| New King James Version | NET Bible |
| 1I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. | 1I will stand at my watch post; I will remain stationed on the city wall. I will keep watching, so I can see what he says to me and can know how I should answer when he counters my argument. |
| 2Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. | 2The LORD responded: "Write down this message! Record it legibly on tablets, so the one who announces it may read it easily. |
| 3For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. | 3For the message is a witness to what is decreed; it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. Even if the message is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; for it will certainly come to pass--it will not arrive late. |
| 4“Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. | 4Look, the one whose desires are not upright will faint from exhaustion, but the person of integrity will live because of his faithfulness. |
| 5“Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples. | 5Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! His appetite is as big as Sheol's; like death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations; he seizes all peoples. |
| 6“Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases What is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges’? | 6"But all these nations will someday taunt him and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: 'The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead (How long will this go on?)--he who gets rich by extortion!' |
| 7Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. | 7Your creditors will suddenly attack; those who terrify you will spring into action, and they will rob you. |
| 8Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it. | 8Because you robbed many countries, all who are left among the nations will rob you. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them. |
| 9“Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster! | 9The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. He does this so he can build his nest way up high and escape the clutches of disaster. |
| 10You give shameful counsel to your house, Cutting off many peoples, And sin against your soul. | 10Your schemes will bring shame to your house. Because you destroyed many nations, you will self-destruct. |
| 11For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it. | 11For the stones in the walls will cry out, and the wooden rafters will answer back. |
| 12“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! | 12The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead--he who starts a town by unjust deeds. |
| 13Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain? | 13Be sure of this! The LORD who commands armies has decreed: The nations' efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. |
| 14For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. | 14For recognition of the LORD's sovereign majesty will fill the earth just as the waters fill up the sea. |
| 15“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness! | 15"You who force your neighbor to drink wine are as good as dead--you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, so you can look at their genitals. |
| 16You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also—drink! And be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the LORD’s right hand will be turned against you, And utter shame will be on your glory. | 16But you will become drunk with shame, not majesty. Now it is your turn to drink and expose your uncircumcised foreskin! The cup of wine in the LORD's right hand is coming to you, and disgrace will replace your majestic glory! |
| 17For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it. | 17For you will pay in full for your violent acts against Lebanon; terrifying judgment will come upon you because of the way you destroyed the wild animals living there. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them. |
| 18“What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols? | 18What good is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? Why would its creator place his trust in it and make such mute, worthless things? |
| 19Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no breath at all. | 19The one who says to wood, 'Wake up!' is as good as dead--he who says to speechless stone, 'Awake!' Can it give reliable guidance? It is overlaid with gold and silver; it has no life's breath inside it. |
| 20“But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” | 20But the LORD is in his majestic palace. The whole earth is speechless in his presence!" |
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