Chapter 2

¹ I will stand upon my watch, and mount upon the rock, and watch to see what he will say ¹by me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

² And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and that plainly on a tablet, that he that reads it may run. ³ For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain: though he should tarry, wait for him; ²for he will surely come, and will not tarry.

⁴ If ³he should draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him: but ⁴the just shall live by ⁵my faith. ⁵ But the arrogant man and the scorner, the boastful man, shall not finish anything; who has enlarged his desire as the grave, and like death he is never satisfied, and he will gather to himself all the nations, and will receive to himself all the peoples. ⁶ Shall not all these take up a parable against him? and a proverb to tell against him? and they shall say, Woe to him that multiplies to himself the possessions which are not his! ⁶how long? and who heavily loads his yoke. ⁷ For suddenly there shall arise up those that bite him, and they that plot against thee shall awake, and thou shalt be a plunder to them. ⁸ Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the nations that are left shall spoil thee, because of the blood of men, and the sins of the land and city, and of all that dwell in it.

⁹ Woe to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evils. ¹⁰ Thou hast devised shame to thy house, thou hast utterly destroyed many nations, and thy soul has sinned. ¹¹ For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the ⁷beetle out of the timber shall speak.

¹² Woe to him that builds a city with blood, and ⁸establishes a city by unrighteousness. ¹³ Are not these things of the Lord Almighty? surely many people have been exhausted in the fire, and many nations have fainted. ¹⁴ For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord; it shall cover them as water.

¹⁵ Woe to him that gives his neighbour to drink the thick lees of wine, and intoxicates him, that he may look upon their secret parts. ¹⁶ Drink thou also thy fill of disgrace instead of glory: shake, O heart, and quake, the cup of the right hand of the Lord has come round upon thee, and dishonour has gathered upon thy glory. ¹⁷ For the ungodliness of Libanus shall cover thee, and distress because of wild beasts shall dismay thee, because of the blood of men, and the sins of the land and city, and of all that dwell in it.

¹⁸ What profit it the graven image, that they have graven it? one has made it a molten work, a false image; for the maker has trusted in his work, to make dumb idols.

¹⁹ Woe to him that says to the wood, Awake, arise; and to the stone, Be thou exalted! whereas it is an image, and this is a ⁹casting of gold and silver, and there is no breath in it. ²⁰ But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth fear before him.

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