Habakkuk 1

1The message that Habakkuk the prophet received, 2“Yahweh, how long will I cry for help, and you will not hear? 3Why do you make me see iniquity and look upon wrongdoing? 4Therefore the law is weakened, and justice does not last for any time. 5“Look at the nations and examine them; be amazed and astonished! 6For look! I am about to raise up the Chaldeans—that fierce and impetuous nation— 7They are terrifying and fearsome; their judgment and splendor proceed from themselves. 8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, quicker than the evening wolves. 9They all come for violence; The Hebrew text translated here as their multitudes go like the desert wind is very difficult; many modern versions have other interpretations. 10So they mock kings, and rulers are only a mockery for them. 11Then the wind will rush on; it will move past—guilty men, those whose might is their god.” 12“Are you not from ancient times, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. 13Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil, and you are not able to look on wrongdoing with favor; 14You make men like fish in the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them. 15He brings all of them up with a fishhook; 16Therefore he sacrifices to his net