Habakkuk 1:1-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
The Prophet’s Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?(A)
3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.(B)
4 So the law becomes slack,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous;
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.(C)
Habakkuk 1:12-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
You[a] shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.(A)
13 Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?(B)
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.(C)
15 He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his seine,
so he rejoices and exults.(D)
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine,
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and destroying nations without mercy?(E)
Footnotes
- 1.12 Or We
Habakkuk 2:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
God’s Reply to the Prophet’s Complaint
2 I will stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me
and what he[a] will answer concerning my complaint.(A)
Footnotes
- 2.1 Syr: Heb I
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.