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2. The Lord's Answer

¹ I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Or and what to answer when I am rebuked

The LORD’s Answer

² Then the LORD replied:

   “Write down the revelation
   and make it plain on tablets
   so that a herald Or so that whoever reads it may run with it.
³ For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
   it speaks of the end
   and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
   it Or Though he linger, wait for him; / he will certainly come
   and will not delay.

    ⁴ “See, the enemy is puffed up;
   his desires are not upright—
   but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness Or faith—
⁵ indeed, wine betrays him;
   he is arrogant and never at rest.
Because he is as greedy as the grave
   and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
   and takes captive all the peoples.

⁶ “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,

   “‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods
   and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
   How long must this go on?’
⁷ Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
   Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
   Then you will become their prey.
⁸ Because you have plundered many nations,
   the peoples who are left will plunder you.
For you have shed human blood;
   you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

    ⁹ “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
   setting his nest on high
   to escape the clutches of ruin!
¹⁰ You have plotted the ruin of many peoples,
   shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
¹¹ The stones of the wall will cry out,
   and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.

    ¹² “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
   and establishes a town by injustice!
¹³ Has not the LORD Almighty determined
   that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
   that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
¹⁴ For 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 neighbors,
   pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
   so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
¹⁶ You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
   Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls, Aquila, Vulgate and Syriac (see also Septuagint) and stagger!
The cup from the LORD’s right hand is coming around to you,
   and disgrace will cover your glory.
¹⁷ The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
   and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
   you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

    ¹⁸ “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman?
   Or an image that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
   he makes idols that cannot speak.
¹⁹ Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
   Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’
Can it give guidance?
   It is covered with gold and silver;
   there is no breath in it.”

²⁰ The LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

The stone, then, from the wall shall cry, and the wood shall answer —what will it answer?—Woe to him who builds a city by blood, and who adorns his city by iniquity. By blood and by iniquity he understands the same thing; for though the avaricious do not kill innocent men, they yet suck their blood, and what else is this but to kill them by degrees, by a slow tormenting process? For it is easier at once to undergo death than to pine away in want, as it happens to helpless men when spoiled and deprived of all their property. Wherever there is wanton plundering, there is murder committed in the sight of God; for as it has been said, he who spares not the helpless, but drinks up their blood, doubtless sins no less than if he were to kill them.

But if this personification seems to any one strange, he must consider how incredible seemed to be what the Prophet here teaches, and how difficult it was to produce a conviction on the subject. We indeed confess that God is the judge of the world; nay, there is no one who does not anticipate his judgement by condemning avarice and cruelty; the very name of avarice is infamous and hated by all: the same may be said of cruelty. But yet when we see the avaricious in splendor and in esteem, we are astounded, and no one is able to foresee by faith what the Prophet here declares. Since, then our dullness is so great, or rather our sottishness, it is no wonder that the Prophet should here set before us the stones and the wood, as though he said, “When all prophecies and all warnings become frigid, and God himself obtains no credit, while openly declaring what he will do, and when his servants consume their labor in vain by warning and crying, let now the stones come forth, and be teachers to you who will not give ear to the voice of God himself, and let the wood also cry out in its turn.” This, then, is the reason why the Prophet introduces here mute things as the speakers, even to awaken our insensibility.