Habakkuk 2

¹ I shal stand at my post, I shall station myself on my watch-tower, watching to see what he wil say tome, what answer he wil make to my complaints.

² Then Yahweh answered me and said, 'Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read.

³ For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens towards its end and it wil not lie; although it may takesome time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too long.

⁴ 'You see, anyone whose heart is not upright wil succumb, but the upright wil live through faithfulness.'

⁵ Now, surely, wealth is treacherous! He is arrogant, for ever on the move, with appetite as large asSheol and as insatiable as Death, gathering in al the nations, and making a harvest of al peoples.

⁶ Are not the peoples al bound to satirise and make up cryptic riddles about him? As for instance:Disaster to anyone who amasses goods not his (for how long?) and to anyone who weighs himself down withgoods taken in pledge!

⁷ Wil not your creditors suddenly stand up, wil not those who make you shiver wake up, and you wil fala prey to them?

⁸ Since you have plundered many nations, al the nations that remain wil plunder you, because of thebloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to all who live in it.

⁹ Disaster to anyone who amasses ill-gotten gains for his house, so as to fix his nest on high and soevade the reach of misfortune!

¹⁰ You have conspired to bring shame on your house: by overthrowing many peoples you have workedyour own ruin.

¹¹ For the very stone will protest from the wal , and the beam wil respond from the framework.

¹² Disaster to anyone who builds a town with bloodshed and founds a city on wrong-doing!

¹³ Is it not thanks to Yahweh Sabaoth that the peoples' toil is fuel for the fire, and the nations' labourcame to nothing?

¹⁴ But the earth wil be full of the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the depths of thesea.

¹⁵ Disaster to anyone who makes his neighbours drink, pouring out his poison until they are drunk, sothat he can see them naked!

¹⁶ You are ful of shame, not glory! Your turn now to drink and show your foreskin. The cup in Yahweh'sright hand comes round to you, and disgrace wil overshadow your glory.

¹⁷ For the violence done to the Lebanon wil overwhelm you and the massacre of animals will terrify you,because of the bloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to al who live in it. Disaster toanyone who says to the log, 'Wake up!', to the dumb stone, 'On your feet!' (This is the prophecy!) Look, he isencased in gold and silver, -but not a breath of life inside it!

¹⁸ What use is a sculpted image that a sculptor should make it? - a metal image, a lying instructor! Andwhy does the image-maker put his trust in it, that he should make dumb idols?

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²⁰ But Yahweh is in his holy Temple: let the whole earth be silent before him.