Habakkuk 2

1. I will stand on my watch and set myself on the tower, and will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

2. And the LORD answered me and said, “Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, so that a man may read it swiftly,

3. For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it shall speak at the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not delay.

4. Behold, his soul is puffed up, and is not upright; but the just shall live by his faith.

5. Yea also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man and he is not content. He widens his desire like the grave, and he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers all nations to himself, and heaps to himself all the people.

6. Shall not all these lift up a parable against him, and a mocking riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his! How long then, shall he heap up many pledges upon himself?’

7. Shall not your creditors who strike you rise up suddenly, and those who oppress you awake, and you become a prize to them?

8. Because you have stripped many nations, all the rest of the people shall strip you; because of men’s blood, and the violence of the land, of the city, and of all who dwell in it.

9. Woe to him who robs evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be delivered from the power of evil!

10. You have devised ignominy to your house, to make an end of many people, and are sinning against your 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 the LORD of hosts that the people labor for the fire; yea, and the nations weary themselves only for vanity?

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

15. Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, mixing in your venom to make him drunk, that you may gaze upon their nakedness!

16. You are filled with shame instead of glory; drink also, and be seen as one uncircumcised! The cup of the LORD’S right hand shall turn upon you, and disgrace shall be your glory,

17. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the destruction of beasts shall terrify them because of the blood of man, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all those dwelling in it.

18. What does an image profit, for its maker has carved it; a molten image, and a teacher of lies? For does the maker trust in his work—which are but dumb idols?

19. Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ To a dumb stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet no breath is in its midst.

20. But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.”