A Complaint to God and Babylon
Habakkuk 1
Biblical Period
1The pronouncement made by the prophet Habakkuk.
2How long, O Lord, shall I cry out
And You not listen,
Shall I shout to You, “Violence!”
And You not save?
3Why do You make me see iniquity
[Why] do You look upon wrong?—
Raiding and violence are before me,
Strife continues and contention goes on.
4That is why decision fails
And justice never emerges;
For the villain hedges in the just man—
Therefore judgment emerges deformed.
5“Look among the nations,
Observe well and be utterly astounded;
For a work is being wrought in your days
Which you would not believe if it were told.
6For lo, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
That fierce, impetuous nation,
Who cross the earth’s wide spaces
To seize homes not their own.
7They are terrible, dreadful;
They make their own laws and rules.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards,
Fleeter than wolves of the steppe.a
Come flying from afar.
Like vultures rushing toward food,
9They all come, bent on rapine.
The thrust of their van is forward,
And they amass captives like sand.
10Kings they hold in derision,
And princes are a joke to them;
They laugh at every fortress,
They pile up earth and capture it.
11Then they pass on like the wind,
They transgress and incur guilt,
For they ascribe their might to their god.”
12You, O Lord, are from everlasting;
My holy God, Youc never die.
O Lord, You have made them a subject of contention;
O Rock, You have made them a cause for complaint.
13You whose eyes are too pure to look upon evil,
Who cannot countenance wrongdoing,
Why do You countenance treachery,
And stand by idle
While the one in the wrong devours
The one in the right?
14You have made mankind like the fish of the sea,
15He has fished them all up with a line,
Pulled them up in his trawl,
And gathered them in his net.
That is why he rejoices and is glad.
16That is why he sacrifices to his trawl
And makes offerings to his net;
For through them his portion is rich
And his nourishment fat.
And slaying nations without pity?
Notes
Understanding ‘ereb as synonymous with ‘arabah.
The Qumran Habakkuk commentary (1QpHab) reads “and spread [wings].”
Heb. “we,” a change made by a pious scribe.
1QpHab “[for him] to rule over.”
1QpHab “drawing his sword.”
Credits
Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.
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