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oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 How long, O Lord, must I call for help,
and You will not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
and You do not save?
3 Why do You make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
For destruction and violence are before me;
strife and conflicts abound.
4 So the law is powerless,
and justice never prevails.
For the wicked overwhelm the righteous,
so that perverse justice proceeds.
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly astonished!
For I will carry out a work in your days
that you would not believe,
even when you are told of it.
6 Behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who march across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not their own.
7 They are a fierce and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and seek only their own honour.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
and more fierce than wolves of the night.
Their cavalry charge ahead;
their horsemen come from far away.
They fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9They all come to do violence,
with their faces set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
and rulers are scorned by them.
They laugh at every fortress;
for they build up siege ramps and capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on.
They transgress and are guilty—
men whose own strength is their god.”
12 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 ordained them for punishment.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do You tolerate the treacherous?
Why do You remain silent while the wicked
devour those more righteous than themselves?
14 You have made mankind like the fish of the sea,
like sea creatures that have no ruler.
15 The enemy pulls all of them up with a hook,
he catches them in his net,
he pulls them all in in his dragnet;
then he is glad and rejoices.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by them he lives in luxury
and enjoys abundant choice food.
17 If he then to keep on emptying his net,
and continually slaughtering nations without mercy?