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        The Instruction is ineffective.
            Justice does not endure
            because the wicked surround the righteous.
        Justice becomes warped.

The Lord responds

Look among the nations and watch!
        Be astonished and stare
            because something is happening in your days
                that you wouldn’t believe even if told.
I am about to rouse the Chaldeans,
        that bitter and impetuous nation,
            which travels throughout the earth to possess dwelling places it does not own.

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Therefore the law(A) is paralyzed,
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
    so that justice(B) is perverted.(C)

The Lord’s Answer

“Look at the nations and watch—
    and be utterly amazed.(D)
For I am going to do something in your days
    that you would not believe,
    even if you were told.(E)
I am raising up the Babylonians,[a](F)
    that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth(G)
    to seize dwellings not their own.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 1:6 Or Chaldeans

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you.

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not their's.

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