Habakkuk 2:4-14

4 "Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.
5 "Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, [a] And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples.
6 "Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases What is not his--how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges'? [b]
7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty.
8 Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men's blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it.
9 "Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster!
10 You give shameful counsel to your house, Cutting off many peoples, And sin against your soul.
11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it.
12 "Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity!
13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain?
14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

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Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Or Sheol
  • [b]. Syriac and Vulgate read thick clay.
  • [c]. Literally those who bite you
  • [d]. Literally for what satisfies fire, that is, for what is of no lasting value
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.