1 I will stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me,
And what I will answer when I am corrected.
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
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 [a]hell,
And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied,
He gathers to himself all nations
And heaps up for himself all peoples.
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 [b]many pledges’?
Will they not awaken who oppress you?
And you will become their booty.
All the remnant of the people shall plunder you,
Because of men’s [d]blood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.
That he may set his nest on high,
That he may be delivered from the [e]power of disaster!
Cutting off many peoples,
And sin against your soul.
And the beam from the timbers will answer it.
Who establishes a city by iniquity!
That the peoples labor [f]to feed the fire,
And nations weary themselves in vain?
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
[g]Pressing him to your bottle,
Even to make him drunk,
That you may look on [h]his nakedness!
You also — drink!
And [i]be exposed as uncircumcised!
The cup of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you,
And utter shame will be on your glory.
And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid,
Because of men’s blood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.
The molded image, a teacher of lies,
That the maker of its mold should trust in it,
To make mute idols?
To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
Yet in it there is no breath at all.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”