Habakkuk 1
The full text of Habakkuk 1 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
2 How long, O LORD, must I cry for help
and you will not hear?
I cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save.
3 Why do you make me see iniquity?
Why do you look at wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and conflict abound.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
therefore justice comes out perverted.
5 "Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity
proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than evening wolves.
Their horsemen press proudly on;
their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence;
the set of their faces is forward.
They gather captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they heap up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and pass on —
guilty men, whose own might is their god.
12 Are you not from everlasting,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We will not die.
O LORD, you have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, you have established them for reproof.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrongdoing —
why do you look at the treacherous
and remain silent when the wicked
swallows up the one more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 He 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 his portion is rich
and his food is plentiful.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
Translation notes (3)
- Habakkuk 1:1a The Hebrew word maśśāʾ means "burden" or "oracle." Habakkuk uniquely questions God rather than delivering oracles to the people.
- Habakkuk 1:5a This verse is quoted in Acts 13:41. God's answer to Habakkuk's complaint is even more shocking than the problem itself.
- Habakkuk 1:12a According to an ancient scribal tradition called tiqqun sopherim, the original text "you will not die" was changed to "we will not die" to avoid implying that God could die.
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Hebrew, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open Habakkuk in the Trinity Bible app.
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