Write the Vision Plainly
Habakkuk posts himself on the rampart to hear an answer, and our Father gives one: write the vision plainly, wait for it, the righteous will live by faith. Five woes fall on the plunderer, while the earth fills with the knowledge of the Father's glory.
2 1I will stand at my watchpost and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
2Then our Father answered me: "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that anyone who reads it can run to tell others."
The Proud and the Faithful
3For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens toward the end and will not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4Look—the proud man is not right in heart—but the righteous will live by his faith. a a v4 Paul cites this verse three times to anchor the gospel — Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38. The righteous one who lives by faith is the one who trusts our Father's promise even when the vision tarries. 5Moreover, wine is treacherous; the arrogant man will not rest. He is as greedy as the grave, and like death he is never satisfied; he gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.
6Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, with mocking riddles, and say: "Woe to him who piles up what is not his own—how long?—and loads himself with goods seized as collateral!" 7Will not your creditors suddenly rise up, and those who make you tremble awaken? Then you will become plunder for them. 8Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you—for the blood of men and the violence done to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 9Woe to him who fills his house with evil profit, who sets his nest on high to escape disaster's grasp! 10You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your own life. 11For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam will answer it from the woodwork. 12Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town on injustice! 13Is it not from the Father of heaven's armies that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire, and the nations wear themselves out for nothing? 14For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of our Father, as the waters cover the sea. 15Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—pouring out your wrath until they are drunk—in order to gaze on their nakedness! 16You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Drink, you yourself, and stagger! The cup in our Father's right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. 17For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of its beasts will terrify you—for the blood of men and the violence done to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 18What good is an idol when its maker has carved it—a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he makes worthless idols that cannot speak. 19Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, "Wake up!" or to a silent stone, "Rise up!" Can it teach? Look—it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath at all within it. 20But our Father is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.
