² O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not listen?
Or cry to you ‘Violence!’
    and you will not save?
³ Why do you make me see wrongdoing
    and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
⁴ So the law becomes slack
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
    therefore judgement comes forth perverted.

2 I will stand at my watch-post,
    and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
    and what he^[a] will answer concerning my complaint.
² Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so that a runner may read it.
³ For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
    it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
    it will surely come, it will not delay.
⁴ Look at the proud!
    Their spirit is not right in them,
    but the righteous live by their faith.^[b]

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not blossom,
    and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
    and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
    and there is no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will exult in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    and makes me tread upon the heights.^[a]