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The oracle of God which Habak′kuk the prophet saw.

The Prophet’s Complaint

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
    and thou wilt not hear?
Or cry to thee “Violence!”
    and thou wilt not save?
Why dost thou make me see wrongs
    and look upon trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
So the law is slacked
    and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous,
    so justice goes forth perverted.

Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told.
For lo, I am rousing the Chalde′ans,
    that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
    to seize habitations not their own.

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12 Art thou not from everlasting,
    O Lord my God, my Holy One?
    We shall not die.
O Lord, thou hast ordained them as a judgment;
    and thou, O Rock, hast established them for chastisement.
13 Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil
    and canst not look on wrong,
why dost thou look on faithless men,
    and art silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?

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God’s Reply to the Prophet’s Complaint

I will take my stand to watch,
and station myself on the tower,
and look forth to see what he will say to me,
    and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
    make it plain upon tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seem slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come, it will not delay.
Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail,[a]
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 2:4 Cn: Heb is puffed up
  2. Habakkuk 2:4 Or faithfulness

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