Habakkuk

The End of Injustice: Impatience and Announcement

This is the message and vision of Habakkuk, the prophet.

The Lord, how long will I cry for help 

while you pay no attention to me? 

I denounce the oppression, 

and you do not save.

Why do you make me witness injustice? 

Are you pleased to watch tyranny? 

All I see is outrage, 

violence and quarrels.

That is why the law 

has been set aside, 

and only decrees are no longer issued. 

The wicked overrule the righteous, 

and they receive crooked sentences.

Look, traitors, and pay attention; 

be amazed and astounded, 

for I will do in your days 

something you wouldn’t believe 

even if it were told to you.

I am going to call the Chaldeans, 

that terrifying and violent people 

who raid to the ends of the earth 

to seize others’ lands. 

I call a terrible and dangerous nation 

that obeys no law but its own will.

Their horses are faster than leopards, 

fiercer than wolves on the plain; 

their riders ride on and come from afar; 

they swoop like eagles 

descending on their prey.

When they launch themselves 

into an attack, 

driven by the desert wind, 

they sweep up prisoners like sand. 

These people mock kings 

and laugh at princes; 

they scoff at fortified cities, 

for they build up embankments 

and seize them. 

Thus, they come 

and go like the wind! 

Their strength is their god!  

But you, are you not 

the Lord from ages past? 

You, my holy God, cannot die. 

You have appointed these people 

to serve your justice, 

and you have made them 

as firm as a rock 

to carry out your punishment.

The Lord, your eyes are too pure 

to tolerate wickedness, 

and you cannot look on injustice. 

Why, then, do you gaze 

at treacherous people 

and remain silent while the evildoer 

consumes someone 

who is better than himself?

You treat human beings 

like the fish in the sea, 

like reptiles who are 

nobody’s concern. 

This nation catches 

everyone on its hook, 

pulls them out with its net, 

and heaps them in its dragnet. 

Pleased and delighted 

with their catch, 

they offer sacrifices to their net 

and burn incense to their dragnets 

because these have provided them 

with plenty of fish 

and food in abundance. 

Will they then continue 

to constantly empty their nets, 

slaughtering nations without mercy?