1 I WILL stand upon my place and set me upon the rock tower, and I will watch to see what he will say to me and what I shall answer because of my chastisement.

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

3 For the vision will come to pass at its appointed time, and it shall be fulfilled at the end, it shall not lie; and if it should delay, do not be impatient, because it will surely come, it will not delay.

4 For his soul does not delight in iniquity, but the righteous man shall live by faith.

5 The arrogant and greedy man is never satisfied, because he has enlarged his appetite like Sheol; and like death, he has never enough, but gathers to him all peoples, and draws near to him all the nations.

6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him who gathers and increases that which is not his! How long will he load himself with earthly goods?

7 Behold, they shall rise up suddenly, those who shall bite you, and awake those who shall cause you trouble, and you shall be for spoil to them.

8 Because you have plundered many nations, so the remnant of the people shall plunder you; because of men's blood and the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

9 Woe to him who defrauds and heaps up evil for himself, who sets his nest on high that he may be delivered from evil!

10 You have devised shame to your house, you have plundered many peoples and caused your soul to sin.

11 For the stone shall cry out from the wall, and the nail in the wood shall answer it.

12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

13 All these things are from the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in fire, and the nations shall labor in vain.

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

15 Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink the dregs of fury, and makes them drunk that he may look on their nakedness!

16 You are filled with dishonor instead of glory; drink yourself also and stagger, for the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall come round to you, and shame shall cover your glory.

17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the plundering of the beasts shall trouble you because of the blood of men, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all who dwell therein.

18 What profit is a graven image that its maker has fashioned? The molten image is a false doctrine, for the heart of its maker trusts in it, to fashion a dumb idol

19 Woe to him who says to the wood, Awake! to the dumb stone, Arise! They are vain; even though they are overlaid with gold, there is no breath at all in them.

20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth tremble before him.