2:1  [OH, I know, I have been rash to talk out plainly this way to God!] I will [in my thinking] stand upon my post of observation and station myself on the tower {or} fortress, and will watch to see what He will say within me and what answer I will make [as His mouthpiece] to the perplexities of my complaint against Him.

2:2  And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.

2:3  For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive {or} disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day.

2:4  Look at the proud; his soul is not straight {or} right within him, but the [rigidly] just {and} the [uncompromisingly] righteous man shall live by his faith {and} in his faithfulness.

2:5  Moreover, wine {and} {wealth} are treacherous; the proud man [the Chaldean invader] is restless {and} cannot stay at home. His appetite is large like that of Sheol and [his greed] is like death and cannot be satisfied; he gathers to himself all nations and collects all people as if he owned them.

2:6  Shall not all these [victims of his greed] take up a taunt against him and in scoffing derision of him say, Woe to him who piles up that which is not his! [How long will he possess it?] And [woe to him] who loads himself with promissory notes for usury!

2:7  Shall [your debtors] not rise up suddenly who shall bite you, exacting usury of you, and those awake who will vex you [toss you to and fro and make you tremble violently]? Then you will be booty for them.

2:8  Because you [king of Babylon] have plundered many nations, all who are left of the people shall plunder you--because of men's blood and for the violence done to the earth, to the city and all the people who live in each city.

2:9  Woe to him who obtains wicked gain for his house, [who thinks by so doing] to set his nest on high that he may be preserved from calamity {and} delivered from the power of evil!

2:10  You have devised shame to your house by cutting off {and} putting an end to many peoples, and you have sinned against {and} forfeited your own life.

2:11  For the stone shall cry out of the wall [built in sin, to accuse you], and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it [agreeing with its charge against you].

2:12  Woe to him who builds a town with blood and establishes a city by iniquity!

2:13  Behold, is it not by appointment of the Lord of hosts that the nations toil only to satisfy the fire [that will consume their work], and the peoples weary themselves only for emptiness, falsity, {and} futility?

2:14  But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

2:15  Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, who pours out your bottle to them {and} adds to it your poisonous {and} blighting wrath and also makes them drunk, that you may look on their stripped condition {and} pour out foul shame [on their glory]!

2:16  You [yourself] will be filled with shame {and} contempt instead of glory. Drink also and be like an uncircumcised [heathen]! The cup [of wrath] in the Lord's right hand will come around to you [O destroyer], and foul shame shall be upon your own glory!

2:17  For the violence done to Lebanon will cover {and} overwhelm you; the destruction of the animals [which the violence frightened away] will terrify you on account of men's blood and the violence done to the land, to the city and all its inhabitants.

2:18  What profit is the graven image when its maker has formed it? It is only a molten image and a teacher of lies. For the maker trusts in his own creations [as his gods] when he makes dumb idols.

2:19  Woe to him who says to the wooden image, Awake! and to the dumb stone, Arise, teach! [Yet, it cannot, for] behold, it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all inside it!

2:20  But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth hush {and} keep silence before Him.