Habakkuk 2

¹I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower , and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint .

²And the Lord answered me: Write the vision ; make it plain on tablets , so he may run who reads it.

³For still the vision awaits its appointed time ; it hastens to the end —it will not lie . If it seems slow , wait for it; it will surely come ; it will not delay .

⁴Behold , his soul is puffed up ; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith .

⁵Moreover , wine is a traitor , an arrogant man who is never at rest . His greed is as wide as Sheol ; like death he has never enough . He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples .

⁶Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say , Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges !

⁷Will not your debtors suddenly arise , and those awake who will make you tremble ? Then you will be spoil for them.

⁸Because you have plundered many nations , all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth , to cities and all who dwell in them.

⁹Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house , to set his nest on high , to be safe from the reach of harm !

¹⁰You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples ; you have forfeited your life .

¹¹For the stone will cry out from the wall , and the beam from the woodwork respond .

¹²Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity !

¹³Behold , is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire , and nations weary themselves for nothing ?

¹⁴For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea .

¹⁵Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink — you pour out your wrath and make them drunk , in order to gaze at their nakedness !

¹⁶You will have your of shame instead of glory . Drink , yourself, and show your uncircumcision ! The cup in the Lord ’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory !

¹⁷The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth , to cities and all who dwell in them.

¹⁸What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies ? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols !

¹⁹Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake ; to a silent stone , Arise ! Can this teach ? Behold , it is overlaid with gold and silver , and there is no breath at all in it.

²⁰But the Lord is in his holy temple ; let all the earth keep silence before him.