1 The aoracle that bHabakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 c“Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For dI am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the eChaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their fhorses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an geagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Are you not hfrom everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O iRock, have established them for reproof.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
jwhy do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 kHe1 brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,2
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
The Seven Angels with Seven Plagues
1 Then I saw another xsign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.
2 And I saw what appeared to be a ysea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had zconquered the beast and its image and athe number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. 3 And they sing bthe song of Moses, the servant of God, and cthe song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
dJust and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!1
4 eWho will not ffear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are gholy.
hAll nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5 After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the itent2 of witness in heaven jwas opened, 6 and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, kwith golden sashes around their chests. 7 And one of the lfour living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, 8 and the sanctuary mwas filled with nsmoke from the glory of God and from his power, and ono one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
