Chapter 2
1 I will stand at my post
and take up my position on the rampart,
and keep watch to see what he will say to me
and what answer he will offer to my complaints.”
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write down the vision,
inscribe it clearly on tablets
so that it can be read easily.
3 For the vision is for the appointed time;
it will speak of the end,
and it will not lie.
If it delays in coming, wait for it,
for it will surely come before too long.
4 The proud man’s heart is not upright,
but the righteous man will live
because of his faith.[a]
Warning to the Arrogant
5 Moreover, wealth is treacherous;
those who are arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats as wide as Sheol
and are as unstable as death.
They gather to themselves all the nations
and make a harvest of all the peoples.
6 Everyone should taunt such people
and turn on them with mockery and say,
“Woe to you who store up
what is not your own.
Woe to you who enrich yourself
with goods taken in pledge.
7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly?
Will not those who make you tremble wake up?
Will you not become a victim to them?
8 Since you have plundered many nations,
all the nations that survive will plunder you
because of the bloodshed and the violence
you have inflicted on cities
and all their inhabitants.
9 “Woe to the one who amasses
ill-gotten gains for his household
so as to set his nest on high
and thereby evade the reach of misfortune.
10 You have managed to bring shame upon your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have placed your own life in jeopardy.
11 The very stones will cry out from the wall,
and the beam will respond from the woodwork.
12 “Woe to the man who builds a city
by means of bloodshed
and founds a town on the basis of iniquity.
13 Is it not in the eternal design
of the Lord of hosts
that what the people labor for
is destined for the flames,
and that everything the nations
exhaust themselves to achieve
will come to naught.
14 However, the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory
just as the waters cover the sea.
15 [b]“Woe to you who encourage your neighbors to drink,
pouring it abundantly until they are drunk,
so that you can gaze upon their nakedness.
16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory
as you stagger in your drunkenness.
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will be passed on to you,
and shame will overshadow your glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and the massacre of the animals will terrify you,
all as a result of the bloodshed and violence you inflicted
on cities and all who dwell in them.
18 “Of what use is an idol
after its maker has shaped it?
It is only a presentation, a source of lies.
And why should its sculptor place his faith in it,
a dumb idol that he has made?
19 Woe to anyone who says,
‘Wake up!’ to a block of wood,
‘Rouse yourself!’ to a lifeless stone.
Can such a thing offer guidance?
It may be overlaid with gold and silver,
but there is no breath of life within it.
20 However, the Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.”
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 2:4 St. Paul takes this promise and gives it a new application: it is faith that “justifies,” that is, saves human beings from sin and gives them the life of God (Gal 3:11; Rom 1:17).
- Habakkuk 2:15 The armies of Nebuchadnezzar have devastated the cedars of Lebanon and slaughtered the flocks of the conquered. In the Bible, cedars and flocks also symbolize leaders and their subjects. Lebanon was often ravaged, because it was a place of passage for invading armies.