Habakkuk 2

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

² And the LORD answered me:
"Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.

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

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

⁵ Moreover, wine is a traitor;
an arrogant man will not remain at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he is never satisfied.
He gathers to himself all nations
and collects all peoples.

⁶ Will not all of these take up a taunt against him,
with mockery and riddles, and say:
"Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own —
how long? —
and loads himself with pledges!"

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

⁸ Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you —
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.

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

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

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

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

¹³ Is it not from the LORD of hosts
that peoples labor only for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?

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

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

¹⁶ You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Drink, you yourself, and expose your uncircumcision!
The cup in the LORD's right hand
will come around to you,
and utter shame will cover your glory.

¹⁷ For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and the destruction of the beasts will terrify you —
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.

¹⁸ What 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.

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

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