2  O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

and you will not save?

3  Why do you make me see iniquity,

and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

strife and contention arise.

4  So the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

so justice goes forth perverted.

5  ^c“Look among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

For ^dI am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

6  For behold, I am raising up the ^eChaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth,

to seize dwellings not their own.

7  They are dreaded and fearsome;

their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

8  Their ^fhorses are swifter than leopards,

more fierce than the evening wolves;

their horsemen press proudly on.

Their horsemen come from afar;

they fly like an ^geagle swift to devour.

9  They all come for violence,

all their faces forward.

They gather captives like sand.

10  At kings they scoff,

and at rulers they laugh.

They laugh at every fortress,

for they pile up earth and take it.

11  Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

12  Are you not ^hfrom everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O ⁱRock, have established them for reproof.

13  You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

^jwhy do you idly look at traitors

and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

14  You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

15  ^kHe¹ brings all of them up with a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

16  Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

for by them he lives in luxury,²

and his food is rich.

17  Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2  I will take my stand at my ^lwatchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

^m“Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.

3  For still ⁿthe vision awaits its ^oappointed time;

it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

^pIf it seems slow, wait for it;

^qit will surely come; it will not delay.

4  “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but ^rthe righteous shall live by his faith.¹

5  “Moreover, ^swine² is a traitor,

an arrogant man who is never at rest.³

His greed is as wide as ^tSheol;

like death he has never enough.

He gathers for himself all nations

and collects as his own all peoples.”

“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—

for how long?—

and loads himself with pledges!”

7  Will not your debtors suddenly arise,

and those awake who will make you tremble?

Then you will be spoil for them.

8  ^vBecause you have plundered many nations,

all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,

^wfor the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

9  “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

to ^xset his nest on high,

to be safe from the reach of harm!

10  You have devised shame for your house

by cutting off many peoples;

you have forfeited your life.

11  For the stone will cry out from the wall,

and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12  “Woe to him who ^ybuilds a town with blood

and founds a city on iniquity!

13  Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts

that ^zpeoples labor merely for fire,

and nations weary themselves for nothing?

14  For ^athe earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

15  “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—

you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,

in order to gaze at their nakedness!

16  You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.

Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!

^bThe cup in the Lord’s right hand

will come around to you,

and utter shame will come upon your glory!

17  The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,

for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.

18  “What ^cprofit is an idol

when its maker has shaped it,

a metal image, a teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in his own creation

when he makes ^dspeechless idols!

19  Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;

to a silent stone, Arise!

Can this teach?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

and ^ethere is no breath at all in it.

20  But ^fthe Lord is in his holy temple;

^glet all the earth keep silence before him.”

2  O Lord, ^jI have heard the report of you,

and your work, O Lord, do I fear.

In the midst of the years revive it;

in the midst of the years make it known;

in wrath remember mercy.

3  ^kGod came from Teman,

and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah

His splendor covered the heavens,

and ^lthe earth was full of his praise.

4  His brightness was like the light;

rays flashed from his hand;

and there he veiled his power.

5  Before him went pestilence,

and plague followed at his heels.¹

6  He stood and measured the earth;

he looked and shook the nations;

then the eternal mountains were scattered;

the ^meverlasting hills sank low.

His were the everlasting ways.

7  I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;

the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

8  Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?

Was your anger against the rivers,

or your indignation against the sea,

when you rode on your horses,

on your ⁿchariot of salvation?

9  You stripped the sheath from your bow,

calling for many arrows.² Selah

You split the earth with rivers.

10  The mountains ^osaw you and writhed;

the raging waters swept on;

the deep gave forth its ^pvoice;

it lifted its hands on high.

11  ^qThe sun and moon stood still in their place

at the light of your arrows as they sped,

at the flash of your ^rglittering spear.

12  You marched through the earth in fury;

you threshed the nations in anger.

13  You went out for the salvation of your people,

for the salvation of your anointed.

You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,

laying him bare from thigh to neck.³ Selah

14  You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,

who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,

rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.

15  You ^strampled the sea with your horses,

the surging of mighty waters.

16  I hear, and my body trembles;

my lips quiver at the sound;

rottenness enters into my bones;

my legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

to come upon people who invade us.

17  ^tThough the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

18  yet I will ^urejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

19  God, the Lord, is my strength;

^vhe makes my feet like the deer’s;

he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed⁴ instruments.

