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The burden that Habakkuk the prophet has seen:
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Until when, O YHWH, have I cried, || And You do not hear? I cry to You, “Violence!” And You do not save.
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Why do You show me iniquity, || And cause [me] to behold perversity? And spoiling and violence [are] before me, || And there is strife, and contention lifts [itself] up,
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Therefore law ceases, || And judgment does not go forth forever, || For the wicked is surrounding the righteous, || Therefore wrong judgment goes forth.
The LORD’s Answer
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“Look on nations, and behold and marvel greatly. For a work He is working in your days, || You do not believe though it is declared.
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For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, || The bitter and hasty nation, || That is going to the broad places of earth, || To occupy dwelling places not his own.
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He [is] terrible and fearful, || His judgment and his excellence go forth from him.
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His horses have been swifter than leopards, || And sharper than evening wolves, || And his horsemen have increased, || Even his horsemen from afar come in, || They fly as an eagle, hastening to consume.
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All for violence—he comes in, || Their faces swallowing up the east wind, || And he gathers a captivity as the sand.
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And he scoffs at kings, || And princes [are] a laughter to him, || He laughs at every fortification, || And he heaps up dust, and captures it.
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Then the spirit has passed on, || Indeed, he transgresses, || And [ascribes] this—his power—to his god.”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
(Psalm 11:1–7)
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Are You not of old, O YHWH, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O YHWH, || You have appointed him for judgment, || And, O Rock, You have founded him for reproof.
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Purer of eyes than to behold evil, || You are not able to look on perverseness, || Why do You behold the treacherous? You keep silent when the wicked || Swallow the more righteous than he,
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And You make man as fishes of the sea, || As a creeping thing [with] none ruling over him.
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He has brought up each of them with a hook, || He catches it in his net, and gathers it in his dragnet, || Therefore he delights and rejoices.
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Therefore he sacrifices to his net, || And makes incense to his dragnet, || For by them [is] his portion fertile, and his food fat.
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Does he therefore empty his net, || And continually not spare to slay nations?
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