Habakkuk 1:3
1 This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:
2 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?
Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
5 “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.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.
- KJV
- Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
- WEB
- Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.
- ASV
- Why dost thou show me iniquity, and look upon perverseness? for destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.
- DARBY
- Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.
- BLB
- Why do you cause me to me see iniquity and to look upon trouble? Destruction and violence [are] before me, and there is strife, and contention rises up.
- ÅB
- Hvorfor lar du meg skue urett, og hvordan kan du selv se på slik elendighet? Ødeleggelse og vold har jeg for mine øyne; det yppes kiv og oppstår tretter.
- OTB
- Hvorfor lar du meg se urett,
og hvorfor ser du passivt på ondskap?
Ødeleggelse og vold er foran meg;
strid og trette oppstår. - B1930
- Hvorfor lar du mig skue urett, og hvorledes kan du selv se på slik elendighet? Ødeleggelse og vold har jeg for mine øine; det yppes kiv og opstår tretter.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Psalms 55:9–11
O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.
Read in contextJeremiah 9:2–6
If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.
Read in contextMicah 7:1–4
Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.
Read in contextEcclesiastes 5:8
If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.
Read in contextJeremiah 20:8
For whenever I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and destruction. For the word of the LORD has become to me a reproach and derision all day long.
Read in contextPsalms 73:3–9
For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Read in contextPsalms 120:5–6
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!
Read in context2 Peter 2:8
(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—
Read in context