² YHWH, how long will I cry,
and you will not hear?
I cry out to you "Chamas!"
and will you not save?
³ Why do you show me iniquity,
and look at perversity?
For destruction v'chamas are before me.
There is strife, and contention rises up.
⁴ Therefore the Torah is paralyzed,
and mishpat never prevails;
for the wicked surround ha-tzaddik;
therefore mishpat comes out perverted.

^1:5 "Look ba-goyim, watch,
and wonder marvelously;
for I am working a work in your days,
which you will not believe though it is told you.
⁶ Ki-hinneh, I raise up ha-Kasdim,
ha-goy bitter and hasty,
that march through the width of eretz,
to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
⁷ They are feared and dreaded.
Their mishpat and their dignity proceed from themselves.
⁸ Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
and are more fierce than the evening wolves.
Their horsemen press proudly on.
Yes, their horsemen come from afar.
They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
⁹ All of them come l'chamas.
Their hordes face the desert.
He gathers prisoners like sand.
¹⁰ Yes, he scoffs ba-m'lakhim,
and princes are a derision to him.
He laughs at every stronghold,
for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it.
¹¹ Then he sweeps by like ruach, and goes on.
He is indeed guilty, whose strength is elohai."

¹² Aren't you from everlasting,
YHWH Elohai, k'doshi? 
We will not die.
YHWH, l'mishpat you have appointed him.
V'Tzur, you have established him to punish.
¹³ You who have purer eyes than to see evil,
and who cannot look on perversity,
why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously,
and keep silent when the wicked swallows
up the man who is more tzaddik than he,
¹⁴ and make men ki'd'gei ha-yam,
like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
¹⁵ He takes up all of them with the hook.
He catches them in his net,
and gathers them in his dragnet.
Therefore he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net,
and burns incense to his dragnet,
because by them his life is luxurious,
and his food is good. ¹⁷ Will he therefore continually empty his net,
and kill goyim without mercy?

^2:1 I will stand at my watch,
and set myself on the ramparts,
and will look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint. 
² YHWH answered me,
"Write the vision,
and make it plain on tablets,
that he who runs may read it.
³ Ki `od chazon la-mo`ed,
and it hurries toward the end, and won't prove false.
Though it takes time, wait for it;
because it will surely come.  It won't delay.
⁴ Hinneh, his nefesh is puffed up.  It is not upright in him,
v'tzaddikbut the righteous will live by his emunah.
⁵ Yes, moreover, ha-yayin is treacherous:
an arrogant man who doesn't stay at home,
who enlarges his nefesh [desire] ki-sh'ol;
he is ka-mavet, and can't be satisfied,
but gathers to himself kol-ha-goyim,
and heaps to himself kol-ha`ammim.

'Hoy to him who increases that which is not his,
and who enriches himself by extortion!
How long?'
⁷ Won't your debtors rise up suddenly,
and wake up those who make you tremble,
and you will be their victim?
⁸ Because you have plundered goyim rabbim,
all the remnant of the `ammim will plunder you,
because of d'mei adam v'chamas eretz,
to the city and to all who dwell in it.

^2:9 Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his bayit,
that he may set his nest on high,
that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
¹⁰ You have devised shame to your house,
by cutting off `ammim rabbim,
and have sinned against your nefesh.
¹¹ For the stone will cry out of the wall,
and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.

^2:12 Hoy to him who builds a town with blood,
and establishes a city by iniquity!
¹³ Hinneh, isn't it of YHWH ts'va'ot
that `ammim labor for the fire,
and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
<sup>14</sup> For ha-aretz will be filled
with the knowledge of kavod YHWH,
ka-mayim cover `al-yam.

^2:15 "Hoy to him who gives his neighbor drink,
pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk,
so that you may gaze at their naked bodies!
¹⁶ You are filled with shame, and not kavod.
You will also drink, and be exposed!
The cup of the right hand of YHWH
will come around to you,
and disgrace will cover your kavod.
¹⁷ Ki chamas (done to) L'vanon will overwhelm you,
and the destruction of b'hemot, which made them afraid,
because of men's blood, v'chamas (done to the) eretz,
to every city and to those who dwell in them.

^2:18 "What value does the pesel have,
that its maker has engraved it;
the molten image, even the teacher of lies,
that he who fashions its form trusts in it,
to make mute idols?
¹⁹ Hoy to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!'
or to the mute stone, 'Arise!'
Shall this teach?
Hinneh, it is overlaid with zahav va'kesef,
and there is no ruach at all within it.

^2:20 Va-YHWH b'heikhal qadsho.
Let kol ha-aretz be silent before him!"

² YHWH, I have heard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds, YHWH.
Renew your work in the middle of the years.
In the middle of the years make it known.
In wrath, you remember mercy.
³ Eloha came from Teiman,
v'Kadosh me-har Paran.
Selah.

His kavod covered shamayim,
and his praise filled ha-aretz.
⁴ His splendor is like the sunrise.
Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden.
⁵ Plague went before him,
and pestilence followed his feet.
⁶ He stood, and shook eretz.
He looked, and made goyim tremble.
The ancient mountains were crumbled.
The age-old hills collapsed.
His ways are eternal.
⁷ I saw the ohalei Cushan in affliction.
The dwellings of eretz Midyan trembled.
⁸ Was YHWH displeased with the rivers?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your wrath against the sea,
that you rode on your horses,
on your chariots of salvation?
⁹ You uncovered your bow.
You called for your sworn arrows.
Selah.
You split aretz with rivers.
¹⁰ The mountains saw you, and were afraid.
The storm of mayim passed by.
The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
¹¹ Shemesh and moon stood still in their habitation,
at the light of your arrows as they went,
at the shining of your glittering spear.
¹² You marched through aretz in wrath.
You threshed goyim in anger.
¹³ You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the land of wickedness.
You stripped them head to foot.
Selah.

^3:14 You pierced the heads of his warriors with their own spears.
They came as a whirlwind to scatter me,
gloating as if to devour the wretched in secret.
¹⁵ You trampled ba-yam with your horses,
churning mayim rabbim.
¹⁶ I heard, and my body trembled.
My lips quivered at the voice.
Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place,
because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble,
for the coming up of the people who invade us.
¹⁷ For though the fig tree doesn't flourish,
nor fruit be in the vines;
the labor of zayit fails,
the fields yield no food;
the flocks are cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls:
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice ba-YHWH.
I will be joyful in the Eloha of my salvation!
¹⁹ YHWH, Adonai, is my strength.
He makes my feet like deer's feet,
and enables me to go in high places.

For the music director, on my stringed instruments.