Habakkuk 1-3

Nahum 3 Zephaniah 1

Habakkuk 1-3 New International Version (NIV)

1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

²How long, Lord, must I call for help,
    but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
    but you do not save?
³Why do you make me look at injustice?
    Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    there is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴Therefore the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
    so that justice is perverted.

The Lord’s Answer

⁵“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.
⁶I am raising up the Babylonians,^[a]
    that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
    to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷They are a feared and dreaded people;
    they are a law to themselves
    and promote their own honor.
⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
    their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
⁹    they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes^[b] advance like a desert wind
    and gather prisoners like sand.
¹⁰They mock kings
    and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
    by building earthen ramps they capture them.
¹¹Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
    guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

¹²Lord, are you not from everlasting?
    My God, my Holy One, you^[c] will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
    you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
¹³Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
    you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
    Why are you silent while the wicked
    swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
¹⁴You have made people like the fish in the sea,
    like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
¹⁵The 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.
¹⁶Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
    and enjoys the choicest food.
¹⁷Is he to keep on emptying his net,
    destroying nations without mercy?

2 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.^[d]

The Lord’s Answer

²Then the Lord replied:

“Write down the revelation
    and make it plain on tablets
    so that a herald^[e] may run with it.
³For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
    it speaks of the end
    and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
    it^[f] will certainly come
    and will not delay.

⁴“See, the enemy is puffed up;
    his desires are not upright—
    but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness^[g]—
⁵indeed, 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.

⁶“Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,

“‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods
    and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
    How long must this go on?’
⁷Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
    Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
    Then you will become their prey.
⁸Because 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.

⁹“Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
    setting his nest on high
    to escape the clutches of ruin!
¹⁰You have plotted the ruin of many peoples,
    shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
¹¹The stones of the wall will cry out,
    and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.

¹²“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
    and establishes a town by injustice!
¹³Has not the Lord Almighty determined
    that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
    that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
¹⁴For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵“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!
¹⁶You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
    Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed^[h]!
The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you,
    and disgrace will cover your glory.
¹⁷The 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.

¹⁸“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.
¹⁹Woe 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.”

²⁰The Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

Habakkuk’s Prayer

3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.^[i]

²Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
    in our time make them known;
    in wrath remember mercy.

³God came from Teman,
    the Holy One from Mount Paran.^[j]
His glory covered the heavens
    and his praise filled the earth.
⁴His splendor was like the sunrise;
    rays flashed from his hand,
    where his power was hidden.
⁵Plague went before him;
    pestilence followed his steps.
⁶He stood, and shook the earth;
    he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
    and the age-old hills collapsed—
    but he marches on forever.
⁷I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,
    the dwellings of Midian in anguish.

⁸Were you angry with the rivers, Lord?
    Was your wrath against the streams?
Did you rage against the sea
    when you rode your horses
    and your chariots to victory?
⁹You uncovered your bow,
    you called for many arrows.
You split the earth with rivers;
¹⁰    the mountains saw you and writhed.
Torrents of water swept by;
    the deep roared
    and lifted its waves on high.

¹¹Sun and moon stood still in the heavens
    at the glint of your flying arrows,
    at the lightning of your flashing spear.
¹²In wrath you strode through the earth
    and in anger you threshed the nations.
¹³You came out to deliver your people,
    to save your anointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
    you stripped him from head to foot.
¹⁴With his own spear you pierced his head
    when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,
gloating as though about to devour
    the wretched who were in hiding.
¹⁵You trampled the sea with your horses,
    churning the great waters.

¹⁶I heard and my heart pounded,
    my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
    and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
    to come on the nation invading us.
¹⁷Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

¹⁹The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Footnotes:

Habakkuk 1:6 Or Chaldeans
Habakkuk 1:9 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Habakkuk 1:12 An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition; Masoretic Text we
Habakkuk 2:1 Or and what to answer when I am rebuked
Habakkuk 2:2 Or so that whoever reads it
Habakkuk 2:3 Or Though he linger, wait for him; / he
Habakkuk 2:4 Or faith
Habakkuk 2:16 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls, Aquila, Vulgate and Syriac (see also Septuagint) and stagger
Habakkuk 3:1 Probably a literary or musical term
Habakkuk 3:3 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the middle of verse 9 and at the end of verse 13.