Bible Strands
Habakkuk 1:3
Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Habakkuk addresses God directly, posing his question immediately after recording his initial cry for deliverance from violence and his complaint of divine silence.
The words — אָוֶן ('a.ven, "wickedness") and חָמָס (cha.Mas, "violence") name the specific moral and physical corruption the prophet reports observing.
The thread — The motif of lamenting visible oppression and urban strife appears in Psalms 55:9, Ecclesiastes 5:8, and Jeremiah 9:2.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to acknowledge the raw reality of unchecked injustice without resolving the tension between divine permission and human suffering.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
Cross-references
- Psalms 55:9 O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.
- Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.
- Jeremiah 9:2 If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.
- Jeremiah 20:8 For whenever I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and destruction. For the word of the LORD has become to me a reproach and derision all day long.
- Micah 7:1 Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.
- Psalms 12:1 For the choirmaster. According to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
- Psalms 73:3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- Psalms 120:5 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!
- Ecclesiastes 4:1 Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.
- Ezekiel 2:6 But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.