Habakkuk 1:2

The prophet complains

2 LORD, how long will I call for help and you not listen? I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you don't deliver us.

Habakkuk 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Habakkuk 1:2

O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!
&c.] The prophet having long observed the sins and iniquities of the people among whom he lived, and being greatly distressed in his mind on account of them, had frequently and importunately cried unto the Lord to put a stop to the abounding of them, that the people might be brought to a sense of their sins, and reform from them; but nothing of this kind appearing, he concludes his prayers were not heard, and therefore expostulates with the Lord upon this head: [even] cry unto thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save!
either of violence done to himself in the discharge of his office, or of one man to another, of the rich to the poor; and yet, though he cried again and again to the Lord, to check this growing evil, and deliver the oppressed out of the hands of their oppressors, it was not done; which was matter of grief and trouble to him.

Habakkuk 1:2 In-Context

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 LORD, how long will I call for help and you not listen? I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you don't deliver us.
3 Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish so that devastation and violence are before me? There is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 The Instruction is ineffective. Justice does not endure because the wicked surround the righteous. Justice becomes warped.
5 Look among the nations and watch! Be astonished and stare because something is happening in your days that you wouldn't believe even if told.
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