Habakkuk 1:5-17

5‘All of you, look carefully at the other nations. You will be very surprised at what is happening. While you are still alive, I will do a very surprising thing. You would not believe it even if someone told you.

6I will give more power to the Babylonians. They are a cruel nation with brave soldiers. They march across the whole earth. They take cities that do not belong to them.

7They cause people to be very afraid. They obey no laws except their own rules.

8Their horses run faster than leopards. They are more cruel than wolves that attack in the evening. Their riders come on fast horses from places that are far away. They quickly attack their enemies, like hungry eagles that fly down to catch chickens.

9Their whole army comes to do violent things. They march forward like a wind from the desert. They make people their prisoners, as easily as if they are picking up sand.

10They insult kings, and they laugh at rulers. They laugh at all the strong cities of their enemies. They build heaps of earth against the walls, and they take those cities for themselves.

11Their army quickly moves on to another place, like a wind that blows. They think that their own god has made them strong, and so they are guilty.’

12Lord, you have always been God, since the beginning. You are the God that I worship as holy, and you will never die. Lord, you have chosen the Babylonians as your weapon to punish your people. You are a strong rock to protect us, but you have decided to use them to punish us.

13But you are too holy to accept anything that is evil. You cannot agree with people who do wrong things. So why do you let these wicked people live? Why do you say nothing? They are killing people who are more righteous than themselves.

14It seems that you have made people like fish in the sea. They are like animals that have no leader to rule them.

15The Babylonians can easily catch them, like people who catch fish with hooks. They throw their nets into the water, and they catch as many as they want. When they store their fish in special nets, they sing happy songs.

16Their nets give them everything that they need, so they offer sacrifices to their nets. Their nets give them plenty of good food to eat, so they burn incense to thank their nets.

17Will you let them continue to do that? Will they make their nets full of fish as many times as they want to? Will they continue to destroy other nations and never stop?