Habakkuk 1:12-2:5

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint 12LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition; Masoretic Text we will never die. You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.

13Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

14You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler.

15The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad.

16Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. 17Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?

1I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Or and what to answer when I am rebuked

The LORD’s Answer 2Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald Or so that whoever reads it may run with it.

3For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it Or Though he linger, wait for him; / he will certainly come and will not delay.

4“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness Or faith —

5indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.