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Their faces are set eagerly as the east wind;

And they gather captives as the sand.

¹⁰And they scoff at kings,

And princes are a derision unto them;

They deride every stronghold,

For they heap up earth, and take it.

¹¹Then their spirit doth pass over and transgress,

And they become guilty

Even they who impute their might unto their god.

 

¹²Art not Thou from everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O Lord, Thou hast ordained them for judgment,

And Thou, Rock, hast established them for correction.

¹³Thou that art of eyes too pure to behold evil,

And that canst not look on mischief,

Wherefore lookest Thou, when they deal treacherously,

And holdest Thy peace, when the wicked swalloweth up

The man that is more righteous than he;

¹⁴And makest men as the fishes of the sea,

As the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

¹⁵They take up all of them with the angle,

They catch them in their net,

And gather them in their drag;

Therefore they rejoice and exult.

¹⁶Therefore they sacrifice unto their net,

And offer unto their drag;

Because by them their portion is fat,

And their food plenteous.

¹⁷Shall they therefore empty their net,

And not spare to slay the nations continually?

 

2I will stand upon my watch,

And set me upon the tower,

And will look out to see what He will speak by me,

And what I shall answer when I am reproved.

²And the Lord answered me, and said:

'Write the vision,

And make it plain upon tables,

That a man may read it swiftly.

³For the vision is yet for the appointed time,

And it declareth of the end, and doth not lie;

Though it tarry, wait for it;

Because it will surely come, it will not delay.'

 

⁴Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him;

But the righteous shall live by his faith.

⁵Yea, moreover, wine is a treacherous dealer;

The haughty man abideth not;

He who enlargeth his desire as the nether-world,

And is as death, and cannot be satisfied,

But gathereth unto him all nations,

And heapeth unto him all peoples.

⁶Shall not all these take up a parable against him,

And a taunting riddle against him,

And say: 'Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his!

How long? and that ladeth himself with many pledges!'

⁷Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall exact interest of thee,

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