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1 After I said that, I said to myself, “I will climb up into my watchtower,
and stand there at my guard post.
I will wait there to find out what Yahweh will say,
what he will reply to what I have complained about.”
Yahweh’s second reply
2 Then Yahweh replied to me,
“Write plainly on tablets what I am revealing to you in this vision,
and then read it to a messenger
in order that he can run with it to tell it to other people.
3 In this vision I will be talking about things that will happen in the future.
Now is not the time when those things will happen,
but they certainly will happen,
and when they occur, they will occur quickly,
and they will not be delayed.
Now you want those things to happen immediately, but they are not happening.
But wait patiently for them to happen!
4 Think about the proud people of Babylonia!
They are certainly not doing what is righteous.
But people who are righteous will live
because they faithfully do what I want them to do.
5 If people trust in their wealth, they will deceive themselves,
and proud people are never able to rest.
It is as though the greedy people of Babylonia open their mouths as wide as the place where dead people are,
and they never have enough,
like the place where dead people go never has enough dead people [PRS].
The armies of Babylonia conquer many nations for themselves,
and capture all their people.
6 But soon all those whom they have captured will ridicule the soldiers from Babylonia!
They will make fun of them, saying,
‘Terrible things will happen to you who have stolen things from other countries!
You got many things by forcing people to give them to you.
But you certainly will not keep those things for a long time [RHQ]!’
7 Suddenly those whom you ◄oppressed/treated cruelly► will cause you to tremble,
and they will take away all the things that you have stolen from them.
8 You stole things from the people of many nations.
You murdered [MTY] people of many people-groups,
and you destroyed their land and their cities.
So those who are still alive will steal valuable things from you.
9 Terrible things will happen to you people of Babylonia who build big houses
with money that you got by forcing others to give it to you.
You are proud and you think that your houses will be safe
because you have built them in places where you can easily defend them.
10 But because you have destroyed others,
you have caused your family [MTY] to be shamed/disgraced,
and you yourselves will be killed.
11 It is as though the stones in the walls of your houses cry out to accuse you,
and it is as though the beams in your ceilings also say the same things.
12 Terrible things will happen to you people of Babylonia who kill people [MTY] in order to build cities,
cities that you build by using money that you have gotten by committing crimes.
13 But the Commander of the armies of angels has [RHQ] declared that everything that is built by people who do things like that will be destroyed by fire;
they will have worked hard uselessly.
14 But in contrast, like [SIM] the oceans are filled with water,
the earth will be filled with people who know that Yahweh is very great.
15 Terrible things will happen to you people of Babylonia
who cause people who live in nearby countries to become drunk.
You force them to drink a lot of wine from wineskins
until they are drunk and then they walk around naked,
in order that you can see that.
16 But you are the ones who soon will be disgraced instead of being honored.
It will be as though you are forced to drink a lot of wine in order that you will also stagger around, drunk.
You will drink the wine that symbolizes that Yahweh will punish you,
and he will cause you to be disgraced instead of being greatly respected any more.
17 You did violent [PRS] things to the people in Lebanon,
and you killed the wild animals there,
but you will be punished severely for doing that.
You have killed [MTY] many people
and you have destroyed their lands and their cities.
18 You people of Babylonia need to know that your idols are completely [RHQ] useless,
because it is people who made them.
Statues that have been carved or made in a mold deceive you.
Those who trust in idols
are trusting in things that they themselves created,
things that cannot speak!
19 Terrible things will happen to you who say to lifeless idols that are made of wood,
‘Wake up!’
Idols certainly cannot [RHQ] tell you what you should do;
they look nice/beautiful because they are covered with silver and gold,
but they are not alive.
20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple;
everyone on the earth should be silent in his presence.”

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© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.