7. They spread fear and terror, and in their pride they are a law to themselves.
8. “Their horses are faster than leopards, fiercer than hungry wolves. Their horsemen come riding from distant lands; their horses paw the ground. They come swooping down like eagles attacking their prey.
9. “Their armies advance in violent conquest, and everyone is terrified as they approach. Their captives are as numerous as grains of sand.
10. They treat kings with contempt and laugh at high officials. No fortress can stop them — they pile up earth against it and capture it.
11. Then they sweep on like the wind and are gone, these men whose power is their god.”
12. Lord, from the very beginning you are God. You are my God, holy and eternal. Lord, my God and protector, you have chosen the Babylonians and made them strong so that they can punish us.
13. But how can you stand these treacherous, evil men? Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong. So why are you silent while they destroy people who are more righteous than they are?
14. How can you treat people like fish or like a swarm of insects that have no ruler to direct them?