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11 For the stone in the wall shall cry out,[a]
    and the beam in the frame shall answer it!

12 Ah! you who build a city by bloodshed,
    and who establish a town with injustice!(A)
13 Is this not from the Lord of hosts:
    peoples toil[b] for what the flames consume,
    and nations grow weary for nothing!

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Footnotes

  1. 2:11–12 The palaces, built at the expense of gross injustice (vv. 6–10), call down vengeance on their builders. This is typical prophetic language for the condemnation of social crimes within Israel and Judah.
  2. 2:13 Peoples toil: those oppressed by the Babylonians do not benefit from their work. Verses 13–14 break the pattern of reversal in the oracles that precede and may have been added by an editor.