Habakkuk 1:12–2:1

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12   Are you not from everlasting,
    O LORD my God, my Holy One?
    We shall not die.
  O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
13   You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
  why 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   He¹ 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?
2:1   I will take my stand at my watchpost
    and station myself on the tower,
  and look out to see what he will say to me,
    and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

Footnotes

[1] 1:15 That is, the wicked foe
[2] 1:16 Hebrew his portion is fat

(ESV)