O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! O Lord, how long shall I cry - The prophet feels himself strongly excited against the vices which he beheld; and which, it appears from this verse, he had often declaimed against, but in vain; the people continued in their vices, and God in his longsuffering.
Habakkuk begins his prophecy under a similar feeling, and nearly in similar words, as Juvenal did his Satires: -
Semper ego auditor tantum?
Nunquamne reponam?
Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri?
Sat. 1:1.
"Shall I always be a hearer only?
Shall I never reply?
So often vexed?"
Of violence - The most unlawful and outrageous acts.