< Habakkuk 2 >
1 I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will speak with me, and what I shall answer concerning my complaint.
2 And Jehovah answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run who reads it.
3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hastens toward the end, and shall not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not delay.
4 Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright in him. (But the righteous man shall live by his faith.
5 Yea, moreover, wine is treacherous.) He is a haughty man, who does not keep at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers to him all nations, and heaps to him all peoples. (Sheol )
6 Shall not all these take up a derision against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him who increases that which is not his (how long?) and who loads himself with pledges!
7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee. And thou shall be for booty to them?
8 Because thou have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder thee, because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell therein.
9 Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
10 Thou have devised shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against thy soul.
11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
12 Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!
13 Behold, is it not of Jehovah of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, who adds thy venom, and also makes him drunken, that thou may look on their nakedness!
16 Thou are filled with shame, and not glory. Drink thou also, and be as one uncircumcised. The cup of Jehovah's right hand shall come around to thee, and foul shame shall be upon thy glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee and the plunder of the beasts (which made them afraid), because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell therein.
18 What profits the graven image, that the maker of it has engraved it, the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make dumb idols?
19 Woe to him who says to the wood, Awake, to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.
