Habakkuk 2:6-20 - The Five Woe Oracles

⁶ Shall not all these take up a proverb about him, and a taunting riddle against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that loadeth himself with pledges! ⁷ Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and they awake up that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? ⁸ Because thou hast plundered many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall plunder thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city, and all that dwell therein.

⁹ Woe to him that getteth iniquitous gain to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the grasp of evil! ¹⁰ Thou hast devised shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and hast sinned against thine own soul. ¹¹ For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

¹² Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by unrighteousness! ¹³ Behold, is it not of Jehovah of hosts that the peoples labour for the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain? ¹⁴ For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵ Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that pourest out thy flask, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! ¹⁶ Thou art filled with shame instead of glory; drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of Jehovah's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and a shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. ¹⁷ For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee, and the destruction of beasts which made them afraid; because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city, and all that dwell therein.

¹⁸ What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it? the molten image, and the teacher of falsehood, that the maker of his work dependeth thereon, to make dumb idols? ¹⁹ Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake! to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall it teach? Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

²⁰ But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!