Habakkuk 2

CHAPTER 2

The Righteous Will Live by His Faith

¹I will ^astand on my guard post

And station myself on the fortification;

And I will ^bkeep watch to see ^cwhat He will speak to me

And how I may respond ¹when I am reproved.

²Then Yahweh answered me and said,

“^aWrite down the vision

And write it on tablets distinctly,

That ¹the one who ²reads it may run.

³“For the vision is yet for the ^aappointed time;

It pants toward its end, and it will not ¹lie.

Though it tarries, ^bwait for it;

For it will certainly come; it ^cwill not delay.

⁴“Behold, as for the ^aproud one,

His soul is not right within him;

But the ^brighteous will live by his ¹faith.

⁵“And indeed, ^awine betrays the ^bhaughty man

So that he does not ^cstay at home.

He ^denlarges his appetite like Sheol,

And he is like death, never satisfied.

He also gathers to himself all nations

And assembles to himself all peoples.

⁶“Will not all of these ^alift up a taunt-song against him,

Even satire and riddles against him

And say, ‘^bWoe to him who increases what is not his—

For how long—

And makes himself ¹rich with loans?’

⁷“Will not ¹your creditors ^arise up suddenly,

And those who make you tremble awaken?

Indeed, you will become spoil for them.

⁸“Because you have ^ataken many nations as spoil,

All that is left of the peoples will take you as spoil—

Because of human bloodshed and violence ¹done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

⁹“Woe to him who is greedy for ^aevil gain for his house

To ^bput his nest on high,

To be delivered from the hand of evil!

¹⁰“You have counseled a ^ashameful thing for your house

By cutting off many peoples;

So you are ^bsinning against your own soul.

¹¹“Surely the ^astone will cry out from the wall,

And the rafter will answer it from the ¹framework.

¹²“Woe to him who ^abuilds a city with bloodshed

And founds a town with injustice!

¹³“Is it not, behold, from Yahweh of hosts

That peoples ^atoil for fire,

And nations grow weary for nothing?

¹⁴“For the earth will be ^afilled

With the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,

As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵“Woe to you who make ¹your neighbors drink,

Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk

So as to look on their nakedness!

¹⁶“You will be filled with disgrace rather than glory.

Now you yourself ^adrink and ¹expose your own nakedness.

The ^bcup in Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you,

And ^cutter disgrace will come upon your glory.

¹⁷“For the ^aviolence ¹done to Lebanon will cover you,

And the devastation of its beasts ²by which you terrified them,

^bBecause of human bloodshed and ^cviolence ³done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

¹⁸“What ^aprofit is the graven image when its maker has engraved it,

Or a molten image, a ^bteacher of ¹lies?

For its maker ^ctrusts in his own making

When he fashions speechless idols.

¹⁹“Woe to him who ^asays to a piece of wood, ‘^bAwake!’

To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’

And that is your teacher?

Behold, it is overlaid with ^cgold and silver,

And there is ^dno breath at all inside it.

²⁰“But ^aYahweh is in His holy temple.

¹Let all the earth ^bbe silent before Him.”