1I will stand at my watchpost and station myself upon the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what I should answer concerning my complaint.
2Then Yahweh answered me and said: “Write the vision; make it plain upon the tablets, so that the one who reads it may run.
3For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it pants toward the end and will not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come; it will not delay.
4Behold, the one whose soul is puffed up is not upright within him; but the righteous one shall live by his faithfulness.
5Moreover, wine is treacherous; an arrogant man will not abide. He who widens his throat like Sheol, and is like Death and cannot be satisfied — he gathers to himself all the nations and collects to himself all the peoples.
6Shall not all these lift up a taunt against him, a mocking riddle about him? And it will say: “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own — how long? — and loads himself with pledges taken in pawn!”
7Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, 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 shall plunder you — because of human blood and the violence done to the land, to the city and all who dwell in it.
9Woe to him who gains evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to deliver himself from the grasp of disaster!
10You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples, and you have sinned against your own soul.
11For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork will answer it.
12Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town on injustice!
13Behold, is it not from Yahweh of hosts that peoples labor only for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
15Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink — you who pour out your wrath and even make them drunk — in order to gaze on their nakedness!
16You are sated with shame instead of glory. Drink, you too, and show yourself uncircumcised! The cup in Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you, and shame will cover your glory.
17For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, and the destruction of the beasts will terrify you — because of human blood and the violence done to the land, to the city and all who dwell in it.
18What profit is an idol, that its maker has carved it — a cast image, a teacher of lies — that the one who fashions his handiwork trusts in it, making mute worthless-gods?
19Woe to him who says to wood, “Awake!” — to silent stone, “Arise!” Can it teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath at all within it.
20But Yahweh is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
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