Habakkuk 2
2
1I will stand like a guard and watch.
I will wait to see what the Lord will say to me.
I will wait and learn how he answers my questions.
God Answers Habakkuk
2The Lord answered me, “Write down what I show you. Write it clearly on a sign so that the message will be easy to read.#2:2 Write down … easy to read Or “Write the vision clearly on tablets so that the person who reads it can run and tell other people.” 3This message is about a special time in the future. This message is about the end, and it will come true. Just be patient and wait for it. That time will come; it will not be late. 4This message cannot help those who refuse to listen to it, but those who are good will live because they believe it.
5“Wine can trick a person. In the same way a strong man’s pride can fool him, but he will not find peace. He is like death—he always wants more and more. And, like death, he will never be satisfied. He will continue to defeat other nations and to make those people his prisoners. 6But soon enough, all those people will laugh at him and tell stories about his defeat. They will laugh and say, ‘It’s too bad that the man who took so many things will not get to keep them! He made himself rich by collecting debts.’
7“Strong man, you have taken money from people. One day they will wake up and realize what is happening, and they will stand against you. Then they will take things from you, and you will be very afraid. 8You have stolen things from many nations, so they will take much from you. You have killed many people and destroyed lands and cities. You have killed all the people there.
9“Look at you people! You get rich by cheating people, and it hurts your own family! You build your houses high on the cliffs to protect yourself from danger. 10You planned shameful things, and that will bring shame to your own family. You have done wrong, and it will cost you your life. 11The stones of the walls will cry out against you. Even the wooden rafters#2:11 rafters Boards that support the roof. in your own house will prove that you are wrong.
12“Look at them! They kill people to build their city and do wicked things to make their walled city strong. 13But the Lord All-Powerful has decided that a fire will destroy everything that those people worked to build. All their work will be for nothing. 14Then people everywhere will know about the Glory of the Lord. This news will spread just as water spreads out into the sea. 15It will be very bad for those who become angry and make other people suffer. Like an angry drunk, they knock others to the ground and strip them naked, just to see their naked bodies.#2:15 Like an angry drunk … bodies The Hebrew text here is hard to understand.
16“But they will know the Lord’s anger. It will be like a cup of poison in the Lord’s right hand. They will taste that anger, and then they will fall to the ground like drunks.
“Evil ruler, you will drink from that cup. You will get shame, not honor. 17You hurt many people in Lebanon and stole many animals there. So you will be afraid because of the people who died and because of the bad things you did to that country. You will be afraid because of what you did to those cities and to the people who lived there.”
The Message About Idols
18Their false god will not help them, because it is only a statue that someone covered with metal. It is only a statue, so whoever made it cannot expect it to help. That statue cannot even speak! 19Look at them! They speak to a wooden statue and tell it, “Get up! Rescue me.” They talk to a stone that cannot speak and say, “Wake up!” Don’t you know those things cannot help you? That statue may be covered with gold and silver, but there is no life in it.
20But the Lord is in his holy temple, so the whole earth should be silent in his presence and show him respect.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Habakkuk 2
2
1I will #Is. 21:8, 11stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me,
And what I will answer when I am corrected.
The Just Live by Faith
2Then the Lord answered me and said:
#Is. 8:1“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3For #Dan. 8:17, 19; 10:14the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will #Ezek. 12:24, 25not lie.
Though it tarries, #(Heb. 10:37, 38)wait for it;
Because it will #Ps. 27:13, 14; (James 5:7, 8; 2 Pet. 3:9)surely come,
It will not tarry.
4“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the #(John 3:36); Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:38just shall live by his faith.
Woe to the Wicked
5“Indeed, because he transgresses by wine,
He is a proud man,
And he does not stay at home.
Because he #Prov. 27:20; 30:16; Is. 5:11–15enlarges his desire as hell,
And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied,
He gathers to himself all nations
And heaps up for himself all peoples.
6“Will not all these #Mic. 2:4take up a proverb against him,
And a taunting riddle against him, and say,
‘Woe to him who increases
What is not his—how long?
And to him who loads himself with many pledges’?
7Will not your creditors rise up suddenly?
Will they not awaken who oppress you?
And you will become their booty.
8#Is. 33:1; Jer. 27:7; Ezek. 39:10; Zech. 2:8Because you have plundered many nations,
All the remnant of the people shall plunder you,
Because of men’s blood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.
9“Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house,
That he may #Jer. 49:16; Obad. 4set his nest on high,
That he may be delivered from the power of disaster!
10You give shameful counsel to your house,
Cutting off many peoples,
And sin against your soul.
11For the stone will cry out from the wall,
And the beam from the timbers will answer it.
12“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed,
Who establishes a city by iniquity!
13Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts
That the peoples labor to feed the fire,
And nations weary themselves in vain?
14For 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,
Pressing him to your #Hos. 7:5bottle,
Even to make him drunk,
That you may look on his nakedness!
16You are filled with shame instead of glory.
You also—drink!
And be exposed as uncircumcised!
The cup of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you,
And utter shame will be on your glory.
17For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you,
And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid,
Because of men’s blood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.
18“What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it,
The molded image, a teacher of lies,
That the maker of its mold should trust in it,
To make mute idols?
19Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’
To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
Yet in it there is no breath at all.
20“But#Zeph. 1:7; Zech. 2:13 the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.