Habakkuk 2
Legacy Standard Bible
The Righteous Will Live by His Faith
2 I will (A)stand on my guard post
And station myself on the fortification;
And I will (B)keep watch to see (C)what He will speak to me
And how I may respond [a]when I am reproved.
2 Then Yahweh answered me and said,
“(D)Write down the vision
And write it on tablets distinctly,
That [b]the one who [c]reads it may run.
3 For the vision is yet for the (E)appointed time;
It pants toward its end, and it will not [d]lie.
Though it tarries, (F)wait for it;
For it will certainly come; it (G)will not delay.
4 “Behold, as for the (H)proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the (I)righteous will live by his [e]faith.
5 And indeed, (J)wine betrays the (K)haughty man
So that he does not (L)stay at home.
He (M)enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
And he is like death, never satisfied.
He also gathers to himself all nations
And assembles to himself all peoples.
6 “Will not all of these (N)lift up a taunt-song against him,
Even satire and riddles against him
And say, ‘(O)Woe to him who increases what is not his—
For how long—
And makes himself [f]rich with loans?’
7 Will not [g]your creditors (P)rise up suddenly,
And those who make you tremble awaken?
Indeed, you will become spoil for them.
8 Because you have (Q)taken many nations as spoil,
All that is left of the peoples will take you as spoil—
Because of human bloodshed and violence [h]done to the land,
To the town and all its inhabitants.
9 “Woe to him who is greedy for (R)evil gain for his house
To (S)put his nest on high,
To be delivered from the hand of evil!
10 You have counseled a (T)shameful thing for your house
By cutting off many peoples;
So you are (U)sinning against your own soul.
11 Surely the (V)stone will cry out from the wall,
And the rafter will answer it from the [i]framework.
12 “Woe to him who (W)builds a city with bloodshed
And founds a town with injustice!
13 Is it not, behold, from Yahweh of hosts
That peoples (X)toil for fire,
And nations grow weary for nothing?
14 For the earth will be (Y)filled
With the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,
As the waters cover the sea.
15 “Woe to you who make [j]your neighbors drink,
Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk
So as to look on their nakedness!
16 You will be filled with disgrace rather than glory.
Now you yourself (Z)drink and [k]expose your own nakedness.
The (AA)cup in Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you,
And (AB)utter disgrace will come upon your glory.
17 For the (AC)violence [l]done to Lebanon will cover you,
And the devastation of its beasts [m]by which you terrified them,
(AD)Because of human bloodshed and (AE)violence [n]done to the land,
To the town and all its inhabitants.
18 “What (AF)profit is the graven image when its maker has engraved it,
Or a molten image, a (AG)teacher of [o]lies?
For its maker (AH)trusts in his own making
When he fashions speechless idols.
19 Woe to him who (AI)says to a piece of wood, ‘(AJ)Awake!’
To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’
And that is your teacher?
Behold, it is overlaid with (AK)gold and silver,
And there is (AL)no breath at all inside it.
20 But (AM)Yahweh is in His holy temple.
[p]Let all the earth (AN)be silent before Him.”
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 2:1 Lit upon my reproof
- Habakkuk 2:2 Or one may read it fluently
- Habakkuk 2:2 Or is to proclaim it
- Habakkuk 2:3 Or fail
- Habakkuk 2:4 Or faithfulness
- Habakkuk 2:6 Lit heavy
- Habakkuk 2:7 Lit those who bite you
- Habakkuk 2:8 Lit of the land
- Habakkuk 2:11 Lit wood
- Habakkuk 2:15 Lit his neighbor
- Habakkuk 2:16 As in DSS and ancient versions; or stagger; lit show yourself uncircumcised
- Habakkuk 2:17 Lit of Lebanon
- Habakkuk 2:17 Lit which terrified them
- Habakkuk 2:17 Lit of the land
- Habakkuk 2:18 Lit a lie
- Habakkuk 2:20 Lit Hush before Him, all the earth
Habakkuk 2
Easy-to-Read Version
2 I will stand like a guard and watch.
I will wait to see what the Lord will say to me.
I will wait and learn how he answers my questions.
God Answers Habakkuk
2 The Lord answered me, “Write down what I show you. Write it clearly on a sign so that the message will be easy to read.[a] 3 This message is about a special time in the future. This message is about the end, and it will come true. Just be patient and wait for it. That time will come; it will not be late. 4 This message cannot help those who refuse to listen to it, but those who are good will live because they believe it.
5 “Wine can trick a person. In the same way a strong man’s pride can fool him, but he will not find peace. He is like death—he always wants more and more. And, like death, he will never be satisfied. He will continue to defeat other nations and to make those people his prisoners. 6 But soon enough, all those people will laugh at him and tell stories about his defeat. They will laugh and say, ‘It’s too bad that the man who took so many things will not get to keep them! He made himself rich by collecting debts.’
7 “Strong man, you have taken money from people. One day they will wake up and realize what is happening, and they will stand against you. Then they will take things from you, and you will be very afraid. 8 You have stolen things from many nations, so they will take much from you. You have killed many people and destroyed lands and cities. You have killed all the people there.
9 “Look at you people! You get rich by cheating people, and it hurts your own family! You build your houses high on the cliffs to protect yourself from danger. 10 You planned shameful things, and that will bring shame to your own family. You have done wrong, and it will cost you your life. 11 The stones of the walls will cry out against you. Even the wooden rafters[b] in your own house will prove that you are wrong.
12 “Look at them! They kill people to build their city and do wicked things to make their walled city strong. 13 But the Lord All-Powerful has decided that a fire will destroy everything that those people worked to build. All their work will be for nothing. 14 Then people everywhere will know about the Glory of the Lord. This news will spread just as water spreads out into the sea. 15 It will be very bad for those who become angry and make other people suffer. Like an angry drunk, they knock others to the ground and strip them naked, just to see their naked bodies.[c]
16 “But they will know the Lord’s anger. It will be like a cup of poison in the Lord’s right hand. They will taste that anger, and then they will fall to the ground like drunks.
“Evil ruler, you will drink from that cup. You will get shame, not honor. 17 You hurt many people in Lebanon and stole many animals there. So you will be afraid because of the people who died and because of the bad things you did to that country. You will be afraid because of what you did to those cities and to the people who lived there.”
The Message About Idols
18 Their false god will not help them, because it is only a statue that someone covered with metal. It is only a statue, so whoever made it cannot expect it to help. That statue cannot even speak! 19 Look at them! They speak to a wooden statue and tell it, “Get up! Rescue me.” They talk to a stone that cannot speak and say, “Wake up!” Don’t you know those things cannot help you? That statue may be covered with gold and silver, but there is no life in it.
20 But the Lord is in his holy temple, so the whole earth should be silent in his presence and show him respect.
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 2:2 Write down … easy to read Or “Write the vision clearly on tablets so that the person who reads it can run and tell other people.”
- Habakkuk 2:11 rafters Boards that support the roof.
- Habakkuk 2:15 Like an angry drunk … bodies The Hebrew text here is hard to understand.
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