² Lord, how long will I call for help and you not listen?
        I cry out to you, “Violence!”
            but you don’t deliver us.
³ Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish
        so that devastation and violence are before me?
There is strife, and conflict abounds.
⁴         The Instruction is ineffective.
            Justice does not endure
            because the wicked surround the righteous.
        Justice becomes warped.

⁵ Look among the nations and watch!
        Be astonished and stare
            because something is happening in your days
                that you wouldn’t believe even if told.
⁶ I am about to rouse the Chaldeans,
        that bitter and impetuous nation,
            which travels throughout the earth to possess dwelling places it does not own.
⁷ The Chaldean is dreadful and fearful.
        He makes his own justice and dignity.^[a]

Write a vision, and make it plain upon a tablet
    so that a runner can read it.^[b]
3         There is still a vision for the appointed time;
            it testifies to the end;
                it does not deceive.^[c]
    If it delays, wait for it;
        for it is surely coming; it will not be late.
⁴ Some people’s desires are truly audacious;^[d]
            they don’t do the right thing.
        But the righteous person will live honestly.

¹⁷ Though the fig tree doesn’t bloom,
            and there’s no produce on the vine;
        though the olive crop withers,
            and the fields don’t provide food;
        though the sheep are cut off from the pen,
            and there are no cattle in the stalls;
¹⁸ I will rejoice in the Lord.
        I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance.
¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength.
        He will set my feet like the deer.
        He will let me walk upon the heights.^[a]