2:1 | I will stand 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. |
2:2 | Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision And make [it] plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. |
2:3 | For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. |
2:4 | "Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. |
2:5 | "Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, [He is] a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges 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. |
2:6 | "Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, `Woe to him who increases [What] is not hishow long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges'? |
2:7 | Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. |
2:8 | Because 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. |
2:9 | "Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster! |
2:10 | You give shameful counsel to your house, Cutting off many peoples, And sin [against] your soul. |
2:11 | For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it. |
2:12 | "Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! |
2:13 | Behold, [is it] not of the LORD of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain? |
2:14 | For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. |
2:15 | "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing [him to] your bottle, Even to make [him] drunk, That you may look on his nakedness! |
2:16 | You are filled with shame instead of glory. You alsodrink! 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. |
2:17 | For 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. |
2:18 | "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? |
2:19 | Woe 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. |
2:20 | But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." |