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

Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their horsemen come from far. They fly as an eagle that hastens to devour.

Thou who are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and who cannot look on perverseness, why do thou look upon those who deal treacherously, and hold thy peace when the wicked man swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,

and makes men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

And LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run who reads it.

Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him who increases that which is not his (how long?) and who loads himself with pledges!

Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee. And thou shall be for booty to them?

Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!

Behold, is it not of LORD of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?

Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, who adds thy venom, and also makes him drunken, that thou may look on their nakedness!

What profits the graven image, that the maker of it has engraved it, the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make dumb idols?

Was LORD displeased with the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers, or thy wrath against the sea, that thou rode upon thy horses, upon thy chariots of salvation?