The Book of the Prophet Habakkuk 2 The Chaldeans Will Be Punished in Their Turn

 The Book of the Prophet Habakkuk 2

The Chaldeans Will Be Punished in Their Turn

1 I will stand at my watchpost and station myself on the rampart; I will watch to see what he will say to me, and what answer I will give to his rebuke.

2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; it will certainly come, it will not delay.

4 Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

5 Moreover, because he is given to wine, he is unfaithful; A proud man, who cannot control himself, who enlarges his desire like the grave, and, like death, which is never satisfied, gathers to himself all nations, and assembles to himself all peoples.

6 Will not all these take up a parable against him and a sharp saying against him, saying: Woe to him who increases what is not his (how long!) and to him who charges himself debts!

7 Will not those who are to plunder suddenly rise up? And will not those who are to shake you awaken? And will you not become plunder for them?

8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remaining peoples will plunder you because of the blood of men, and the violence against the land, the city, and all who dwell in it.

9 Woe to those who amasse ill-gotten gains for their house, to set their nest on high, in order to escape the hand of evil!

10 You have devised shame for your house; by destroying many peoples, you have sinned against your own soul.

11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam will answer it from the woodwork.

12 Woe to him who builds a city with blood, and who founds a town with iniquity!

13 Behold, it is not from the Lord of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire and men weary themselves for vanity.

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

15 Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor! You who bring him your skin and make him drunk, to see his nakedness,

16 You will be filled with shame instead of honor; you also drink, and be like an uncircumcised man; the cup from the Lord's right hand will be turned upon you, and the vomit of shame will fall upon your glory.

17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of wild animals will terrify you, because of the blood of men, and the violence against the land, the city, and all its inhabitants.

18 What profit will the carved image, which its maker has carved? The cast image, which teaches lies, so that the maker trusts in his own work, making mute idols?

19 Woe to him who says to the wood, “Awake!” and to the mute stone, “Arise!” Can it teach? Behold, it is covered with gold and silver, but there is no breath in it.

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.