Habakkuk
Chapter 2
1 I will stand at my guard post and take my position on the watchtower. I will look to see what God will tell me and how I should respond when I am corrected.
2 God answered me, “Write the vision clearly on tablets, so that anyone who reads it can quickly understand.”
3 The dream is set for a specific time, and it will come true at the end without lying. Even if it delays, keep waiting for it; it will certainly happen and won’t be late.
4 Look, the person with a proud heart is not right inside, but the righteous person will live by trusting in God.
5 Yes, because he sins with wine, he is an arrogant man who does not stay home, but grows his wants like the grave, and is like death, never satisfied, collecting all nations to himself and piling up all people.
6 Won’t everyone use a story against him, mock him, and say, “How terrible for the one who takes what isn’t his! How long? And for the one who burdens himself with heavy debts!”
7 Won’t they suddenly rise up to bite you, awaken to trouble you, and you will become loot for them?
8 Because you have robbed many nations, all the survivors will rob you; because of people’s bloodshed, and violence to the land, the city, and to everyone living there.
9 How terrible for the person who greedily wants wrong things for his home, trying to place his home safe and high to avoid evil’s reach!
10 You have brought disgrace to your family by harming many people, and you have wronged your own life.
11 The stone in the wall will cry out, and the wooden beam will respond.
12 Trouble comes to the one who builds a town with bloodshed and starts a city with wrongdoing!
13 Look, isn’t it because of God that people work hard for nothing and wear themselves out for no reason?
14 The earth will be full of understanding God’s glory, just like water fills the sea.
15 Trouble comes to the one who gives their neighbor drink, pouring from the bottle to get them drunk, so they can gaze upon their nakedness!
16 You are full of shame instead of honor: drink yourself, and show your nakedness: the cup from God’s right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory.
17 Lebanon’s violence will fall on you, and the terror from the animals you scared, because of the bloodshed and the violence in the land, the city, and all who live there.
18 What good is an idol that has been carved? Or a cast image and a spreader of falsehoods, when their creator trusts in them to make silent gods?
19 Bad luck to the person who tells a piece of wood to wake up or a silent stone to get up—it can’t teach. Look, it’s covered with gold and silver, but there’s no life inside it at all.
20 God is in his holy place: let everyone on earth be quiet before him.