Habakkuk 2
2
1I will stand like a guard to watch.
I will stand on the tower.
I will wait to see what the Lord will say to me.
I will wait to learn how to answer his complaint.
The Lord Answers
2The Lord answered me:
“Write down what I show you.
Write it clearly on stone tablets
so whoever reads it can run to tell others.
3It is not yet time for the message to come true.
But that time is coming soon.
The message will come true.
It may seem like a long time before it happens.
But be patient and wait for it.
These things will happen.
They will not be delayed.
4See, the nation that is evil and trusts in itself will fail.
But those who do right because they trust in God will live.
5“Wine can trick a person.
In the same way the Babylonians are fooled by their pride.
Their desire for wealth is like a grave’s desire for death.
They always want more and more.
And, like death, they collect other nations for themselves.
They make them their own people.
6But all the nations the Babylonians have hurt will laugh at them.
They will make fun of the Babylonians.
They will say, ‘How terrible it will be for the nation that steals many things.
How long will that nation get rich by forcing others to pay them?’
7“One day the people you have taken money from will turn against you.
They will realize what is happening and make you shake with fear.
Then they will hurt you.
8You have stolen from many nations.
So the people who are left will take much from you.
This is because you have killed many people.
You have destroyed countries and cities and everyone in them.
9“How terrible it will be for the nation that becomes rich by doing wrong.
They do those things to live in a safe place.
They think they will be safe from harm.
10You have made plans to destroy many people.
This has made your own houses ashamed of you.
Because of it, you will lose your lives.
11The stones of the walls will cry out against you.
Even the wooden boards that support the roof will agree that you are wrong.
12“How terrible it will be for the nation that kills people to build a city.
How terrible for that nation that wrongs others to start a town.
13The Lord of heaven’s armies will send fire
to destroy what those people have built.
All the nations’ work will be for nothing.
14Then people everywhere will know the Lord’s greatness.
This news will spread like water covering the sea.
15“How terrible for the nation that becomes angry and makes others suffer.
In anger they knock other people to the ground.
And they treat them as if they are naked and drunk.
16You Babylonians will receive the Lord’s anger, not respect.
This anger will be like a cup of poison in the Lord’s right hand.
You will taste this anger and fall to the ground like a drunk person.
You will drink from this cup.
You will receive disgrace, not respect.
17You hurt many people in Lebanon.
Now you will be hurt.
You killed many animals there.
And now you must be afraid.
You will be afraid because of what you did
to those cities and the people who lived in them.
The Message About Idols
18“An idol does no good, because a man made it.
It is only a statue that teaches lies.
The person who made it expects his own work to help him.
But it can’t even speak!
19How terrible it will be for the nation that says to a wooden statue, ‘Come to life!’
How terrible it will be when this nation says to a stone that cannot speak, ‘Get up!’
These things cannot tell them what to do.
That idol is only a statue covered with gold and silver.
There is no life in it.
20The Lord is in his Holy Temple.
So all the earth should be silent in his presence.”
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Habakkuk 2
2
The Lord's Answer to Habakkuk
1I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 2And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3#Heb 10.37. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4#Rom 1.17; Gal 3.11; Heb 10.38. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. 5Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell,#2.5 hell, Hebrew Sheol. and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people.
Woes on the Unrighteous
6Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! 7Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? 8Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
9Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! 10Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. 11For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
12Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity! 13Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 14#Isa 11.9. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
15Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 16Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. 17For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
18What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? 19Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
20But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
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King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.