2  “I will utterly sweep away everything

from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

3  “I will sweep away man and beast;

I will sweep away the birds of the heavens

and the ^bfish of the sea,

and the rubble¹ with the wicked.

I will cut off mankind

from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

4  “I will stretch out my hand against Judah

and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal

and the name of the ^cidolatrous priests along with the priests,

5  those who bow down ^don the roofs

to the ^ehost of the heavens,

those who bow down and swear to the Lord

and yet swear by ^fMilcom,²

6  those who have ^gturned back from following the Lord,

who do not ^hseek the Lord or inquire of him.”

7  ⁱBe silent before the Lord God!

For the ^jday of the Lord is near;

^kthe Lord has prepared a sacrifice

and ^lconsecrated his guests.

8  And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice—

“I will punish the officials and the king’s sons

and all who array themselves in foreign attire.

9  On that day I will punish

everyone who ^mleaps over the threshold,

and those who fill their master’s³ house

with violence and fraud.

10  “On that day,” declares the Lord,

“a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,

a wail from the Second Quarter,

a loud crash from the hills.

11  Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!

For all the traders⁴ are no more;

all who weigh out silver are cut off.

12  At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,

and I will punish the men

who are complacent,⁵

those who say in their hearts,

ⁿ‘The Lord will not do good,

nor will he do ill.’

13  Their goods shall be plundered,

and their houses laid waste.

^oThough they build houses,

they shall not inhabit them;

though they plant vineyards,

they shall not drink wine from them.”

14  The great day of the Lord is near,

near and hastening fast;

the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;

the mighty man cries aloud there.

15  A day of wrath is that day,

a day of distress and anguish,

a day of ruin and devastation,

^pa day of darkness and gloom,

^qa day of clouds and thick darkness,

16  a day of trumpet blast and battle cry

against the fortified cities

and against the lofty battlements.

17  ^rI will bring distress on mankind,

so that they shall walk ^slike the blind,

because they have sinned against the Lord;

their blood shall be poured out like dust,

and their flesh like dung.

18  Neither their silver nor their gold

shall be able to deliver them

^ton the day of the wrath of the Lord.

^uIn the fire of his jealousy,

all the earth shall be consumed;

for a full and sudden end

he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

2  Gather together, yes, gather,

O shameless nation,

2  before the decree takes effect¹

—before the day passes away like chaff—

before there comes upon you

the burning anger of the Lord,

before there comes upon you

the day of the anger of the Lord.

3  ^vSeek the Lord, all you ^whumble of the land,

who do his just commands;²

seek righteousness; seek humility;

perhaps you may be hidden

on the day of the anger of the Lord.

4  ^xFor ^yGaza shall be deserted,

and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;

Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon,

and Ekron shall be uprooted.

5  Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast,

you nation of the ^zCherethites!

The word of the Lord is against you,

O Canaan, land of the Philistines;

and I will destroy you ^auntil no inhabitant is left.

6  And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,

with meadows³ for shepherds

and folds for flocks.

7  The seacoast shall become the possession

of the ^bremnant of the house of Judah,

on which they shall graze,

and in the houses of Ashkelon

they shall lie down at evening.

For the Lord their God will be mindful of them

and ^crestore their fortunes.

8  “I have heard the taunts of ^dMoab

and the revilings of the ^eAmmonites,

how they have taunted my people

and made boasts against their territory.

9  Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,

the God of Israel,

“Moab shall become ^flike Sodom,

and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,

a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,

and a waste forever.

The remnant of my people shall plunder them,

and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”

10  This shall be their lot in return for their ^gpride,

because they taunted and boasted

against the people of the Lord of hosts.

11  The Lord will be awesome against them;

for he will famish all the gods of the earth,

and to him shall bow down,

each in its place,

all the lands of the nations.

12  You also, O Cushites,

shall be slain by my sword.

13  And he will stretch out his hand against the north

and destroy Assyria,

and he will make Nineveh a desolation,

a dry waste like the desert.

14  Herds shall lie down in her midst,

all kinds of beasts;⁴

even the owl and the hedgehog⁵

shall lodge in her capitals;

a voice shall hoot in the window;

devastation will be on the threshold;

for her cedar work will be laid bare.

15  This is the ^hexultant city

that lived securely,

that said in her heart,

ⁱ“I am, and there is no one else.”

What a desolation she has become,

a lair for wild beasts!

^jEveryone who passes by her

hisses and shakes his fist.