Habakkuk 1

All 17 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1The burden that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2. 2"LORD, how long must I cry out for help before you listen? I keep shouting 'Violence!' but you don't step in to save us!
3. 3Why do you force me to witness so much wrongdoing? Why do you make me stare at all this suffering? Everywhere I look there's destruction and violence. Conflict and fighting are breaking out all around me.
4. 4Because of this, the law has lost all its power, and justice never wins. The wicked have the righteous surrounded on every side, so every verdict that comes out is twisted and corrupt."
5. 5Look among the heathen, and watch, and be utterly amazed: for I am doing something in your days that you will not believe, even if it is told to you.
6. 6I am raising up the Chaldeans, that ruthless and swift nation, who will march through the breadth of the land to seize homes that are not theirs.
7. 7They are terrifying and fearsome; their judgment and dignity come from themselves.
8. 8Their horses are faster than leopards and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their horsemen spread out, and their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle rushing to eat.
9. 9They all come for violence: their faces devour like the east wind, and they gather captives like sand.
10. 10They mock kings and laugh at rulers. Every fortress is a joke to them — they simply pile up dirt ramps against the walls and capture it.
11. 11Then his mind will change, and he will move on, offending by attributing his power to his god.
12. 12Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have appointed them for judgment; and, O mighty God, you have established them for correction.
13. 13Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and you cannot look on iniquity. Why do you look upon those who deal treacherously, and hold your tongue when the wicked devours the one more righteous than he?
14. 14You've made people like the fish in the sea, like creatures that have no ruler over them.
15. 15They haul them all in with hooks, catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet; therefore, they rejoice and are glad.
16. 16That's why they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet, because through them their portion is abundant and their food is plentiful.
17. 17Will he keep emptying his net and slaughtering nation after nation without mercy?"