Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12 Lord, are you not from everlasting?(A)
    My God, my Holy One,(B) you[a] will never die.(C)
You, Lord, have appointed(D) them to execute judgment;
    you, my Rock,(E) have ordained them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure(F) to look on evil;
    you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.(G)
Why then do you tolerate(H) the treacherous?(I)
    Why are you silent while the wicked
    swallow up those more righteous than themselves?(J)
14 You have made people like the fish in the sea,
    like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
15 The wicked(K) foe pulls all of them up with hooks,(L)
    he catches them in his net,(M)
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
    and so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and burns incense(N) to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
    and enjoys the choicest food.
17 Is he to keep on emptying his net,
    destroying nations without mercy?(O)

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Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 1:12 An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition; Masoretic Text we

12 Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

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