The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

    O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
        and you will not hear?
    Or cry to you “Violence!”
        and you will not save?
    Why do you make me see iniquity,
        and why do you idly look at wrong?
    Destruction and violence are before me;
        strife and contention arise.
    So the law is paralyzed,
        and justice never goes forth.
    For the wicked surround the righteous;
        so justice goes forth perverted.
    
    
        “Look among the nations, and see;
        wonder and be astounded.
    For I am doing a work in your days
        that you would not believe if told.
    For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
        that bitter and hasty nation,
    who march through the breadth of the earth,
        to seize dwellings not their own.
    They are dreaded and fearsome;
        their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
    Their horses are swifter than leopards,
        more fierce than the evening wolves;
        their horsemen press proudly on.
    Their horsemen come from afar;
        they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
    They all come for violence,
        all their faces forward.
        They gather captives like sand.
    At kings they scoff,
        and at rulers they laugh.
    They laugh at every fortress,
        for they pile up earth and take it.
    Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
        guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
    
    
        Are you not from everlasting,
        O LORD my God, my Holy One?
        We shall not die.
    O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
        and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
    You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
        and cannot look at wrong,
    why do you idly look at traitors
        and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
        the man more righteous than he?
    You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
        like crawling things that have no ruler.
    He brings all of them up with a hook;
        he drags them out with his net;
    he gathers them in his dragnet;
        so he rejoices and is glad.
    Therefore he sacrifices to his net
        and makes offerings to his dragnet;
    for by them he lives in luxury,
        and his food is rich.
    Is he then to keep on emptying his net
        and mercilessly killing nations forever?
    
    
    I will take my stand at my watchpost
        and station myself on the tower,
    and look out to see what he will say to me,
        and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
    
    
      And the LORD answered me:

    “Write the vision;
        make it plain on tablets,
        so he may run who reads it.
    For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
        it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
    If it seems slow, wait for it;
        it will surely come; it will not delay.
    
    
    “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
        but the righteous shall live by his faith.
    
    
    “Moreover, wine is a traitor,
        an arrogant man who is never at rest.
    His greed is as wide as Sheol;
        like death he has never enough.
    He gathers for himself all nations
        and collects as his own all peoples.”
    
    
      Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

    “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
        for how long?—
        and loads himself with pledges!”
    Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
        and those awake who will make you tremble?
        Then you will be spoil for them.
    Because you have plundered many nations,
        all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
    for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
        to cities and all who dwell in them.
    
    
    “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
        to set his nest on high,
        to be safe from the reach of harm!
    You have devised shame for your house
        by cutting off many peoples;
        you have forfeited your life.
    For the stone will cry out from the wall,
        and the beam from the woodwork respond. (ESV)

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

  To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

  May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

  Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

  For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (ESV)