CHAPTER 2 Dec. 13 
I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to know what He will say to me, and what answer I will get concerning my complaint.
God’s Reply 
2Yahweh answered me, Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who reads it may run. 3For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it speeds toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay. 4Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him; but the justified one will live due to his faith. 5Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. A proud man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples. 6Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?’ 7Won’t your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who now make you tremble, and you will be their victim? 8Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it. 9Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! 10You have devised shame to your house, by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against your soul. 11For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it. 12Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity! 13Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labour for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity? 14For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.  15Woe to him who gives his neighbour drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies! 16You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink, and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. 17For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.  18What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? 19Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ or to the mute stone, ‘Arise!’ Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in its midst. 20But Yahweh is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him! 

Commentary

2:2 May run – Running in response to God’s word is an idiom for obediently responding to it (Ps. 119:32,60; 147:15; Amos 8:11,12; 2 Thess. 3:1). The ‘plainer’ the word is made, the more clearly it is understood, the greater will be our response to it. Correct understanding of God’s word is therefore important because it is related to the extent of our ‘running’ in response to it.
2:3 The context is a prophecy concerning the coming Babylonian desolation of Jerusalem. There were some who felt that the fulfilment of these words of God was 'tarrying' so long that it would never come. We face the same temptation with regard to the prophecies of Christ’s return.
2:4 The justified- Much is made of this verse in the New Testament, to teach that we sinners are counted righteous, declared in the right as we stand in the dock before the judgment of God, on the basis of our faith in Christ- rather than our works (Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:38). The context of this verse teaches that living by faith is the antithesis of being proud. The life of faith, trusting thereby in grace, is a life of humility.
2:14 A clear prediction of God’s Kingdom coming on earth. 
2:16 Being given the cup of the Lord is a double symbol- of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16,21; 11:26); or, as here, a symbol of condemnation (Ps. 75:8; Jer. 51:7; Rev. 16:19). This adds some intensity to the cup we take at the memorial service. We are drinking that cup either to our condemnation (1 Cor. 11:29), or to our eternal blessing. Hence the breaking of bread meeting brings us up to a T-intersection in our lives.