1 ARST This is the conversation between Habakkuk the prophet and Yahweh. BSB BSB: This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:
3 ARST Why do you make me watch people do what is wrong, but you do nothing? I see people destroying things and acting violently; they fight and quarrel everywhere. BSB BSB: Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.
4 ARST No one obeys the law of Moses, and no one acts in a right way for very long. Wicked people always defeat the righteous people in the courts, because judges never make fair decisions.” BSB BSB: Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
5 ARST Yahweh replied to me,“This is happening, but look around at what is happening in the other nations. If you look, you will be amazed, and even astonished, since I am doing something during this time that you would never have believed would happen, even if someone told you about it. BSB BSB: “Look at the nations and observe—be utterly astounded! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you.
6 ARST Very soon I will bring the soldiers of Babylonia, who are fierce and swift. They will march across the entire earth and conquer many other countries. BSB BSB: For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
7 ARST They are a people whom others fear very much, and they do whatever they want to, because they believe that they are very great and that they have the right to judge everyone else. BSB BSB: They are dreaded and feared; from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.
8 ARST The horses that pull their chariots go faster than leopards, and they are fiercer than wolves are in the evening. The horses on which the soldiers ride gallop swiftly; the soldiers riding them come from distant places. They are like eagles that swoop down to snatch their prey. BSB BSB: Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.
9 ARST As they ride along, they are determined to act violently. They advance eagerly, as fast as the wind over the desert, and gather up as many prisoners as there are grains of sand! BSB BSB: All of them come bent on violence; their hordes advance like the east wind; they gather prisoners like sand.
10 ARST They make fun of kings and princes of other countries, and they ridicule all the cities that have high walls around them. They pile up earth around those cities to capture them. BSB BSB: They scoff at kings and make rulers an object of scorn. They laugh at every fortress and build up siege ramps to seize it.
11 ARST They rush past like the wind, and then they go to attack other cities. But they are very guilty, because they think that their own power is their god!” BSB BSB: Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their own strength is their god.”
12 ARST Then I said,“Yahweh, are you not the eternal God? You are my Holy One, so we will not die. So why have you sent those men from Babylonia to judge us and kill us? You are like our Rock, on top of which we can hide, so why have you sent them to punish us? BSB BSB: Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. O LORD, You have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, You have established them for correction.
13 ARST You are pure, and you cannot endure looking at what is evil, so why are you ignoring men who are treacherous? Why do you do nothing to punish those wicked men from Babylonia, who destroy people who are more righteous than they are? BSB BSB: Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
14 ARST They treat us like fish in the sea, or like other creatures in the sea, that have no ruler. BSB BSB: You have made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler.
15 ARST The soldiers of Babylonia think that we are fish for them to pull out of the sea with hooks or to catch in their nets, while they rejoice and celebrate. BSB BSB: The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.
16 ARST If they catch us, they will worship their weapons with which they captured us and offer sacrifices to them and burn incense in front of them! They will say,‘These weapons have enabled us to become rich and eat expensive food.’ BSB BSB: Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.
17 ARST Will you allow them to continue to conquer people forever? Will you allow them to destroy people of other nations without any mercy for anyone?” BSB BSB: Will he, therefore, empty his net and continue to slay nations without mercy?