Thy Strong Word — Habakkuk 1–3: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

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The prophet Habakkuk does what most of us only do in private: he argues with God. Why do the wicked prosper? Why does violence go unchecked? God’s answer is stranger than the question: He’s raising up the Chaldeans, a “nasty” nation hell bent on destruction. The book moves from complaint to cosmic courtroom to a beautiful temple hymn, ending with a confession of faith that holds nothing back. “Though the fig tree should not blossom… yet I will rejoice in the Lord.”

The Rev. David Boisclair, senior pastor at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Overland, Missouri, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Habakkuk 1–3.

To learn more about Our Redeemer, visit ourredeemerstl.org.

Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven. Learn more at lhfmissions.org.

Habakkuk 1-3

1[1] The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

[2] O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

and you will not save?

[3] Why do you make me see iniquity,

and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

strife and contention arise.

[4] So the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

so justice goes forth perverted.

The LORD’s Answer

[5] “Look among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

For I am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

[6] For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth,

to seize dwellings not their own.

[7] They are dreaded and fearsome;

their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

[8] Their horses are swifter than leopards,

more fierce than the evening wolves;

their horsemen press proudly on.

Their horsemen come from afar;

they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

[9] They all come for violence,

all their faces forward.

They gather captives like sand.

[10] At kings they scoff,

and at rulers they laugh.

They laugh at every fortress,

for they pile up earth and take it.

[11] Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

[12] Are you not from everlasting,

O LORD my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

[13] You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

why do you idly look at traitors

and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

[14] You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

[15] He brings all of them up with a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

[16] Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

for by them he lives in luxury,

and his food is rich.

[17] Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2[1] I will take my stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

[2] And the LORD answered me:

“Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.

[3] For still the vision awaits its appointed time;

it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it;

it will surely come; it will not delay.

[4] “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but the righteous shall live by his faith.

[5] “Moreover, wine is a traitor,

an arrogant man who is never at rest.

His greed is as wide as Sheol;

like death he has never enough.

He gathers for himself all nations

and collects as his own all peoples.”

Woe to the Chaldeans

[6] Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—

for how long?—

and loads himself with pledges!”

[7] Will not your debtors suddenly arise,

and those awake who will make you tremble?

Then you will be spoil for them.

[8] Because you have plundered many nations,

all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,

for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

[9] “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

to set his nest on high,

to be safe from the reach of harm!

[10] You have devised shame for your house

by cutting off many peoples;

you have forfeited your life.

[11] For the stone will cry out from the wall,

and the beam from the woodwork respond.

[12] “Woe to him who builds a town with blood

and founds a city on iniquity!

[13] Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts

that peoples labor merely for fire,

and nations weary themselves for nothing?

[14] For the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

[15] “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—

you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,

in order to gaze at their nakedness!

[16] You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.

Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!

The cup in the LORD’s right hand

will come around to you,

and utter shame will come upon your glory!

[17] The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,

for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

[18] “What profit is an idol

when its maker has shaped it,

a metal image, a teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in his own creation

when he makes speechless idols!

[19] Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;

to a silent stone, Arise!

Can this teach?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

and there is no breath at all in it.

[20] But the LORD is in his holy temple;

let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Habakkuk’s Prayer

3[1] A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

[2] O LORD, I have heard the report of you,

and your work, O LORD, do I fear.

In the midst of the years revive it;

in the midst of the years make it known;

in wrath remember mercy.

[3] God came from Teman,

and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah

His splendor covered the heavens,

and the earth was full of his praise.

[4] His brightness was like the light;

rays flashed from his hand;

and there he veiled his power.

[5] Before him went pestilence,

and plague followed at his heels.

[6] He stood and measured the earth;

he looked and shook the nations;

then the eternal mountains were scattered;

the everlasting hills sank low.

His were the everlasting ways.

[7] I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;

the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

[8] Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?

Was your anger against the rivers,

or your indignation against the sea,

when you rode on your horses,

on your chariot of salvation?

[9] You stripped the sheath from your bow,

calling for many arrows. Selah

You split the earth with rivers.

[10] The mountains saw you and writhed;

the raging waters swept on;

the deep gave forth its voice;

it lifted its hands on high.

[11] The sun and moon stood still in their place

at the light of your arrows as they sped,

at the flash of your glittering spear.

[12] You marched through the earth in fury;

you threshed the nations in anger.

[13] You went out for the salvation of your people,

for the salvation of your anointed.

You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,

laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah

[14] You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,

who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,

rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.

[15] You trampled the sea with your horses,

the surging of mighty waters.

[16] I hear, and my body trembles;

my lips quiver at the sound;

rottenness enters into my bones;

my legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

to come upon people who invade us.

Habakkuk Rejoices in the LORD

[17] Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

[18] yet I will rejoice in the LORD;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

[19] GOD, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the deer’s;

he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.