Habakkuk 1 - Easy To Read Version

¹ This is the message that was given to Habakkuk the prophet. {\cf2\super [1]}

² Lord, I continue to ask for help. When will you listen to me? I cried to you about the violence. But you did nothing!

³ People are stealing things and hurting other people. People are arguing and fighting. Why do you make me look at these terrible things?

⁴ The law is weak and not fair to people. Evil people win their fights against good people. So, the law is no longer fair. Justice doesn’t win anymore!

⁵ \{The Lord answered,\} “Look at the other nations! Watch them, and you will be amazed. I will do something in your lifetime that will amaze you. \{You will have to see it to believe it.\} You would not believe it if you were told about it.

⁶ I will make the Babylonian people a strong nation. Those people are mean and powerful fighters. They will march across the earth. They will take houses and cities that don’t belong to them.

⁷ The Babylonian people will scare the other people. The Babylonian people will do what they want to do and go where they want to go.

⁸ Their horses will be faster than leopards {\cf2\super [2]} and meaner than wolves {\cf2\super [3]} at sunset. Their horse soldiers will come from faraway places. They will attack their enemies quickly, like a hungry eagle swooping down from the sky.

⁹ The one thing they all want to do is fight. Their armies will march fast like the wind in the desert. And the Babylonian soldiers will take many, many prisoners—as many as the grains of sand.

¹⁰ “The Babylonian soldiers will laugh at the kings of other nations. Foreign rulers will be like jokes to them. The Babylonian soldiers will laugh at the cities with tall, strong walls. The soldiers will simply build dirt roads up to the top of the walls and easily defeat the cities.

¹¹ Then they will leave like the wind and go on to fight against other places. The only thing those Babylonians will worship is their own strength.”

¹² \{Then Habakkuk said,\}

¹³ Your eyes are too good to look at evil.\par You can’t watch people doing wrong.\par So how can you watch\par those evil people win?\par How can you watch bad people\par defeating good people?\par

¹⁴ “You have made the people\par like fish in the sea.\par They are like little sea-animals\par without a leader.\par

¹⁵ The enemy catches all of them\par with hooks and nets.\par The enemy catches them in his net\par and drags them in.\par And the enemy is very happy\par with what he caught.\par

¹⁶ His net helps him live like a rich man\par and enjoy the best food.\par So the enemy worships his net.\par He makes sacrifices {\cf2\super [6]} and burns incense {\cf2\super [7]} \par to honor his net.\par

¹⁷ Will he continue to take riches with his net?\par Will he continue destroying people\par