The LORD Answers Again 1 UST After I said that, I said to myself,“I will climb up into my guard post, and stand there in my watchtower. I will wait there to find out what Yahweh will say, to know how I should answer.” BSB BSB: I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the ramparts. I will watch to see what He will say to me, and how I should answer when corrected.
2 UST Then Yahweh replied to me,“Write plainly on tablets what I am revealing to you in this vision, and then read it to a messenger so he can run with it to tell it to other people. BSB BSB: Then the LORD answered me: “Write down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets, so that a herald may run with it.
3 UST In this vision I will talk about things that will happen when I decide. They will certainly happen in the future, I do not lie. You want those things to happen immediately, but they are not happening. But wait patiently for them to happen! When they occur, they will occur quickly, and not slowly. BSB BSB: For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end and does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and will not delay.
4 UST Think about the people in that proud nation! They are certainly not doing what is righteous. But people who are righteous will live because they faithfully do what I want them to do. BSB BSB: Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—
5 UST Drunk armies are foolish, they cannot stop pillaging. No matter how much they kill and steal, they want more. They will conquer every people group they encounter. BSB BSB: and wealth indeed betrays him. He is an arrogant man never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.
Woe to the Chaldeans 6 UST But soon all those whom they have captured will ridicule the soldiers from Babylonia! They will make fun of them, saying,‘Terrible things will happen to you who have stolen things from other countries! You got many things by forcing people to give them to you. But you certainly will not keep those things for long!’ BSB BSB: Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’
7 UST Suddenly those you owe a debt to because you pillaged them will come to pillage you. You will be afraid. They will recapture all the things that you stole from them. BSB BSB: Will not your creditors suddenly arise and those who disturb you awaken? Then you will become their prey.
8 UST You stole things from the people of many nations. You murdered people of many people groups, and you destroyed their land and their cities. So those who are still alive will steal valuable things from you. BSB BSB: Because you have plundered many nations, the remnant of the people will plunder you—because of your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.
9 UST Terrible things will happen to you people of Babylonia who build big houses with money that you got by forcing others to give it to you. You are proud, and you think that your houses will be safe because you have built them in places where you can easily defend them. BSB BSB: Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!
10 UST But because you have destroyed others, you have harmed yourself and disgraced your own family! BSB BSB: You have plotted shame for your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting your life.
11 UST The very stones in the walls of your houses and the wooden beams in your ceilings show that you did evil things to get them BSB BSB: For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork.
12 UST Terrible things will happen to you people of Babylonia who kill people in order to build cities, cities that you build by using money that you have gotten by committing crimes. BSB BSB: Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!
13 UST But Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, has declared that fire will destroy everything built by people who do things like that; they will have worked hard uselessly. BSB BSB: Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
14 UST But in contrast, just as water fills the oceans, Yahweh will fill the earth with people who know how glorious he is. BSB BSB: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
15 UST Terrible things will happen to you people of Babylonia, who cause people who live in nearby countries to become drunk. You force them to drink a lot of drugged wine until they are drunk and then they walk around naked because you are happy when you see that. BSB BSB: Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!
16 UST But you are the ones whom Yahweh will soon disgrace instead of honor. Yahweh will make you drink so much wine that you will also stagger around drunk and naked. Yahweh will powerfully judge and curse you, and everyone will see that you are weak and not strong. BSB BSB: You will be filled with shame instead of glory. You too must drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.
17 UST You did violent things to the people in Lebanon, and you killed the wild animals there, so you will be punished severely for doing that. You have killed many people and you have destroyed their lands and their cities. BSB BSB: For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of animals will terrify you, because of your bloodshed against men and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.
18 UST An idol that someone carves or casts from metal does not help anyone at all; it only deceives the people who trust it. The person who makes an idol trusts something that he himself created, something that cannot even speak! BSB BSB: What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
19 UST Terrible things will happen to you who say to lifeless idols that are made of wood or rock,‘Wake up!’ Stone idols certainly cannot tell you what you should do; they look nice because they are covered with silver and gold, but they are not alive. BSB BSB: Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”
20 UST But Yahweh is in his holy temple; everyone on the earth should be silent in his presence!” BSB BSB: But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.