Habakkuk 1:15
“They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The conqueror hauls people in with hook, net, and dragnet, and rejoices over the catch.
What Does Habakkuk 1:15 Mean?
Habakkuk extends the fishing picture. Babylon sweeps up whole peoples with hook and net and dragnet, taking them all, and then celebrates the haul. The image is deliberately dehumanizing: nations are mere fish to be gathered, and their suffering is the conqueror's joy.
What troubles the prophet most is that last note — "they rejoice and are glad." Cruelty here is not reluctant but gleeful; the predator feasts on its success. This is the face of evil at its most hardened, taking pleasure in domination. The verse exposes how far a heart can drift from God: to find gladness in the suffering of others. Against such joy in evil stands the true and better joy the prophet himself will reach by the book's end — gladness rooted not in conquest but in the God of salvation.