Challenging Contradictions

³ A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
   and a rod for the backs of fools!
⁴ Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
   or you yourself will be just like him.
⁵ Answer a fool according to his folly,
   or he will be wise in his own eyes.
⁶ Sending a message by the hands of a fool
   is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.
⁷ Like the useless legs of one who is lame
   is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
⁸ Like tying a stone in a sling
   is the giving of honour to a fool.
⁹ Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand
   is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
¹⁰ Like an archer who wounds at random
   is one who hires a fool or any passer-by.
¹¹ As a dog returns to its vomit,
   so fools repeat their folly.
¹² Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?
   There is more hope for a fool than for them.

Doing Good for the Sake of the Gospel

2 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. ² Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

³ Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. ⁴ Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

⁶ Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. ⁷ In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness ⁸ and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

⁹ Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, ¹⁰ and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive.

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹² It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

¹⁵ These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

² How long, Lord, must I call for help,
  but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
  but you do not save?
³ Why do you make me look at injustice?
  Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
  there is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed,
  and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
  so that justice is perverted.

The Lord’s Answer

⁵ “Look at the nations and watch—
  and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
  that you would not believe,
  even if you were told.
⁶ I am raising up the Babylonians,
  that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
  to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷ They are a feared and dreaded people;
  they are a law to themselves
  and promote their own honour.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
  fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
  their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
  ⁹ they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
  and gather prisoners like sand.
¹⁰ They mock kings
  and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
  by building earthen ramps they capture them.
¹¹ Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
  guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

¹² Lord, are you not from everlasting?
  My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
  you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
¹³ Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
  you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
  Why are you silent while the wicked
  swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
¹⁴ You have made people like the fish in the sea,
  like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
¹⁵ The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
  he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
  and so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
  and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
  and enjoys the choicest food.
¹⁷ Is he to keep on emptying his net,
  destroying nations without mercy?

2 I will stand at my watch
  and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
  and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

The Lord’s Answer

² Then the Lord replied:

“Write down the revelation
  and make it plain on tablets
  so that a herald may run with it.
³ For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
  it speaks of the end
  and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
  it will certainly come
  and will not delay.

⁴ “See, the enemy is puffed up;
  his desires are not upright—
  but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness —
⁵ indeed, wine betrays him;
  he is arrogant and never at rest.
Because he is as greedy as the grave
  and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
  and takes captive all the peoples.

⁶ “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,

“‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods
  and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
  How long must this go on?’
⁷ Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
  Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
  Then you will become their prey.
⁸ Because you have plundered many nations,
  the peoples who are left will plunder you.
For you have shed human blood;
  you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

⁹ “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
  setting his nest on high
  to escape the clutches of ruin!
¹⁰ You have plotted the ruin of many peoples,
  shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
¹¹ The stones of the wall will cry out,
  and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.

¹² “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
  and establishes a town by injustice!
¹³ Has not the Lord Almighty determined
  that the people’s labour is only fuel for the fire,
  that the nations exhaust 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 gives drink to his neighbours,
  pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
  so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
¹⁶ You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
  Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed!
The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you,
  and disgrace will cover your glory.
¹⁷ The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
  and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
  you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

¹⁸ “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman?
  Or an image that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
  he makes idols that cannot speak.
¹⁹ Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
  Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’
Can it give guidance?
  It is covered with gold and silver;
  there is no breath in it.”

²⁰ The Lord is in his holy temple;
  let all the earth be silent before him.

Habakkuk’s Prayer

3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.

² Lord, I have heard of your fame;
  I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
  in our time make them known;
  in wrath remember mercy.

³ God came from Teman,
  the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens
  and his praise filled the earth.
⁴ His splendour was like the sunrise;
  rays flashed from his hand,
  where his power was hidden.
⁵ Plague went before him;
  pestilence followed his steps.
⁶ He stood, and shook the earth;
  he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
  and the age-old hills collapsed —
  but he marches on forever.
⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,
  the dwellings of Midian in anguish.

⁸ Were you angry with the rivers, Lord?
  Was your wrath against the streams?
Did you rage against the sea
  when you rode your horses
  and your chariots to victory?
⁹ You uncovered your bow,
  you called for many arrows.
You split the earth with rivers;
  ¹⁰ the mountains saw you and writhed.
Torrents of water swept by;
  the deep roared
  and lifted its waves on high.

¹¹ Sun and moon stood still in the heavens
  at the glint of your flying arrows,
  at the lightning of your flashing spear.
¹² In wrath you strode through the earth
  and in anger you threshed the nations.
¹³ You came out to deliver your people,
  to save your anointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
  you stripped him from head to foot.
¹⁴ With his own spear you pierced his head
  when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,
gloating as though about to devour
  the wretched who were in hiding.
¹⁵ You trampled the sea with your horses,
  churning the great waters.

¹⁶ I heard and my heart pounded,
  my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
  and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
  to come on the nation invading us.
¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud
  and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
  and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the sheepfold
  and no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
  I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

¹⁹ The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
  he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
  he enables me to tread on the heights.

For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.