Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for devastation and violence are before me: and there are that raise strife and contention.

Therefore the law is slackened, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth encompass the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye 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 land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.

Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and O mighty God, thou hast 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 may tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Shall they not rise suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall disturb thee, and thou shalt be for booties to them?

Because thou hast laid waste many nations, all the remnant of the people shall lay thee waste; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

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

Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?

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

Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned to thee, and shameful vomiting shall be on thy glory.

For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thy anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by uncovering the foundation to the neck. Selah.