Habakkuk 1

I am Habakkuk the prophet. This is the message that God gave me in a vision. 2 I said, “God, how long must I keep praying to you for help before you respond? I ask you to rescue us from people who are acting violently everywhere, but you do not rescue us! \* 3 Why do you make me keep seeing people doing evil? Why do you not punish people who are doing what is wrong? I see people destroying things and acting violently, and there is fighting and quarreling everywhere. 4 No one obeys your instruction, and judges never decide cases fairly. Wicked people always defeat righteous people in the courts, so that no one ever gets justice.” \* 5 God replied to me, “Look at the completely amazing thing happening among the other nations; you will be astounded, because I am doing something during this time that you would not believe even if someone told you about it. 6 I am making the Chaldeans powerful; they are fierce and swift soldiers. They will march across the entire earth and conquer countries that do not belong to them. 7 They are terrifying people who do whatever they want and pay no attention to the laws of other countries. \* 8 Their horses are faster than leopards and fiercer than wolves at night. Their horsemen gallop swiftly from distant places; they swoop down like eagles rushing to kill their prey. 9 They all advance with the purpose of acting violently. They advance like a desert wind, gathering prisoners as numerous as grains of sand. \* 10 They mock the kings and rulers of other countries and laugh at all the cities with high walls. They pile up dirt against those walls and climb up to capture those cities. 11 They rush past like the wind and move on. But they are very guilty, because they think that their own military power is their god.” \* 12 Then I said, “God, you have always been God from ancient times. You are my Holy One; we will not die. You have appointed the Chaldeans to judge us and punish us. You are our Rock, and you have sent them to correct us. \* 13 You are pure, and you cannot endure seeing evil, so why are you tolerating treacherous people? Why do you say nothing when wicked people destroy people who are more righteous than they are? 14 You treat us like fish in the sea or like other sea creatures that have no one to rule over them. \* 15 The soldiers of Chaldea treat us like fish; they pull us out with hooks or catch us in their nets, and they rejoice and celebrate. 16 They worship the weapons with which they capture people and offer sacrifices to them and burn incense in front of them. They say, ‘Those weapons have enabled us to become rich and eat expensive food.’ 17 Will you allow them to keep conquering people? Will you allow them to keep destroying people of other nations without showing any mercy?” \*