Habakuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ¹ 

His appetite ²  is as big as Sheol’s; ³ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ⁴  all the nations;

he seizes ⁵  all peoples.

Habakuk 2:18

2:18 What good ⁶  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ⁷ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ⁸ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ⁹ 

and make ¹⁰  such mute, worthless things?

Habakuk 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ¹¹ 

I am awed, ¹²  Lord, by what you accomplished. ¹³ 

In our time ¹⁴  repeat those deeds; ¹⁵ 

in our time reveal them again. ¹⁶ 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ¹⁷ 

[2:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Indeed wine betrays a proud man and he does not dwell.” The meaning of the last verb, “dwell,” is uncertain. Many take it as a denominative of the noun נָוָה (navah, “dwelling place”). In this case it would carry the idea, “he does not settle down,” and would picture the drunkard as restless (cf. NIV “never at rest”; NASB “does not stay at home”). Some relate the verb to an Arabic cognate and translate the phrase as “he will not succeed, reach his goal.”

[2:5]  sn The Babylonian tyrant is the proud, restless man described in this line as the last line of the verse, with its reference to the conquest of the nations, makes clear. Wine is probably a metaphor for imperialistic success. The more success the Babylonians experience, the more greedy they become just as a drunkard wants more and more wine to satisfy his thirst. But eventually this greed will lead to their downfall, for God will not tolerate such imperialism and will judge the Babylonians appropriately (vv. 6-20).

[2:5]  ² tn Heb “who opens wide like Sheol his throat.” Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in a physical sense, meaning “throat,” which in turn is figurative for the appetite. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 11-12.

[2:5]  ³ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16; Isa 5:14; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 168.

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

[2:18]  ⁶ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to make.”

[3:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ¹² tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the midst of years.” The meaning of the phrase, which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain (cf. NIV “in our day”; NEB, NASB “in the midst of the years”).

[3:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “make known.” The implied object is “your deeds”; the pronoun “them,” referring to “deeds” in the previous line, was employed in the translation to avoid redundancy. The suffix on the form חַיֵּיהוּ (khayyehu, “revive it”) does double duty in the parallelism.

[3:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”