Habakkuk 1:5
“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →God breaks His silence, telling them to look among the nations and be astonished: He is about to do something so startling they would not believe it if told.
What Does Habakkuk 1:5 Mean?
At last the Lord answers — and His answer is itself unsettling. He directs attention away from Judah and out toward the nations, where something is stirring. What He will do is so far outside their expectations that mere report could not make them believe it. God is already at work; He has not been idle as it seemed.
This verse teaches that God's silence is never His absence. Behind the long wait, He was preparing a response no one anticipated. The same words are taken up in the New Testament as a warning not to scoff when God acts in surprising ways. The Lord's ways often exceed and overturn our assumptions, and faith means staying open to a God who works beyond the boundaries of what we thought possible.