חבקוק ב

I will stand on my watch,
Take up my station at the post,
And wait to see what [God] will say to me,
What will be the reply as equivalent to yashib. to my complaint.

GOD answered me and said:
Write the prophecy down,
Inscribe it clearly on tablets,
So that it can be read easily.

For there is yet a prophecy for a set term,
A truthful witness for a time that will come.
Even if it tarries, wait for it still;
For it will surely come, without delay:

Lo, their spirit within them is puffed up, not upright,
But the righteous are rewarded with life
For their fidelity.

How much less then shall the defiant (1QpHab hwn) with the root hwn, Deut. 1.41; for the thought cf. Prov. 11.31. Meaning of rest of line uncertain. go unpunished,
The treacherous, the arrogant
Who have made their maw as wide as Sheol,
Who are as insatiable as Death,
Who have harvested all the nations
And gathered in all the peoples!

Surely all these shall pronounce a satire against them,
A pointed epigram concerning them.
They shall say:
Ah, you who pile up what is not yours—
How much longer?—
And make ever heavier your load of indebtedness!

Right suddenly will your creditors arise,
And those who remind you will awake,
And you will be despoiled by them.

Because you plundered many nations,
All surviving peoples shall plunder you—
For crimes against humans and wrongs against lands,
Against cities and all their inhabitants.

Ah, you who have acquired gains
To the detriment of your own house,
Who have destroyed many peoples
In order to set your nest on high
To escape disaster!

You have plotted shame for your own house,
And guilt for yourself;

For a stone shall cry out from the wall,
And a rafter shall answer it from the woodwork.

Ah, you who have built a town with crime,
And established a city with infamy,

So that peoples have had to toil for the fire,
And nations to weary themselves for naught!
Behold, it is from GOD of Hosts:

For the earth shall be filled
With awe for GOD’s glory
As water covers the sea.

Ah, you who make others drink to intoxication
As you pour out your wrath,
In order to gaze upon their nakedness!

You shall be sated with shame
Rather than glory:
Drink in your turn and stagger!
The cup in GOD’s right hand
Shall come around to you,
And disgrace to your glory.

For the lawlessness against Lebanon shall cover you,
The destruction of animals shall overwhelm you—
For crimes against humans and wrongs against lands,
Against cities and all their inhabitants.

What has the carved image availed,
That its maker has carved it
For an image and a false oracle—
That the one who makes an item has trusted in it,
Producing dumb idols?

Ah, you who say, “Wake up” to wood,
“Awaken,” to inert stone!
Can that give an oracle?
Why, it is encased in gold and silver,
But there is no breath inside it.

But GOD in the holy Abode—
Be silent before [God], all the earth!