Habakkuk - The Old Testament

¹ I shall stand at my post, I shall station myself on my watch-tower, watching to see what he will say to me, what answer he will make to my complaints.

² Then Yahweh answered me and said, 'Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read.

³ For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens towards its end and it will not lie; although it may take some time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too long.

⁴ 'You see, anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb, but the upright will live through faithfulness.'

⁵ Now, surely, wealth is treacherous! He is arrogant, for ever on the move, with appetite as large as Sheol and as insatiable as Death, gathering in all the nations, and making a harvest of all peoples.

⁶ Are not the peoples all bound to satirise and make up cryptic riddles about him? As for instance: Disaster to anyone who amasses goods not his (for how long?) and to anyone who weighs himself down with goods taken in pledge!

⁷ Will not your creditors suddenly stand up, will not those who make you shiver wake up, and you will fall a prey to them?

⁸ Since you have plundered many nations, all the nations that remain will plunder you, because of the bloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to all who live in it.

⁹ Disaster to anyone who amasses ill-gotten gains for his house, so as to fix his nest on high and so evade the reach of misfortune!

¹⁰ You have conspired to bring shame on your house: by overthrowing many peoples you have worked your own ruin.

¹¹ For the very stone will protest from the wall, and the beam will respond from the framework.

¹² Disaster to anyone who builds a town with bloodshed and founds a city on wrong-doing!

¹³ Is it not thanks to Yahweh Sabaoth that the peoples' toil is fuel for the fire, and the nations' labour came to nothing?

¹⁴ But the earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the depths of the sea.

¹⁵ Disaster to anyone who makes his neighbours drink, pouring out his poison until they are drunk, so that he can see them naked!

¹⁶ You are full of shame, not glory! Your turn now to drink and show your foreskin. The cup in Yahweh's right hand comes round to you, and disgrace will overshadow your glory.

¹⁷ For the violence done to the Lebanon will overwhelm you and the massacre of animals will terrify you, because of the bloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to all who live in it. Disaster to anyone who says to the log, 'Wake up!', to the dumb stone, 'On your feet!' (This is the prophecy!) Look, he is encased in gold and silver,-- but not a breath of life inside it!

¹⁸ What use is a sculpted image that a sculptor should make it? - a metal image, a lying instructor! And why does the image-maker put his trust in it, that he should make dumb idols?

¹⁹ Trouble is coming to the man who says to the piece of wood, 'Wake up!' to the dumb stone, 'On your feet!' (And that is the oracle.) Plated it may be with gold and silver, but not a breath of life inside it.

²⁰ But Yahweh is in his holy Temple: let the whole earth be silent before him.