Habakkuk 2:1-20

I will wait at my watchpost and station myself on the tower. I’ll keep watching to see what he’ll say to me and consider the reply when he answers my argument. YAHWEH Then YAHWEH replied: “Write down the revelation; write it legibly on clay tablets so that whoever reads it may run and explain it to others. The vision still awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove to be false. When the appointed time comes, it will happen with breathless haste. Although it may seem slow, just be patient and wait. For it will surely come right on time. “Look at the proud, puffed up with pride! They are crooked to the core. But the righteous will live by his faith.” “Wealth is deceitful. The proud are full of themselves but have empty souls. They are as greedy as the grave. And just like death itself, they are never satisfied. They gather and grasp for themselves all the wealth of the nations and take all the people captive. “All these conquered nations will one day taunt them, saying, ‘You are doomed, you who pile up stolen goods! How long will you amass wealth by extortion?’ Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and terrify you? Before you know it, you will become their prey. Since you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have killed many people; you have acted violently against lands and cities and everyone within them. “You are doomed, you who enrich your family by cheating others! You build your luxurious home on high thinking you’ll be safe from harm’s reach. Your schemes to ruin the lives and homes of others bring shame upon your own house. You are as good as dead for doing this. The stones of the wall will cry out to accuse you, and your wooden rafters will echo it. “You are doomed, you who build a city with bloodshed and establish it upon evil! I, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, have decreed: The efforts of the nations are nothing but fuel for the fire, for all they have built will go up in smoke. Yet the entire earth is being filled with the revelation of the glory of YAHWEH, just as waters fill the sea. “You are doomed, you who delight to mix drinks for neighbors, pouring wine from pitchers until they are dead drunk just so that you can gaze on their naked bodies! Now you will be drunk with shame instead of honor. Now it is your turn! Drink your fill and let your nakedness be exposed. The cup of punishment that YAHWEH holds in his right hand is now coming around to you. Your former glory will be covered with your vomit of disgrace. Your violent acts against Lebanon will violently overwhelm you. Since you killed its animals, animals will terrify you. For you have killed many people and acted violently against lands and cities and everyone in them. “You are doomed, you who say to a piece of dead wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Get up!’ Can something dead give revelation? Even though it is covered with gold and silver, there is no breath in it. Of what use is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or a metal image that gives misleading oracles? For the one who makes it trusts the work of human hands; a god that cannot even talk.” YAHWEH is in his holy temple; let everyone on earth be silent before him.