Habakkuk
2 Upon my watch-tower will I stand, And will station myself upon the bulwark,—So will I keep outlook to see—What he will speak with me and What I shall reply, when I am reproved.
2 Then Yahweh answered me and said, Write the vision, Yea make it plain on tablets, That one may swiftly read it;
3 For yet is the vision for an appointed time, Still it presseth towards an end, And will not deceive,—If it tarry wait thou for it, For it surely cometh,—Will not be too late.
4 Lo! as for the conceited one crooked is his soul within him,—But one who is righteous by his faithfulness shall live.
5 Moreover also when wine betrayeth A man is arrogant And findeth no rest,—Because he hath enlarged like hades his desire, Yea he is like death and cannot be satisfied,—But hath gathered unto himself all the nations, And assembled unto himself all the peoples.
6 Shall not these all of them against him take up—A taunt, A mocking poem, Enigmatical sentences—concerning him? And say—Alas! for him who maketh abundance in what is not his own, How long? that he should be burdening himself with heavy debts?
7 Will not thy creditors suddenly rise up? And they who shall violently shake thee all at once become active? Then shalt thou serve for booties unto them!
8 Because thou hast plundered many nations All the residue of the peoples shall plunder thee,—For shedding Human blood And doing violence To the earth, To the city And to all who dwell therein.
9 Alas! for him who extorteth an extortion of wrong for his own house,—That he may set on high his nest, That he may be delivered from the grasp of calamity.
10 Thou hast counselled shame to thy house—Making an end of many peoples And endangering thine own life.
11 Surely the stone out of the wall will make outcry,—And the tie out of the timber will answer it.
12 Alas! for him who buildeth a city with deeds of blood,—And establisheth a town with perversity.
13 Lo! is it not from Yahweh of hosts—That peoples labour for fire, And populations for emptiness weary themselves?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,—As the waters cover the sea.
15 Alas! for him who causeth his neighbour to drink, From the goblet of thy fury and also making him drunk,—To the end thou mayest gloat over their parts of shame.
16 Thou art sated with contempt more than glory, Drink thou too and expose thy person,—The cup of the right hand of Yahweh shall come round unto thee, And ignominious filth be upon thy glory;
17 For the violence [done] to Lebanon shall cover thee, And wasting by wild beasts shall cause them terror,—For shedding Human blood And doing violence To the earth, To the city And to all who dwell therein.
18 What hath a carved image profited, Though the fashioner thereof carved it? A molten image and a teacher of falsehood,—Though the fashioner of his fashioned thing trusted therein? That men should make Dumb Nonentities!
19 Alas! for him who saith to Wood, Awake Bestir thee! to a Silent Stone He shall teach! Though he is overlaid with gold and silver Yet no spirit whatsoever is in him!
20 Howbeit Yahweh is in his holy temple,—Hush before him, all the earth.