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Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk opens not with a message to deliver but with a grievance aimed upward: how long will God ignore the violence and twisted justice in Judah? The answer he gets is worse than the silence. God is raising the Chaldeans (Babylon) to sweep through the land. That sets up a second, sharper protest. Watch the two-round structure: complaint, divine reply, then a harder complaint about the reply itself.

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Habakkuk 1 (WEB)

1
The revelation which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2
LORD, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save?
3
Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.
4
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.
5
“Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days which you will not believe though it is told you.
6
For, behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7
They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
9
All of them come for violence. Their hordes face forward. They gather prisoners like sand.
10
Yes, they scoff at kings, and princes are a derision to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they build up an earthen ramp and take it.
11
Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. They are indeed guilty, whose strength is their god.”
12
Aren’t you from everlasting, LORD my God, my Holy One? We will not die. LORD, you have appointed them for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish.
13
You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
14
and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things that have no ruler over them?
15
He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad.
16
Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious and his food is good.
17
Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?

Habacuc 1 (RV1909)

1
LA carga que vió Habacuc profeta.
2
¿Hasta cuándo, oh Jehová, clamaré, y no oirás; y daré voces á ti á causa de la violencia, y no salvarás?
3
¿Por qué me haces ver iniquidad, y haces que mire molestia, y saco y violencia delante de mí, habiendo además quien levante pleito y contienda?
4
Por lo cual la ley es debilitada, y el juicio no sale verdadero: por cuanto el impío asedia al justo, por eso sale torcido el juicio.
5
Mirad en las gentes, y ved, y maravillaos pasmosamente; porque obra será hecha en vuestros días, que aun cuando se os contare, no la creeréis.
6
Porque he aquí, yo levanto los Caldeos, gente amarga y presurosa, que camina por la anchura de la tierra para poseer las habitaciones ajenas.
7
Espantosa es y terrible: de ella misma saldrá su derecho y su grandeza.
8
Y serán sus caballos más ligeros que tigres, y más agudos que lobos de tarde; y sus jinetes se multiplicarán: vendrán de lejos sus caballeros, y volarán como águilas que se apresuran á la comida.
9
Toda ella vendrá á la presa: delante de sus caras viento solano; y juntará cautivos como arena.
10
Y escarnecerá de los reyes, y de los príncipes hará burla: reiráse de toda fortaleza, y amontonará polvo, y la tomará.
11
Luego mudará espíritu, y pasará adelante, y ofenderá atribuyendo esta su potencia á su dios.
12
¿No eres tú desde el principio, oh Jehová, Dios mío, Santo mío? No moriremos. Oh Jehová, para juicio lo pusiste; y tú, oh Roca, lo fundaste para castigar.
13
Muy limpio eres de ojos para ver el mal, ni puedes ver el agravio: ¿por qué ves los menospreciadores, y callas cuando destruye el impío al más justo que él,
14
Y haces que sean los hombres como los peces de la mar, como reptiles que no tienen señor?
15
Sacará á todos con anzuelo, cogerálos con su red, y juntarálos en su aljerife: por lo cual se holgará y hará alegrías.
16
Por esto hará sacrificios á su red, y ofrecerá sahumerios á su aljerife: porque con ellos engordó su porción, y engrasó su comida.
17
¿Vaciará por eso su red, ó tendrá piedad de matar gentes continuamente?

The problem with the answer

The prophet's first cry is about injustice at home (vv. 2-4). God's reply (vv. 5-11) names a fix that horrifies him: a nation whose horses are "swifter than leopards" and whose "strength is their god." In vv. 12-17 Habakkuk turns the screw. How can a God too pure to look on evil use a crueler people to punish a less wicked one, hauling men up "like the fish of the sea" with no ruler? The chapter ends on the unanswered question, leaving the tension for chapter 2.

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Why Habakkuk matters for protest, waiting, faith, and learning to stand before God when the world is violent and confusing.

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