A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Habakkuk 1
Habakkuk 1 is the opening chapter of the thirty-fifth book of the Bible. The 17-verse chapter opens the prophet's unusual dialogue with God about justice, in which Habakkuk asks hard questions and God answers in ways that raise even harder questions.
The chapter opens by identifying the writing as the oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. The date is the late seventh century BC, shortly before the Babylonian invasions of Judah. Nothing else is known about Habakkuk personally.
The chapter is structured as a complaint-and-answer exchange. Habakkuk's first complaint comes immediately. How long must he cry for help while God does not listen? Violence and injustice fill the land of Judah. The law is paralyzed and justice never prevails because the wicked surround the righteous and pervert every verdict.
God's first answer is unsettling. He is doing something in their days that they would not believe even if told. He is raising up the Babylonians, described as a ruthless, swift, and impetuous people. Their cavalry comes from far away; they are quicker than leopards and fiercer than wolves at dusk. They mock kings and scoff at every fortress; they sweep past like the wind.
This answer prompts Habakkuk's second, sharper complaint, which fills the rest of the chapter. The Babylonians are worse than the people they will punish. How can a pure and holy God use a more wicked nation to judge a less wicked one? The chapter ends with Habakkuk taking his stand on the watchtower to wait for God's reply, which will come in chapter 2.
Verse 1. This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:
Verse 2. How long, O LORD, must I call for help but You do not hear, or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save?
Verse 3. Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.
Verse 4. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
Verse 5. “Look at the nations and observe—be utterly astounded! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you.
Verse 6. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
Verse 7. They are dreaded and feared; from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.
Verse 8. Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.
Verse 9. All of them come bent on violence; their hordes advance like the east wind; they gather prisoners like sand.
Verse 10. They scoff at kings and make rulers an object of scorn. They laugh at every fortress and build up siege ramps to seize it.
Verse 11. Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their own strength is their god.”
Verse 12. Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. O LORD, You have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, You have established them for correction.
Verse 13. Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
Verse 14. You have made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler.
Verse 15. The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.
Verse 16. Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.
Verse 17. Will he, therefore, empty his net and continue to slay nations without mercy?
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