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.

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.