₁This is the message that the LORD revealed to the prophet Habakkuk.

₂O LORD, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from violence? ₃Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you endure to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are all round me, and there is fighting and quarrelling everywhere. ₄The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.

₁I will climb my watchtower and wait to see what the LORD will tell me to say and what answer he will give to my complaint.

₂The LORD gave me this answer: “Write down clearly on clay tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance. ₃Put it in writing, because it is not yet time for it to come true. But the time is coming quickly, and what I show you will come true. It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed. ₄And this is the message: ‘Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.’ ”