New Living Translation

1 This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision. 2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help?<br>But you do not listen!<br>“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,<br>but you do not come to save.<br> 3 Must I forever see these evil deeds?<br>Why must I watch all this misery?<br>Wherever I look,<br>I see destruction and violence.<br>I am surrounded by people<br>who love to argue and fight.<br> 4 The law has become paralyzed,<br>and there is no justice in the courts.<br>The wicked far outnumber the righteous,<br>so that justice has become perverted.<br> 5 The LORD replied, “Look around at the nations;<br>look and be amazed!<br>For I am doing something in your own day,<br>something you wouldn’t believe<br>even if someone told you about it.<br> 6 I am raising up the Babylonians,<br>a cruel and violent people.<br>They will march across the world<br>and conquer other lands.<br> 7 They are notorious for their cruelty<br>and do whatever they like.<br> 8 Their horses are swifter than cheetahs<br>and fiercer than wolves at dusk.<br>Their charioteers charge from far away.<br>Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.<br> 9 “On they come, all bent on violence.<br>Their hordes advance like a desert wind,<br>sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.<br> 10 They scoff at kings and princes<br>and scorn all their fortresses.<br>They simply pile ramps of earth<br>against their walls and capture them!<br> 11 They sweep past like the wind<br>and are gone.<br>But they are deeply guilty,<br>for their own strength is their god.”<br> 12 O LORD my God (Elohim), my Holy One, you who are eternal —<br>surely you do not plan to wipe us out?<br>O LORD, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us,<br>to punish us for our many sins.<br> 13 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil.<br>Will you wink at their treachery?<br>Should you be silent while the wicked<br>swallow up people more righteous than they?<br> 14 Are we only fish to be caught and killed?<br>Are we only sea creatures that have no leader?<br> 15 Must we be strung up on their hooks<br>and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?<br> 16 Then they will worship their nets<br>and burn incense in front of them.<br>“These nets are the gods who have made us rich!”<br>they will claim.<br> 17 Will you let them get away with this forever?<br>Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?<br>