UNROLL
Dusk in a city gate of Jerusalem: the stone benches where the elders judge stand empty, an elder’s staff left leaning on the wall, one gate leaf half shut, the flat wall top against a darkening sky.

How long, O LORD?

Habakkuk 1

Judah, about 605 BC. Have you asked God how long, and heard nothing back?

17 verses≈ 3 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1:1–4How long, O LORD?Violence in Judah, about 605 BCChapter 1
  2. 1:5–11The Chaldeans are comingGod’s first answer
  3. 1:12–17Why are You silent?How can a holy God use Babylon?
  4. 2Write the visionThe righteous will live by faith; five woes
  5. 3Habakkuk’s prayerIn wrath, remember mercy; yet I will rejoice

Habakkuk’s First Complaint

This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Habakkuk

How long, O LORD, must I call for help but You do not hear, or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save?

Habakkuk
Gray morning in a narrow stepped lane of Jerusalem: a house door split and hanging off its post, a broken storage jar and spilled barley on the steps, a clay lamp knocked from its niche; no one there.

Why do You make me see iniquity?

Why do You tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me.

Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.

Habakkuk

Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked hem in the righteous,

so that justice is perverted.

The LORD’s Answer

God

“Look at the nations and observe—

be utterly astounded!

For I am doing a work in your days

that you would never believe

even if someone told you.

God
God

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—

that ruthless and impetuous nation

which marches through the breadth of the earth

to seize dwellings not their own.

God

They are dreaded and feared;

from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.

God
God

All of them come bent on violence;

their hordes advance like the east wind;

they gather prisoners like sand.

God
Winter dusk over Jerusalem seen from the hills to the north: the city on its ridges inside plain stone walls, the long flat-roofed temple at the top, and all around it a low raised wall of heaped earth and stone with the tents and small cooking fires of a vast Babylonian camp behind it.

They scoff at kings

and make rulers an object of scorn.

They laugh at every fortress

and build up siege ramps to seize it.

God

Then they sweep by like the wind

and pass through.

They are guilty;

their own strength is their god.”

Question

Quick question

Habakkuk asked God why He let Judah’s violence go on. Read verses 5 and 6 again before you answer.

How did the LORD answer Habakkuk’s first complaint?

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

Habakkuk

Are You not from everlasting,

O LORD, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

Habakkuk

O LORD, You have appointed them

to execute judgment;

O Rock, You have established them

for correction.

Habakkuk

Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil,

and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

Habakkuk 1:13

Habakkuk

So why do You tolerate the faithless?

Why are You silent

while the wicked swallow up

those more righteous than themselves?

Habakkuk

You have made men like the fish of the sea,

like creeping things that have no ruler.

Habakkuk
Morning on a shingle beach: a great dragnet hauled half out of the shallows, crammed with silver fish in the mesh, its wet ropes running up the stones.

The foe pulls all of them up with a hook;

he catches them in his dragnet,

and gathers them in his fishing net;

so he rejoices gladly.

Habakkuk
Habakkuk

Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet

and burns incense to his fishing net,

for by these things his portion is sumptuous

and his food is rich.

Habakkuk
Gray dawn at the sea’s edge: a wet dragnet heaped empty on the stones, its ropes coiled ready, and beyond it on the calm water a second net already spread in a wide ring of floats.

Will he, therefore, empty his net

and continue to slay nations without mercy?

0:06

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

O LORD, my Holy One, You are from everlasting, and Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. When I cannot see what You are doing, teach me to bring my questions to You and not away from You.

You’ve experienced

Habakkuk 1

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A verse to carry with you

Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

Habakkuk 1:13

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