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Laws cannot be enforced;
    justice is always the loser;
criminals crowd out honest people
    and twist the laws around.

The Lord Answers Habakkuk

(A) Look and be amazed
at what's happening
    among the nations!
Even if you were told,
you would never believe
    what's taking place now.
(B) I am sending the Babylonians.
They are fierce and cruel—
    marching across the land,
    conquering cities and towns.

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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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