Habakkuk 1:4

Bible in Basic English (1941)

For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers; because of which right is twisted.

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Ps 119:126 : 126 It is time, O Lord, for you to let your work be seen; for they have made your law without effect.
  • Ezek 9:9 : 9 Then he said to me, The sin of the children of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is full of blood and the town full of evil ways: for they say, The Lord has gone away from the land, and the Lord does not see.
  • Job 21:7 : 7 Why is life given to the evil-doers? why do they become old and strong in power?
  • Ps 94:20-21 : 20 What part with you has the seat of sin, which makes evil into a law? 21 They are banded together against the soul of the upright, to give decisions against those who have done no wrong.
  • Isa 1:21-23 : 21 The upright town has become untrue; there was a time when her judges gave right decisions, when righteousness had a resting-place in her, but now she is full of those who take men's lives. 22 Your silver is no longer true metal, your wine is mixed with water. 23 Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.
  • Isa 5:20 : 20 Cursed are those who give the name of good to evil, and of evil to what is good: who make light dark, and dark light: who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter!
  • Jer 12:1 : 1 You are in the right, O Lord, when I put my cause before you: still let me take up with you the question of your decisions: why does the evil-doer do well? why are the workers of deceit living in comfort?
  • Ps 58:1-2 : 1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. Michtam. Of David.> Is there righteousness in your mouths, O you gods? are you upright judges, O you sons of men? 2 The purposes of your hearts are evil; your hands are full of cruel doings on the earth.
  • Ps 59:2 : 2 Take me out of the power of the workers of evil, and keep me safe from the men of blood.
  • Ps 59:4 : 4 For no sin of mine they go quickly and get themselves ready; be awake and come to my help, and see.
  • Ps 82:1-5 : 1 <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> God is in the meeting-place of God; he is judging among the gods. 2 How long will you go on judging falsely, having respect for the persons of evil-doers? (Selah.) 3 Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their rights. 4 Be the saviour of the poor and those who have nothing: take them out of the hand of the evil-doers. 5 They have no knowledge or sense; they go about in the dark: all the bases of the earth are moved.
  • Ps 94:3 : 3 How long will sinners, O Lord, how long will sinners have joy over us?
  • Exod 23:2 : 2 Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:
  • Exod 23:6 : 6 Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.
  • Deut 16:19 : 19 You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright false.
  • 1 Kgs 21:13 : 13 And the two good-for-nothing persons came in and took their seats before him and gave witness against Naboth, in front of the people, saying, Naboth has been cursing God and the king. Then they took him outside the town and had him stoned to death.
  • Jer 12:6 : 6 For even your brothers, your father's family, even they have been untrue to you, crying loudly after you: have no faith in them, though they say fair words to you.
  • Jer 26:8 : 8 Now, when Jeremiah had come to the end of saying everything the Lord had given him orders to say to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people took him by force, saying, Death will certainly be your fate.
  • Jer 26:21-23 : 21 And when his words came to the ears of Jehoiakim the king and all his men of war and his captains, the king would have put him to death; but Uriah, hearing of it, was full of fear and went in flight into Egypt: 22 And Jehoiakim the king sent Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt. 23 And they took Uriah out of Egypt and came back with him to Jehoiakim the king; who put him to death with the sword, and had his dead body put into the resting-place of the bodies of the common people.
  • Jer 37:14-16 : 14 Then Jeremiah said, That is not true; I am not going to the Chaldaeans. But he would not give ear to him: so Irijah made him prisoner and took him to the rulers. 15 And the rulers were angry with Jeremiah, and gave him blows and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison. 16 So Jeremiah came into the hole of the prison, under the arches, and was there for a long time.
  • Jer 38:4-6 : 4 Then the rulers said to the king, Let this man be put to death, because he is putting fear into the hearts of the men of war who are still in the town, and into the hearts of the people, by saying such things to them: this man is not working for the well-being of the people, but for their damage. 5 Then Zedekiah the king said, See, he is in your hands: for the king was not able to do anything against them. 6 So they took Jeremiah and put him into the water-hole of Malchiah, the king's son, in the place of the armed watchmen: and they let Jeremiah down with cords. And in the hole there was no water, but wet earth: and Jeremiah went down into the wet earth.
