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Habakkuk’s Complaint
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
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Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
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They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.
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Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
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Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
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You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
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Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?
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I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
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The Lord’s Answer
Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
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“Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’
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Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey.
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Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
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You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
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“Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
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Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
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God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
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He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed— but he marches on forever.
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I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish.
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You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers;
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the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high.
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Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear.
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I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.
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yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
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The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
