Habakkuk 2
1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the rampart. I will watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer to my complaint.
2 The LORD answered me: “Write down the vision and make it clear on tablets, so that the one who reads it may run.
3 For the vision still awaits its appointed time; it hastens toward the end and will not prove false. If it seems slow, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not be late.”
4 Look at the arrogant one: he is not upright within. But the righteous will live by his faithfulness.
5 Moreover, wine is treacherous. The arrogant man is never at rest; he enlarges his appetite like Sheol and, like death, is never satisfied. He gathers all nations to himself and collects all peoples for himself.
6 Will not all of them take up a taunt against him, a riddle in a song? They will say: “Woe to the one who heaps up what is not his—how long?—and loads himself with pledges!
7 Will not your creditors suddenly rise up, and those who will shake you awake? Then you will become their prey.
8 Because you plundered many nations, all the rest of the peoples will plunder you, because of human bloodshed and violence against the land, the city, and all who live in it.
9 Woe to the one who makes an evil gain for his house, setting his nest on high to escape the reach of harm!
10 You plotted shame for your house: you cut down many peoples and sinned against yourself.”
11 “For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam will answer from the woodwork.
12 Woe to the one who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town with injustice!
13 Look, does this not come from the LORD of Armies: peoples toil for fire, and nations wear themselves out for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled with knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe to the one who gives his neighbor drink—you who pour out your venom and make him drunk, so you can look on their nakedness!
16 You have had your fill of shame instead of glory. You too, drink, and show yourself uncircumcised! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will turn around to reach you, and disgrace will cover your glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of its animals will terrify you, because of human bloodshed and violence against the land, the city, and all who live in it.
18 What use is a carved image, fashioned by its maker? What use is a cast idol, a teacher of lies, that its maker trusts in his own handiwork, making mute idols?
19 Woe to the one who says to a piece of wood, ‘Wake up!’ and to a silent stone, ‘Get up!’ Can that teach? Look, it is covered with gold and silver, but there is no breath in it at all.”
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!
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