1   The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2   LORD, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you "Violence." and will you not save? 3   Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. 4   Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted. 5   "Look, you scoffers, and watch, and be utterly amazed, and perish; for I am working a work in your days which you will not believe, though it is told you. 6   For, look, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places not his own. 7   He is feared and dreaded. His judgment will be from himself, and his authority will come from himself. 8   His horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen press proudly on, and, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour. 9   All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand. 10   And he will scoff at kings and deride rulers. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it. 11   Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god." 12   Aren't you from everlasting, LORD my God, my Holy One? We will not die. LORD, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish. 13   You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he, 14   and make men like the fish of the sea, like the crawling creatures, that have no ruler over them? 15   He takes up all of them with the hook, and he catches them in his net and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad. 16   Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good. 17   Will he therefore continually empty his net, killing the nations without mercy?

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