Wherefore shouldst thou let me see iniquity, and, wrong, shouldst let me behold, and, force and violence, be straight before me, - and there should have ever been someone who, contention and strife, would uphold?

“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans [who rule in Babylon],
That fierce and impetuous nation
Who march throughout the earth
To take possession of dwelling places that do not belong to them.

They make fun of kings, deriding those who rule. They laugh at all of the fortified places, constructing ramps to seize them.

They sweep by like the wind and pass on. But the one who considers himself a god will be held guilty."

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,
And You cannot look favorably on wickedness.
Why then do You look favorably
On those who act treacherously?
Why are you silent when the wicked (Chaldean oppressors) destroy
Those more righteous than they?

And Jehovah answereth me and saith: 'Write a vision, and explain on the tables, That he may run who is reading it.

Lo! as for the conceited one, crooked is his soul within him,- but, one who is righteous, by his faithfulness, shall live.

Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

Do not these -- all of them -- against him a simile taken up, And a moral of acute sayings for him, And say, Woe to him who is multiplying what is not his? Till when also is he multiplying to himself heavy pledges?

“Will your creditors not rise up suddenly,
And those who collect from you awaken?
Then you will become plunder for them.

“Because you [king of Babylon] have 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.

Woe to him who is gaining evil gain for his house, To set on high his nest, To be delivered from the hand of evil,

Woe to him who is building a city by blood, And establishing a city by iniquity.

Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed: The nations' efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing.

Woe to him who is giving drink to his neighbour, Pouring out thy bottle, and also making drunk, In order to look on their nakedness.

For your violence against Lebanon
will overwhelm you;
the destruction of animals will terrify you
because of your human bloodshed and violence
against lands, cities, and all who live in them.

What value [is] an idol when its carver has fashioned it, a molten idol, a teacher of lies? For [he who] fashioned his creation trusts in it, [though] making mute idols!

Woe to him who is saying to wood, 'Awake,' 'Stir up,' to a dumb stone, It a teacher! lo, it is overlaid -- gold and silver, And there is no spirit in its midst.

But the LORD in his holy temple is he, whom all the world should fear.

You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of the one on whom your holy oil was put; wounding the head of the family of the evil-doer, uncovering the base even to the neck. Selah.

You pierced the head of his warriors with his own arrows; they came like a whirlwind to scatter me, their exultation like [one who] devours the afflicted in ambush.

I heard and my whole inner self trembled;
My lips quivered at the sound.
Decay and rottenness enter my bones,
And I tremble in my place.
Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,
For the people to arise who will invade and attack us.

as for me, I will rejoice in the LORD. I will find my joy in the God who delivers me.