HabakkukChapter 2

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¹I will stand at my guard post.
I will take my place on the city walls.
I will watch to see what God will say to me.
I will see how I should answer when I am corrected. ²Then the LORD answered me:
"Write down this vision.
Write it clearly on tablets.
Then a messenger can run with it. ³For the vision is waiting for the time I have set.
It speaks about the end, and it does not lie.
It may seem slow, but wait for it.
For it will surely come.
It will not be late. ⁴Look at the proud person.
His heart is not right.
But the righteous will live by faith. ⁵Wealth betrays him too.
He is a proud man who is never at rest.
His hunger is as wide as the grave.
Like death, he is never satisfied.
He gathers all the nations to himself.
He collects all the peoples as his own.a ⁶Won't all these people make fun of him?
They will mock him and laugh at him with a saying:
'How terrible it will be for him who piles up what is not his!
He makes himself rich with many loans.
How long will this go on?' ⁷Won't the people you owe suddenly rise up?
Won't those who make you shake wake up?
Then they will rob you. ⁸You have robbed many nations.
So the people who are left will rob you.
This is because you killed people.
You did violence to the land, the cities, and everyone who lives in them. ⁹How terrible it will be for him who builds his house with money gained by cheating!
He sets his nest up high to escape the power of disaster. ¹⁰You have planned shame for your own house.
You wiped out many peoples.
By doing this, you have lost your own life. ¹¹For the stones in the wall will cry out.
The wooden beams will echo it back. ¹²How terrible it will be for him who builds a city by killing people!
He sets up a town by doing wrong. ¹³Isn't it the LORD of Hosts who has made it so?
The work of the people only feeds the fire.
The nations wear themselves out for nothing. ¹⁴For the earth will be filled with knowing the glory of the LORD.
It will be as full as the waters that cover the sea. ¹⁵How terrible it will be for him who gives his neighbors drinks!
He pours wine from the wineskin until they are drunk.
He does it so he can stare at their naked bodies. ¹⁶You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn to drink and show that you are uncircumcised!
The cup in the LORD's right hand will come around to you.
Deep shame will cover your glory. ¹⁷You did violence to Lebanon, and it will crush you.
You destroyed the animals, and it will terrify you.
This is because you killed people.
You did violence to the land, the cities, and everyone who lives in them. ¹⁸What good is an idol that a craftsman carves?
What good is a metal image that teaches lies?
The one who made it trusts in what he made.
He makes idols that cannot speak. ¹⁹How terrible it will be for him who says to wood, 'Wake up!'
He says to stone that cannot speak, 'Get up!'
Can it teach anyone?
Look, it is covered with gold and silver.
But there is no breath in it at all." ²⁰But the LORD is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.