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God Answers the Prophet

¹ I will ^(C1)stand at my guard post
And station myself on the tower;
And I will ^(C2)keep watch to see ^(C3)what He will say to me,
And what answer I will give as His spokesman when I am reproved.

² Then the LORD answered me and said,
"^(C1)Write the vision
And engrave it plainly on clay tablets
So that the one who reads it will run.

³ "For the vision is yet for the ^(C1)appointed future time
It hurries toward the goal of fulfillment; it will not fail.
Even though it delays, ^(C2)wait patiently for it,
Because it will certainly come; it ^(C3)will not delay. ^(VR1)

⁴ "Look at the ^(C1)proud one,
His soul is not right within him,
But the ^(C2)righteous will live by his faith in the true God. ^(VR1)

⁵ "Moreover, ^(C1)wine is treacherous and betrays the ^(C2)arrogant man,
So that he does not ^(C3)stay at home.
^(C4)His appetite is large like Sheol,
And he is like death, never satisfied.
He gathers to himself all nations
And collects to himself all peoples as if he owned them.

⁶ "Will all these victims of his greed not ^(C1)take up a taunting song against him,
And in mocking derision against him
Say, '^(F1)(C2)Woe (judgment is coming) to him who increases that which is not his—
How long will he possess it?
And woe to him who makes himself wealthy with loans.'

⁷ "Will your creditors not ^(C1)rise up suddenly,
And those who collect from you awaken?
Then you will become plunder for them.

⁸ "Because you king of Babylon have ^(C1)looted many nations,
All peoples who are left will loot you—
Because of human bloodshed and for the violence done to the land,
To the city and all its inhabitants.

⁹ "Woe (judgment is coming) to him who obtains ^(C1)wicked gain for his house and thinks by so doing
To ^(C2)set his nest on high,
That he may be rescued from the hand of evil.

¹⁰ "You have devised a ^(C1)shameful thing for your house
By cutting off and putting an end to many peoples;
So you are ^(C2)sinning against your own life and forfeiting it.

¹¹ "For the ^(C1)stone will cry out from the wall to accuse you—built in sin!
And the rafter will answer it out of the woodwork.

¹² "Woe (judgment is coming) to him who ^(C1)builds a city with bloodshed
And establishes a town by violence!

¹³ "Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts
That peoples ^(C1)labor only for the fire that will destroy their work,
And nations grow weary for nothing that is, things which have no lasting value?

¹⁴ "But the time is coming when the earth shall be ^(C1)filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea. ^(VR1)

¹⁵ "Woe (judgment is coming) to you who make your neighbors drink,
Who mix in your venom to make them drunk
So that you may look at their nakedness!

¹⁶ "You will be filled with disgrace instead of honor.
^(C1)Now drink and expose your own nakedness!
The ^(C2)cup of wrath in the LORD'S right hand will come around to you O destroyer,
And ^(C3)utter disgrace will be on your own glory. ^(VR1)

¹⁷ "For the ^(C1)violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you;
The destruction of the animals will terrify you
^(C2)On account of human bloodshed and the ^(C3)violence done to the land,
To the city and all its inhabitants.

¹⁸ "What ^(C1)profit is the carved image when its maker has formed it?
It is only a cast image, and a ^(C2)teacher of lies.
For its maker ^(C3)trusts in his own creation as his god
When he makes speechless idols.

¹⁹ "Woe (judgment is coming) to him who ^(C1)says to the wooden image, '^(C2)Awake!'
And to the speechless stone, 'Arise!'
And that is your teacher?
Look, it is overlaid with ^(C3)gold and silver,
And there is ^(C4)no breath at all inside it.

²⁰ "But the ^(C1)LORD is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth ^(C2)hush and be silent before Him." ^(VR1)