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Scripture · Old Testament

Habakkuk 1:4

Habakkuk 1:4 is verse 4 of Habakkuk chapter 1, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.

Berean Standard Bible

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

BSB source and public domain terms

King James Version

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

World English Bible

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

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Habakkuk 1:2–6 · Berean Standard Bible

2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help but You do not hear, or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save?

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.

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

5 “Look at the nations and observe— be utterly astounded! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you.

6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans — that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

Read all of Habakkuk 1

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Psalms 11:3

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Psalms 119:126

It is time for the LORD to act, for they have broken Your law.

Mark 7:9

He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition.

Romans 3:31

Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

1 Kings 21:13

And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.

Job 21:7

Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

Psalms 22:16

For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.

Psalms 58:1

Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?

Psalms 58:2

No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.

Psalms 59:2

Deliver me from workers of iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed.

Psalms 59:4

For no fault of my own, they move swiftly to attack me. Arise to help me, and take notice.

Psalms 82:1

God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods:

Psalms 82:2

“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

Psalms 82:3

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.

Psalms 82:4

Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked.

Psalms 82:5

They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Psalms 94:3

How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked exult?

Psalms 94:20

Can a corrupt throne be Your ally— one devising mischief by decree?

Psalms 94:21

They band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

Isaiah 1:21

See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!

Isaiah 1:22

Your silver has become dross; your fine wine is diluted with water.

Isaiah 1:23

Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

Isaiah 59:2

But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

Isaiah 59:3

For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.

Isaiah 59:4

No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

Isaiah 59:5

They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.

Isaiah 59:6

Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.

Isaiah 59:7

Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

Isaiah 59:8

The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.

Isaiah 59:13

rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.

Isaiah 59:14

So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

Isaiah 59:15

Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

Jeremiah 5:27

Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

Jeremiah 5:28

They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

Jeremiah 5:29

Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

Jeremiah 12:1

Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

Jeremiah 12:6

Even your brothers— your own father’s household— even they have betrayed you; even they have cried aloud against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.

Jeremiah 26:8

and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, “You must surely die!

Jeremiah 26:21

King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and officials heard his words, and the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah found out about it, he fled in fear and went to Egypt.

Jeremiah 26:22

Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan son of Achbor along with some other men.

Jeremiah 26:23

They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to the sword and his body thrown into the burial place of the common people.

Jeremiah 37:14

“That is a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials.

Jeremiah 37:15

The officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison.

Jeremiah 37:16

So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.

Jeremiah 38:4

Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”

Jeremiah 38:5

“Here he is,” replied King Zedekiah. “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.”

Jeremiah 38:6

So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

Ezekiel 22:25

The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

Ezekiel 22:26

Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Ezekiel 22:27

Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

Ezekiel 22:28

Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

Ezekiel 22:29

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

Ezekiel 22:30

I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.

Hosea 10:4

They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

Amos 5:7

There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.

Amos 5:12

For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.

Micah 2:1

Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.

Micah 2:2

They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.

Micah 3:1

Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?

Micah 3:2

You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

Micah 3:3

You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

Micah 7:2

The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

Micah 7:3

Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

Micah 7:4

The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.

Matthew 23:34

Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute in town after town.

Matthew 23:35

And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Matthew 23:36

Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Matthew 26:59

Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking false testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death.

Matthew 26:60

But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward

Matthew 26:61

and declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

Matthew 26:62

So the high priest stood up and asked Him, “Have You no answer? What are these men testifying against You?”

Matthew 26:63

But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to Him, “I charge You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

Matthew 26:64

“You have said it yourself,” Jesus answered. “But I say to all of you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Matthew 26:65

At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “He has blasphemed! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.

Matthew 26:66

What do you think?” “He deserves to die,” they answered.

Matthew 27:1

When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people conspired against Jesus to put Him to death.

Matthew 27:2

They bound Him, led Him away, and handed Him over to Pilate the governor.

Matthew 27:25

All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

Matthew 27:26

So Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified.

Acts 7:52

Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

Acts 7:59

While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Acts 23:12

When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

Acts 23:13

More than forty of them were involved in this plot.

Acts 23:14

They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.

James 2:6

But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

James 2:7

Are they not the ones who blaspheme the noble name by which you have been called?

Exodus 23:2

You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

Exodus 23:6

You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.

Deuteronomy 16:19

Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

Ezekiel 9:9

He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’

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