Habakkuk 1

²O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?

³ Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.

⁴ So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.

⁵ “Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.

⁶For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.

⁷They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

⁹They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like sand.

¹⁰At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and take it.

¹¹Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!”