Habakkuk 2

Habakkuk stations himself at his watchpost to wait for God’s answer, and it comes: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets... For still the vision awaits its appointed time... If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come.” At the center stands the great contrast: the proud, whose “soul is not upright within him,” will not endure, “but the righteous shall live by his faith.” God then pronounces five woes on the arrogant Babylonian — for plundering nations, for building a house by unjust gain, for founding a town on bloodshed, for shaming his neighbors with drink, and for trusting in lifeless idols. Two shining promises pierce the woes: “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea,” and “the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”