Habakkuk 1:2-10 The Prophet’s First Complaint“How long, LORD, must I cry out for help, but you won’t listen? I’m crying out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you aren’t providing deliverance.

ISV⁽ⁱ⁾ ² The Prophet’s First Complaint“How long, LORD, must I cry out for help, but you won’t listen? I’m crying out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you aren’t providing deliverance. ³ Why are you forcing me to look at iniquity and to stare at wickedness? Social havoc and oppression are all around me; there are legal conflicts, and disputes abound. ⁴ Therefore, the Law has become paralyzed, and justice never comes about. Because criminals outnumber the righteous, whenever judgments are issued, they come out crooked.”
⁵ God’s Response: The Coming Chaldean Invasion“Look out at the nations and pay attention! Be astounded! Be really astounded! Because something is happening in your lifetime that you won’t believe, even if it were described down to the smallest detail. ⁶ Watch out! For I am bringing in the Chaldeans, that cruel and impetuous people, who sweep across the earth dispossessing people from homes not their own. ⁷ They are terrible and fearsome; their brand of justice and sense of honor derive only from themselves! ⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, and more cunning than wolves that attack at night. Their horsemen are galloping as they approach from far away. They swoop in like ravenous vultures. ⁹ “They all come to oppress— hordes of them, their faces pressing onward— they take prisoners as numerous as the desert sand! ¹⁰ They make fun of kings, deriding those who rule. They laugh at all of the fortified places, constructing ramps to seize them.