Habakkuk 2:4–6

¹⁷For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

³⁸Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

¹¹But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

¹²And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

¹⁶Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

³⁶He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

¹⁰He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

¹¹And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

¹²He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

³⁷Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

²⁰But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

²¹And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

²²And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

²³But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

⁵Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

⁴Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

³⁰The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?

¹¹Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.

¹²Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.

¹¹¶ Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!

¹²And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.

¹WINE is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

²⁰Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

⁴It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:

⁵Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.

¹⁰Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?

¹BELSHAZZAR the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

²Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.

³Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.

⁴They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

¹⁰He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

⁷Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

⁸For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?

⁹Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

¹¹Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹²Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

¹³For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:

¹⁶They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

¹⁷That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

⁶¶ We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.

¹¹The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹²For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

¹⁷And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

⁵Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

²²Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

²³Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

⁸¶ Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

²⁹Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

³⁰They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

³¹Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

³²At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

³³Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

¹³There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.

¹⁴There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

¹⁵The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

¹⁶The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.

⁶Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

¹¹And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

²⁰But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

²¹And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

²²And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

²³But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

⁴Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

⁸Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

⁹¶ Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

¹⁰Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.

⁶But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

¹⁷Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me:

¹⁸To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;

¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

²⁰And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,

²¹Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,

²²And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,

²³Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,

²⁴And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert,

²⁵And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,

²⁶And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

²⁷Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

²⁸And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.

²⁹For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.

⁹Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

²⁹Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁹In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord.

⁹What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.

¹⁰For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

⁴¶ That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

⁵The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

⁶He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

⁷The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

⁸Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

⁹Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

¹¹Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

¹²How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

¹³For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

¹⁵Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

¹⁶They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

¹⁷That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

¹⁸All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

¹⁹But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

²²And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

¹³Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁵He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

¹⁷He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

¹⁸That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

¹⁹Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

²⁰Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

²¹There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

²³When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

²⁵It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

²⁶All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

²⁷The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.

⁴¶ In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields.

⁷And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.

²⁹But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;

³⁰And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;

³¹And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

⁷But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

²¹The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

¹⁵They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

⁹They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

¹⁰And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

¹³Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?

²⁰He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

²Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

¹GO to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

²Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

³Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

⁴Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

³⁴Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

³⁵The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

⁶For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.

⁸But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.

⁹Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹⁰Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;

²⁰But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

¹⁸And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:

¹⁶He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

³Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?