Habakkuk's Second Complaint

 ¹² LORD, are you not from everlasting?
       My God, my Holy One, you ^[a] will never die.
       You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment;
       you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.

    ¹³ Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
       you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
       Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
       Why are you silent while the wicked
       swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

    ¹⁴ You have made people like the fish in the sea,
       like the sea creatures that have no ruler.

    ¹⁵ The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
       he catches them in his net,
       he gathers them up in his dragnet;
       and so he rejoices and is glad.

    ¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
       and burns incense to his dragnet,
       for by his net he lives in luxury
       and enjoys the choicest food.

    ¹⁷ Is he to keep on emptying his net,

    destroying nations without mercy?

Habakkuk 2

 ¹ I will stand at my watch
       and station myself on the ramparts;
       I will look to see what he will say to me,
       and what answer I am to give to this complaint. ^[a]

The LORD 's Answer

 ² Then the LORD replied:
       "Write down the revelation
       and make it plain on tablets
       so that a herald ^[b] may run with it.

    ³ For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
       it speaks of the end
       and will not prove false.
       Though it linger, wait for it;
       it ^[c] will certainly come
       and will not delay.

    ⁴ "See, he is puffed up;
       his desires are not upright—
       but the righteous will live by their faithfulness ^[d]—

    ⁵ indeed, wine betrays him;
       he is arrogant and never at rest.
       Because he is as greedy as the grave
       and like death is never satisfied,
       he gathers to himself all the nations
       and takes captive all the peoples.