The Lord Answers the Prophet's Complaints
Habakkuk 2, verse 1. I will stand on my watch, mounted upon the rock, and see what He shall say to me, and what might I answer when I am reproved? Habakkuk 2, verse 2. And the Lord answered me and said, “Write the vision distinctly upon a tablet, that he who reads it may flee. Habakkuk 2, verse 3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it will come up at the end, and it will not be in vain; if he should tarry, wait for him, for he will surely come, and he will not tarry. Habakkuk 2, verse 4. “If any man should shrink back, My soul will not be well pleased in him; but the righteous shall live by My faith. Habakkuk 2, verse 5. But the one who is drunk and the scoffer, the man who boasts, shall accomplish nothing; he widened his soul as the grave, and as death he is never satisfied, and he will gather to himself all the nations and will take to himself all the peoples. Habakkuk 2, verse 6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him and a proverb for his history? And they shall say, ‘Woe to him who multiplies to himself possessions which are not his. How long will this continue? And who heavily presses down his yoke?’ Habakkuk 2, verse 7. For suddenly those biting at him shall rise up, and they who plot against you will sober up, and you shall be as plunder to them. Habakkuk 2, verse 8. Because you have plundered many nations, all the people who remain shall plunder you, because of the men's blood and the sins of the land, and of the city and all who dwell in it. Habakkuk 2, verse 9. “Woe to him who takes advantage of evil gain for his own house, so that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil. Habakkuk 2, verse 10. You counseled shame to your house, and you wiped out many peoples, and your soul sinned. Habakkuk 2, verse 11. Therefore, the stones will cry out from the wall, and the beetle will speak out of wood. Habakkuk 2, verse 12. “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, who establishes a city by wrongdoing. Habakkuk 2, verse 13. Are not these things from the Lord Almighty? And many a people have utterly perished in fire, and many nations have been disheartened. Habakkuk 2, verse 14. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord; it shall cover them as water. Habakkuk 2, verse 15. “Woe to him who gives clouded and intoxicating drink to his neighbor, that he might look upon his private parts. Habakkuk 2, verse 16. Drink to the fullness of the dishonor of your glory. Quake and tremble! The cup in the right hand of the Lord has surrounded you, and it has gathered disgrace upon your glory. Habakkuk 2, verse 17. For the ungodliness of Lebanon shall cover you, and the distress of wild beasts will terrify you, because of the blood of men and the ungodliness of the land and all who dwell in it. Habakkuk 2, verse 18. “What benefit is a graven image, since men carve it? They have formed it into a molten image, a false image. For the one who made the thing trusts in that which is formed by him, to make idols that cannot speak. Habakkuk 2, verse 19. “Woe to him saying to the wood, ‘Awake and rise up,’ and to the dumb stone, ‘Be exalted.’ It is a merely a fantasy, being but a hammered piece of gold and silver. There is no living breath in it at all. Habakkuk 2, verse 20. But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be reverent before Him.”