The Righteous Will Live by Faith

• 2 I will stand at my post,
  • and station myself on the rampart.
• And I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
  • and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
• 2 Then Yahweh answered me and said,
• “Write the vision and make it plain on the tablet
  • so that it might be read quickly .[fn]
• 3 For there is yet a vision for the appointed time;
  • it will give witness to the end, and it will not lie.
• If it tarries, wait for it,
  • for it will surely come and not delay.
• 4 Look! His spirit within him is puffed up;
  • it is not upright.
  • But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness.
• 5 How much less[fn] the defiant;[fn]
  • the arrogant, treacherous man?
• He who broadens his throat like Sheol,
  • and who, like death, is not satisfied,
• and who gathers to himself all the nations,
  • and harvested for himself all the peoples,
  • will not succeed.
• 6 Shall not all of these take up a taunt against him,
  • with ridicule and riddles against him, saying,
• ‘Woe to him who heaps up what is not his’?
  • For how long?
  • And, ‘ Woe to him who makes himself heavy with pledges’?
• 7 Will not your creditors suddenly rise up
  • and awaken those who make you tremble?
  • Then you shall be as plunder for them.
• 8 Because you plundered many nations,
  • all the remaining nations will plunder you
• on account of the blood of humanity
  • and violence against the land,
  • and against cities and all who live in them.
• 9 Woe to him who obtains profit from evil gain for his house,
  • to set his nest on high,
  • to be saved from the hand of misfortune!
• 10 You have plotted shame for your house,
  • cutting off many peoples
  • and sinning against your life.
• 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall,
  • and the plaster from the wood will answer it.
• 12 Woe to him who builds a city by bloodguilt,
  • and who founds a city by wickedness!
• 13 Look! Is it not from Yahweh of hosts
  • that people labor for mere fire,
  • and nations exhaust themselves for mere vanity?
• 14 For the earth will be filled
  • with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh,
  • like the waters covering the sea.
• 15 Woe to him who gives a drink to his neighbors,
  • pouring out your wrath and also making them drunk
  • in order to see their nakedness!
• 16 You will be sated with shame rather than glory.
  • Drink also yourself, and expose yourself!
• The cup of the right hand of Yahweh
  • will come around upon you
  • and disgrace upon your glory.
• 17 For the violence of Lebanon will cover you,
  • and the destruction of wild animals will shatter them
• on account of the blood of humanity,
  • and the violence against the land,
  • against a city and all the inhabitants in it.
• 18 What value is an idol
  • when its carver has fashioned it,
  • a molten idol, a teacher of lies?
• For he who fashioned his creation trusts in it,
  • though making mute idols!
• 19 Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Wake up!’
  • And to a lifeless stone, ‘Arise!’
  • Can he teach?
• Look, it is covered with gold and silver,
  • and there is no breath within it.
• 20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple.
  • Let all the earth be silent before him.”