2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, aAnd You will not hear? Even cry out to You, b“Violence!” And You will cnot save.
3 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see1 trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the awicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
The Lord’s Reply
5 “Looka among the nations and watch— Be utterly astounded! For Iwill work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
6 For indeed I am araising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty bnation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places thatare not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their1 horses also are aswifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers2 charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the beagle that hastens to eat.
9 “They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
11 Then his1 mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, aAscribing this power to his god.”
The Prophet’s Second Question
12 Are You not afrom everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, bYou have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for ccorrection.
13Youare of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he?
14Why do You make men like fish of the sea, Like creeping things thathave no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with a hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore athey sacrifice to their net, And burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is1 sumptuous And their food plentiful.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, And continue to slay nations without pity?
The burden - hammassa signifies not only the burdensome prophecy, but the prophecy or revelation itself which God presented to the mind of Habakkuk, and which he saw-clearly perceived, in the light of prophecy and then faithfully declared, as this book shows. The word signifies an oracle or revelation in general; but chiefly, one relative to future calamities.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Habakkuk 1:1:
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