“Are you not from of old?
O Yahweh!
My God!
My Holy One!
You shall not die!
O Yahweh!
You have marked them
For judgment.
You!
O Rock!
Have you established them
For punishment?
Your eyes are too pure
To behold evil!
You cannot look
On wrongdoing!
Why do you look
On the treacherous ones?
Why are you silent
When the wicked swallow
Those more righteous
Than they?”
Habakkuk has a prayer to Yahweh that seems to question some of his behavior. Yahweh, the holy one, his God, who would not die, has marked all these violent men for judgment. Yahweh, his rock, has set them up for punishment. Yahweh’s eyes were too pure to see evil, so that he could not look at any wrongdoing. Then Habakkuk wanted to know why Yahweh was so silent about these treacherous ones, when these wicked ones seem to be swallowing up the righteous ones? Habakkuk wanted Yahweh to act against these wicked people now, not tolerate them for a later punishment.
