evil,

And You can not look on wickednesswith favor.

Why do You look with favor

On those who deal treacherously?

Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up

Those more righteous than they?

14 Whyhave You made men like the fish of the sea,

Like creeping things without a ruler over them?

15 The Chaldeansbring all of them up with a hook,

Drag them away with their net,

And gather them together in their fishing net.

Therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net

And burn incense to their fishing net;

Because through these things their catch is large,

And their food is plentiful.

17 Will they therefore empty their net

And continually slay nations without sparing?

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HAB/1-598a2418921611ce58f46d6375fce317.mp3?version_id=100—

God Answers the Prophet

1 I will stand on my guard post

And station myself on the rampart;

And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,

And how I may reply when I am reproved.

2 Then the Lordanswered me and said,

“Record the vision

And inscribeiton tablets,

That the one who reads it may run.

3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

4 “Behold, as for the proud one,

His soul is not right within him;

But the righteous will live by his faith.

5 Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man,

So that he does not stay at home.

He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,

And he is like death, never satisfied.

He also gathers to himself all nations

And collects to himself all peoples.

6 “Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him,

Even mockeryandinsinuations against him

And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his—

For how long—

And makes himself rich with loans?’

7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly,

And those who collect from you awaken?

Indeed, you will become plunder for them.

8 Because you have looted many nations,

All the remainder of the peoples will loot you—

Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house

To put his nest on high,

To be delivered from the hand of calamity!

10 You have devised a shameful thing for your house

By cutting off many peoples;

So you are sinning against yourself.

11 Surely the stone will cry out from the wall,

And the rafter will answer it from the framework.

12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed

And founds a town with violence!

13 Is it not indeed from the Lordof hosts

That peoples toil for fire,

And nations grow weary for nothing?

14 For the earth will be filled

With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

As the waters cover the sea.

15 “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink,

Who mix in your venom even to makethemdrunk

So as to look on their nakedness!

16 You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor.

Now you yourself drink and expose yourownnakedness.

The cup in the Lord’sright hand will come around to you,

And utter disgracewill comeupon your glory.

17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

And the devastation ofitsbeasts by which you terrified them,

Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

18 “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it,

Oran image, a teacher of falsehood?

Foritsmaker trusts in hisownhandiwork

When he fashions speechless idols.

19 Woe to him who says to apiece ofwood, ‘Awake!’

To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’

Andthat isyourteacher?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

And there is no breath at all inside it.

20 But the Lordis in His holy temple.

Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HAB/2-fee6d90baaf57defcdbe3a3500b82fd8.mp3?version_id=100—

God’s Deliverance of His People

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according toShigionoth.

2 Lord, I have heard the report about YouandI fear.

O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years,

In the midst of the years make it known;

In wrath remember mercy.

3 God comes from Teman,

And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.

His splendor covers the heavens,

And the earth is full of His praise.

4 Hisradiance is like the sunlight;

He has raysflashingfrom His hand,

And there is the hiding of His power.

5 Before Him goes pestilence,

And plague comes after Him.

6 He stood and surveyed the earth;

He looked and startled the nations.

Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered,

The ancient hills collapsed.

His ways are everlasting.

7 I saw the tents of Cushan under distress,

The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.

8 Did the Lordrage against the rivers,

OrwasYour anger against the rivers,

OrwasYour wrath against the sea,

That You rode on Your horses,

On Your chariots of salvation?

9 Your bow was made bare,

The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah.

You cleaved the earth with rivers.

10 The mountains saw Youandquaked;

The downpour of waters swept by.

The deep uttered forth its voice,

It lifted high its hands.

11 Sunandmoon stood in their places;

They went away at the light of Your arrows,

At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.

12 In indignation You marched through the earth;

In anger You trampled the nations.

13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people,

For the salvation of Your anointed.

You struck the head of the house of the evil

To lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.

14 You pierced with his own spears

The head of his throngs.

They stormed in to scatter us;

Their exultationwaslike those

Who devour the oppressed in secret.

15 You trampled on the sea with Your horses,

On the surge of many waters.

16 I heard and my inward parts trembled,

At the sound my lips quivered.

Decay enters my bones,

And in my place I tremble.

Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,

For the people to arisewhowill invade us.

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom

And there be no fruit on the vines,

Thoughthe yield of the olive should fail

And the fields produce no food,

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold

And there be no cattle in the stalls,

18 Yet I will exult in the Lord,

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

19 The Lord Godis my strength,

And He has made my feet like hinds’feet,

And makes me walk on my high places.

For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HAB/3-44506c6da06261dad8f34808a0bd2d6b.mp3?version_id=100—