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 stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer as to my reproof. 2And Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and engrave it upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it. 3For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but it hasteth to the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come, it will not delay. 4Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him: but the just shall live by his faith.
5And moreover, the wine is treacherous: he is a proud man, and keepeth not at rest, he enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and he is like death and cannot be satisfied; and he assembleth unto him all nations, and gathereth unto him all peoples. 6Shall not all these take up a proverb about him, and a taunting riddle against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? — and to him that loadeth himself with pledges! 7Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and they awake up that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? 8Because thou hast plundered many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall plunder thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city, and all that dwell therein. 9Woe to him that getteth iniquitous gain to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the grasp of evil! 10Thou hast devised shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and hast sinned against thine own 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 unrighteousness! 13Behold, is it not of Jehovah of hosts that the peoples labour for the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain? 14For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea.
15Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, — that pourest out thy flask, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 16Thou art filled with shame instead of glory; drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of Jehovah's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and a shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. 17For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee, and the destruction of beasts which made them afraid; because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city, and all that dwell therein. 18What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it? the molten image, and the teacher of falsehood, that the maker of his work dependeth thereon, to make dumb idols? 19Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake! to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall it teach? Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. 20But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.