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Chapter Summary
The LORD answered: "The just shall live by faith. Woe to him who plunders nations! What profit is an idol? The LORD is in his temple."
1I will stand firm during my watch, and fix my position over the fortification. And I will observe carefully, to see what might be said to me and what I might respond to my opponent. 2And the Lord responded to me and said: Write the vision and explain it on tablets, so that he who reads it may run through it. 3For as yet the vision is far off, and it will appear in the end, and it will not lie. If it expresses any delay, wait for it. For it is arriving and it will arrive, and it will not be hindered. 4Behold, he who is unbelieving, his soul will not be right within himself; but he who is just shall live in his faith. 5And in the manner that wine deceives the heavy drinker, so will the arrogant man be deceived, and he will not be honored. He has enlarged his life like hellfire, and himself like death, and he is never fulfilled. And he will gather to himself all nations, and he will amass for himself all peoples.
6Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and an enigmatic utterance about him? And it will be said, “Woe to him who increases what is not his own.” How long, then, will he lay down dense clay against himself? 7Shall they not suddenly rise up, who would bite you, and be stirred up, who would tear you, so that you will be a prey for them? 8Because you have despoiled many peoples, all those who are left of the people shall despoil you, because of the blood of men, and the iniquity of the earth, of the city and all who dwell therein. 9Woe to him who gathers together an evil greed for his house, so that his nest may be exalted, and thinking that he might free himself from the hand of evil. 10You have devised confusion for your house, you have cut to pieces many peoples, and your soul has sinned. 11For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the wood that is between the joints of the building will respond. 12Woe to him who builds a town with blood and prepares a city by iniquity. 13Are not these things before the Lord of hosts? For the people will labor amid a great fire, and the nations will labor in emptiness, and they will fail. 14For the earth shall be filled, that they might know the glory of the Lord, like the waters spreading over the sea. 15Woe to anyone who gives a drink to a friend, releasing a drug and inebriating, so as to look upon their nakedness. 16You are filled with disgrace in place of glory. So then, drink and fall fast asleep, for the cup of the right hand of the Lord will surround you, and a disgraceful vomit will cover your glory. 17For the iniquity of Lebanon will cover you, and the devastation of animals which will deter them from the blood of men, and the iniquity of the earth and the city, and of all who dwell therein. 18Of what benefit is the graven image? For its maker has formed it, a molten and imaginary deception. For its maker has hoped in a figment of his own creation, so as to make a dumb likeness. 19Woe to him who says to wood, “Awaken,” to the silent stone, “Arise.” Is it able to teach? Behold, it has been entirely covered with gold and silver; and there is no spirit at all in its inner workings. 20But the Lord is in his holy temple. May all the earth be silent before his face.