  • Isa 59:2-8 : 2 But your sins have come between you and your God, and by your evil doings his face has been veiled from you, so that he will give you no answer. 3 For your hands are unclean with blood, and your fingers with sin; your lips have said false things, and your tongue gives out deceit. 4 No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false; they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil. 5 They give birth to snake's eggs, and make spider's threads: whoever takes their eggs for food comes to his death, and the egg which is crushed becomes a poison-snake. 6 Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands. 7 Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways. 8 They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in them has no knowledge of peace.
  • Isa 59:13-15 : 13 We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit. 14 And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town. 15 Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause.
  • Jer 5:27-29 : 27 As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth. 28 They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights. 29 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
  • Ezek 22:25-30 : 25 Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her. 26 Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them. 27 Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit. 28 And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing. 29 The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land. 30 And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.
  • Hos 10:4 : 4 Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field.
  • Amos 5:7 : 7 You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth;
  • Amos 5:12 : 12 For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place.
  • Mic 2:1-2 : 1 A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power. 2 They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage.
  • Mic 3:1-3 : 1 And I said, Give ear, now, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the people of Israel: is it not for you to have knowledge of what is right? 2 You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones; 3 Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food, skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up as if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot.
  • Mic 7:2-4 : 2 The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man is going after his brother with a net. 3 Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted. 4 The best of them is like a waste plant, and their upright ones are like a wall of thorns. Sorrow! the day of their fate has come; now will trouble come on them.
  • Matt 23:34-36 : 34 For this reason, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them you will put to death and put on the cross, and to some of them you will give blows in your Synagogues, driving them from town to town; 35 So that on you may come all the blood of the upright on the earth, from the blood of upright Abel to the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom you put to death between the Temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, All these things will come on this generation.
  • Matt 26:59-66 : 59 Now the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin were looking for false witness against Jesus, so that they might put him to death; 60 And they were not able to get it, though a number of false witnesses came. 61 But later there came two who said, This man said, I am able to give the Temple of God to destruction, and to put it up again in three days. 62 And the high priest got up and said to him, Have you no answer? what is it which these say against you? 63 But Jesus said not a word. And the high priest said to him, I put you on oath, by the living God, that you will say to us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. 64 Jesus says to him, You say so: but I say to you, From now you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. 65 Then the high priest, violently parting his robes, said, He has said evil against God: what more need have we of witnesses? for now his words against God have come to your ears: 66 What is your opinion? They made answer and said, It is right for him to be put to death.
  • Matt 27:1-2 : 1 Now when it was morning, all the chief priests and those in authority took thought together with the purpose of putting Jesus to death. 2 And they put cords on him and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate, the ruler.
  • Matt 27:25-26 : 25 And all the people made answer and said, Let his blood be on us, and on our children. 26 Then he let Barabbas go free: but after having Jesus whipped, he gave him up to be put to death on the cross.
  • Mark 7:9 : 9 And he said to them, Truly you put on one side the law of God, so that you may keep the rules which have been handed down to you.
  • Acts 7:52 : 52 Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death;
  • Acts 7:59 : 59 And Stephen, while he was being stoned, made prayer to God, saying, Lord Jesus, take my spirit.
  • Acts 23:12-14 : 12 And when it was day, the Jews came together and put themselves under an oath that they would take no food or drink till they had put Paul to death. 13 And more than forty of them took this oath. 14 And they came to the chief priests and the rulers and said, We have taken a great oath to take no food till we have put Paul to death
  • Rom 3:31 : 31 Do we, then, through faith make the law of no effect? in no way: but we make it clear that the law is important.
  • Jas 2:6-7 : 6 But you have put the poor man to shame. Are not the men of wealth rulers over you? do they not take you by force before their judges? 7 Do they not say evil of the holy name which was given to you?
  • Ps 11:3 : 3 If the bases are broken down, what is the upright man to do?
  • Ps 22:16 : 16 Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Hab 1:3
    80%

