1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s complaint

² How long, Lord, must I call for help,
    but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’
    but you do not save?
³ Why do you make me look at injustice?
    Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    there is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴ Therefore the law is paralysed,
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
    so that justice is perverted.

The Lord’s answer

⁵ ‘Look at the nations and watch –
    and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
    that you would not believe,
    even if you were told.
⁶ I am raising up the Babylonians,
    that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
    to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷ They are a feared and dreaded people;
    they are a law to themselves
    and promote their own honour.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
    their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
⁹     they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
    and gather prisoners like sand.
¹⁰ They mock kings
    and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
    by building earthen ramps they capture them.
¹¹ Then they sweep past like the wind and go on –
    guilty people, whose own strength is their god.’