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
Chabakuk 2
2
1I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the matzor (rampart), and will watch to see what Hashem will speak in me, and what He shall answer to my tokhakhah (complaint).
2And Hashem answered me, and said, Write the chazon, and make it plain upon tablets, so that a herald may run with it.
3For the chazon is yet for a mo'ed (an appointed time); it speaks of HaKetz (the End), and does not lie; though it tarry, wait for him;#2:3 Moshiach — see Sanhedrin 97b because he will surely come, and will not tarry.
4Hinei, his nashamah which is puffed up is not upright in him; but the tzaddik shall live by his emunah.#2:4 Gn 15:6
5Yea also, yayin is a boged (betrayer, treacherous); he is a proud man, never at rest, who enlargeth his appetite as Sheol; like Mavet, it cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto it kol HaGoyim, and collecteth unto it kol HaAmim;
6Shall not all these take up a mashal against such, with mocking poem riddles against him, and say, Hoy (Woe) to him that increaseth that which is not his! For how long? And to him that loadeth himself by the weight of pledges!#2:6 i.e., heaps up by borrowing
7Shall not thy biters (charging neshekh) arise suddenly and awake that shall oppress thee, and thou shalt be for plunder unto them?
8Because thou hast plundered many Goyim, all the remnant of the Amim shall plunder thee; because of [shefach] dahm, and for the chamas eretz, the city, and of all that dwell therein.
9Hoy (Woe) to him that coveteth an evil gain for his bais, that he may set his ken (nest) on high, that he may be delivered from the power of ruin!
10Thy counsel hast brought shame to thy bais by cutting off amim rabbim and hast sinned against thy nashamah.
11For the even (stone) shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
12Hoy (Woe) to him that buildeth a town with [shefach] dahm, and foundeth a city by iniquity!
13Hinei, is it not from Hashem Tzva'os that the people shall labor only to feed the eish, and the people shall weary themselves in vain?
14For the earth shall be filled with the da'as of the kavod Hashem, as the waters cover the yam.
15Hoy (Woe) unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, pressing thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
16Thou art filled with shame instead of kavod; drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered; the kos of Hashemʼs right hand shall be turned against thee, and utter shame shall be on thy kavod.
17For the chamas of the Levanon shall cover thee, and the decimation of animals, by which you terrorized them, because of [shefach] dahm, and for the chamas eretz, and to the city, and all that dwell therein.
18What profiteth the pesel (graven image) that the maker thereof hath shaped it; the molten image, and moreh sheker, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb elilim (idols)?
19Hoy (woe) unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb even (stone), Arise, it shall teach! Hinei, it is laid over with zahav and kesef, and there is no ruach at all in it.
20But Hashem is in His Heikhal Kodesh; let kol ha'aretz keep silence before Him.
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
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