1I 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.
The Just Live by Faith
2Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3For 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.
4“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.
Woe to the Wicked
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 2:5 Or Sheolhell,
And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied,
He gathers to himself all nations
And heaps up for himself all peoples.
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 his—how long?
And to him who loads himself with 2:6 Syr., Vg. thick claymany pledges’?
7Will not 2:7 Lit. those who bite youyour creditors rise up suddenly?
Will they not awaken who oppress you?
And you will become their booty.
8Because you have plundered many nations,
All the remnant of the people shall plunder you,
Because of men’s 2:8 Or bloodshedblood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.
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 2:9 Lit. hand of evilpower of disaster!
10You give shameful counsel to your house,
Cutting off many peoples,
And sin against your soul.
11For the stone will cry out from the wall,
And the beam from the timbers will answer it.
12“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed,
Who establishes a city by iniquity!
That the peoples labor 2:13 Lit. for what satisfies fire, for what is of no lasting valueto feed the fire,
And nations weary themselves in vain?
14For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
15“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor,
2:15 Lit. Attaching or JoiningPressing him to your bottle,
Even to make him drunk,
That you may look on 2:15 Lit. theirhis nakedness!
16You are filled with shame instead of glory.
You also—drink!
And 2:16 DSS, LXX reel!; Syr., Vg. fall fast asleep!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.
17For 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.
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?
19Woe 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.
20“But the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