    3Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes fixed on wrong? for wasting and violent acts are before me: and there is fighting and bitter argument.

  • Isa 59:14-15
    2 verses
    78%

    14And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town.

    15Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause.

  • Eccl 3:16
    77%

    16And again, I saw under the sun, in the place of the judges, that evil was there; and in the place of righteousness, that evil was there.

  • Isa 5:23
    77%

    23Who for a reward give support to the cause of the sinner, and who take away the righteousness of the upright from him.

  • Jer 5:28-29
    2 verses
    76%

    28They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.

    29Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?

  • Jer 12:1
    75%

    1You are in the right, O Lord, when I put my cause before you: still let me take up with you the question of your decisions: why does the evil-doer do well? why are the workers of deceit living in comfort?

  • Amos 5:7
    75%

    7You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth;

  • Job 8:3
    75%

    3Does God give wrong decisions? or is the Ruler of all not upright in his judging?

  • Job 36:17
    75%

    17...

  • Isa 59:8-9
    2 verses
    75%

    8They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in them has no knowledge of peace.

    9For this cause our right is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us: we are looking for light, but there is only the dark; for the shining of the sun, but our way is in the night.

  • Prov 21:7
    75%

    7By their violent acts the evil-doers will be pulled away, because they have no desire to do what is right.

  • Eccl 8:11
    74%

    11Because punishment for an evil work comes not quickly, the minds of the sons of men are fully given to doing evil.

  • Deut 25:1
    74%

    1If there is an argument between men and they go to law with one another, let the judges give their decision for the upright, and against the wrongdoer.

  • Mic 7:3
    74%

    3Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted.

  • Isa 10:1-2
    2 verses
    74%

    1Cursed are those who make evil decisions, and the writers who make the records of their cruel acts:

    2Who do wrong to the poor in their cause, and take away the right of the crushed among my people, so that they may have the property of widows, and get under their power those who have no father.

  • Job 19:7
    73%

    7Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.

  • Ps 37:32
    73%

    32The sinners are watching the upright man, desiring to put him to death.

  • Ps 82:2
    73%

    2How long will you go on judging falsely, having respect for the persons of evil-doers? (Selah.)

  • Ps 1:5
    73%

    5For this cause there will be no mercy for sinners when they are judged, and the evil-doers will have no place among the upright,

  • Job 9:24
    73%

    24The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has done it?

  • Ps 94:20
    73%

    20What part with you has the seat of sin, which makes evil into a law?

  • Prov 28:4
    72%

    4Those who have no respect for the law give praise to the evil-doer; but such as keep the law are against him.

  • Job 34:17
    72%

    17How may a hater of right be a ruler? and will you say that the upright Ruler of all is evil?

  • Zeph 3:5
    72%

    5The Lord in her is upright; he will not do evil; every morning he lets his righteousness be seen, he is unchanging; but the evil-doer has no sense of shame.

  • Hab 1:13
    72%

    13Before your holy eyes sin may not be seen, and you are unable to put up with wrong; why, then, are your eyes on the false? why do you say nothing when the evil-doer puts an end to one who is more upright than himself?

  • Isa 26:10
    72%

    10Even if you are kind to the evil-doer, he will not go after righteousness; even in the land of the upright he will still go on in his wrongdoing, and will not see the glory of the Lord.

  • Prov 17:15
    72%

    15He who gives a decision for the evil-doer and he who gives a decision against the upright, are equally disgusting to the Lord.

  • Mal 2:17
    72%

    17You have made the Lord tired with your words. And still you say, How have we made him tired? By your saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the eyes of the Lord, and he has delight in them; or, Where is God the judge?

  • Eccl 8:14
    72%

    14There is a thing which is to no purpose done on the earth: that there are good men to whom is given the same punishment as those who are evil, and there are evil men who get the reward of the good. I say that this again is to no purpose.

  • Amos 5:12
    72%

    12For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place.

  • Isa 59:4
    72%

    4No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false; they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil.

  • Isa 29:21
    72%

    21Who give help to a man in a wrong cause, and who put a net for the feet of him who gives decisions in the public place, taking away a man's right without cause.

  • Job 34:12
    72%

    12Truly, God does not do evil, and the Ruler of all is not a false judge.

  • Isa 1:17
    72%

    17Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.

  • Mic 3:9
    71%

    9Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob, you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right, twisting what is straight.

  • Job 31:3
    71%

    3Is it not trouble for the sinner, and destruction for the evil-doers?

  • Ps 55:11
    71%

    11Evil is there; cruel rule and deceit are ever in the streets.

  • Exod 23:6
    71%

    6Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.

  • Eccl 7:15
    71%

    15These two have I seen in my life which is to no purpose: a good man coming to his end in his righteousness, and an evil man whose days are long in his evil-doing.

  • Job 36:6
    71%

    6His eyes are ever on the upright, and he gives to the crushed their right;

  • Amos 5:24
    71%

    24But let the right go rolling on like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

  • Ps 94:15
    71%

    15But decisions will again be made in righteousness; and they will be kept by all whose hearts are true.

  • Eccl 5:8
    71%

    8It is good generally for a country where the land is worked to have a king.

  • Ps 7:9
    71%

    9O let the evil of the evil-doer come to an end, but give strength to the upright: for men's minds and hearts are tested by the God of righteousness.

  • Ps 125:3
    71%

    3For the rod of sinners will not be resting on the heritage of the upright; so that the upright may not put out their hands to evil.

  • Prov 18:5
    71%

    5To have respect for the person of the evil-doer is not good, or to give a wrong decision against the upright.