Why do you show me iniquity, and cause me to behold trouble? for plundering and violence are before me: and there are those that raise up strife and contention.

Therefore the law is slacked, and justice does never go forth: for the wicked does surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

Behold you among the nations, and regard, and wonder and be astonished: for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you.

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

They shall all come for violence: their faces are set like the east wind, and they shall gather captives as the sand.

And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap up earth, and take it.

Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, you have established them for correction.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay.

Shall they not rise up suddenly that are your creditors, and awake that shall oppress you, and you shall be for booty unto them?

Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you; because of bloodshed, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell in it.

Woe to him that covets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of ruin!

For the stone shall cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timber shall answer it.

Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor to feed the fire, and the people shall weary themselves in vain?

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover you, and the plunder of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell in it.

You went forth for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your anointed; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by laying bare from the foundation to the neck. Selah.