Habakkuk 2:1-20
2 ** I will stand at my post and station myself on guard and be on the lookout to see what he will say by me and what response I shall make to my reproach.
2 * And Jehovah answered me and said “Write a vision and set it forth clearly on the tablets to be read swiftly;
3 ** for there is yet a vision for the date, to depose of the end, and it will not lie. If it delays, wait for it; for come it will, and not be belated.”
4 ** Now in the timeserver he takes no satisfaction, but the honest man shall live by his steadfastness;
5 how much less shall a faithless brute be pleasing, a haughty man, who has distended his appetite like the grave, being like death insatiable, and has gathered in all the nations and swept up all the peoples!
6 * Shall not all these strike up a lay of him and propound a satire on him, and say “Ha, you who amass—for how long?—what is not yours, and load yourself up with things you have taken in pawn!
7 * Will not your creditors stand up suddenly and your worriers wake, and you be for their pillaging?
8 Because you have despoiled many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall despoil you, for bloodshed of men and outrage to earth, town and all who live in it.
9 “Ha, you who make hurtful winnings for your house, placing your nest aloft, to come off safe out of the clutch of disaster!
10 * You have contrived shame for your house, maiming many peoples and letting your life be the forfeit;
11 * for stones will cry out from walls, and joists out of woodwork will back them up.
12 “Ha, you who build a city by bloodshed and found a town by foul play!”
13 (Is not that from Jehovah of Armies?) “And peoples toil to feed fire, and folk upon folk spends itself bootlessly.”
14 (For the earth shall be full of knowledge of Jehovah’s glory like water that covers a sea.)
15 ** “Ha, you who have your friend drink out of your bowl and your bag, and befuddle him too, in order to look at their nudity!
16 * You are fuller loaded with ignominy than with glory; drink yourself and show off your uncircumcised body; the cup in Jehovah’s right hand shall come round to you, and shabbiness come over your glory.
17 ** For the outrage to Lebanon shall cover you, and the havoc of beasts shall dismay you, for bloodshed of men and outrage to earth, town and all who live in it.”
18 Of what use is a statue that its sculptor should have carved it, a bronze and a lying oracle that its modeler should have put his confidence in it, so as to make dumb trumperies?
19 Ha, you who say to wood “Wake up, stir yourself!” of silent stone “That will give instructions”! There is that cased in gold and silver, with no soul within it.
20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple: silence before him, all the earth!
Footnotes
^ 2:1 Or to me
^ 2:1 Var. he will make
^ 2:2 (to be read swiftly) Lit. in order that the reader may run
^ 2:3 Conj. for vision is witness for the set time, to depose
^ 2:3 Or end and not lie
^ 2:4-5a Susp.
^ 2:4 Var. I take
^ 2:6 Codd. and he shall say or and one shall say
^ 2:7 Or Will not your biters
^ 2:10 (maiming) Unc.
^ 2:11 Or a stone will cry out from a wall, and a joist out of woodwork will back it up
^ 2:15 Or your neighbor
^ 2:15 Codd. have your friend drink, add your venom, and befuddle
^ 2:16 Or You have your fill of ignominy out of glory
^ 2:17 (last half) Susp.
^ 2:17 Or more than bloodshed
