Habakuk 2:2

The Lord Assures Habakkuk

2:2 The Lord responded: ¹ 

“Write down this message! ²  Record it legibly on tablets,

so the one who announces ³  it may read it easily. ⁴ 

Habakuk 1:13

1:13 You are too just ⁵  to tolerate ⁶  evil;

you are unable to condone ⁷  wrongdoing.

So why do you put up with such treacherous people? ⁸ 

Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour ⁹  those more righteous than they are? ¹⁰ 

Habakuk 1:12

Habakkuk Voices Some Concerns

1:12 Lord, you have been active from ancient times; ¹¹ 

my sovereign God, ¹²  you are immortal. ¹³ 

Lord, you have made them ¹⁴  your instrument of judgment. ¹⁵ 

Protector, ¹⁶  you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment. ¹⁷ 

Habakuk 1:16

1:16 Because of his success ¹⁸  he offers sacrifices to his throw net

and burns incense to his dragnet; ¹⁹ 

for because of them he has plenty of food, ²⁰ 

and more than enough to eat. ²¹ 

Habakuk 1:5

The Lord Reveals Some Startling News

1:5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! ²² 

You will be shocked and amazed! ²³ 

For I will do something in your lifetime ²⁴ 

that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. ²⁵ 

Habakuk 1:7

1:7 They are frightening and terrifying;

they decide for themselves what is right. ²⁶ 

Habakuk 2:18

2:18 What good ²⁷  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ²⁸ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ²⁹ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ³⁰ 

and make ³¹  such mute, worthless things?

Habakuk 2:15

2:15 “You who force your neighbor to drink wine ³²  are as good as dead ³³  –

you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ³⁴ 

so you can look at their genitals. ³⁵ 

Habakuk 2:19

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ³⁶  –

he who says ³⁷  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ³⁸ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

Habakuk 2:3

2:3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; ³⁹ 

it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. ⁴⁰ 

Even if the message ⁴¹  is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; ⁴² 

for it will certainly come to pass – it will not arrive late.

[2:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord answered and said.” The redundant expression “answered and said” has been simplified in the translation as “responded.”

[2:2]  ² tn Heb “[the] vision.”

[2:2]  ³ tn Or “reads from.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “[you] are too pure of eyes.” God’s “eyes” here signify what he looks at with approval. His “eyes” are “pure” in that he refuses to tolerate any wrongdoing in his presence.

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “to see.” Here “see” is figurative for “tolerate,” “put up with.”

[1:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “to look at.” Cf. NEB “who canst not countenance wrongdoing”; NASB “You can not look on wickedness with favor.”

[1:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “Why do you look at treacherous ones?” The verb בָּגַד (bagad, “be treacherous”) is often used of those who are disloyal or who violate agreements. See S. Erlandsson, TDOT 1:470-73.

[1:13]  ⁹ tn Or “swallow up.”

[1:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “more innocent than themselves.”

[1:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Are you not from antiquity, O Lord?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, of course.” The present translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question, rendering it as an affirmation. When used in a temporal sense the phrase מִקֶדֶם (miqedem) means “from antiquity, ancient times,” often referring to earlier periods in Israel’s history. See its use in Neh 12:46; Pss 74:12; 77:11; Isa 45:21; 46:10; Mic 5:2.

[1:12]  ¹² tn Heb “My God, my holy one.” God’s “holiness” in this context is his sovereign transcendence as the righteous judge of the world (see vv. 12b-13a), thus the translation “My sovereign God.”

[1:12]  ¹³ tc The MT reads, “we will not die,” but an ancient scribal tradition has “you [i.e., God] will not die.” This is preferred as a more difficult reading that can explain the rise of the other variant. Later scribes who copied the manuscripts did not want to associate the idea of death with God in any way, so they softened the statement to refer to humanity.

[1:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “him,” a collective singular referring to the Babylonians. The plural pronoun “them” has been used in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style.

[1:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for judgment.”

[1:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Rock” or “Cliff.” This divine epithet views God as a place where one can go to be safe from danger. The translation “Protector” conveys the force of the metaphor (cf. KJV, NEB “O mighty God”).

[1:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to correct, reprove.”

[1:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “therefore.”

[1:16]  ¹⁹ sn The fishing implements (throw net and dragnet) represent Babylonian military might. The prophet depicts the Babylonians as arrogantly worshiping their own power (sacrifices…burns incense, see also v. 11b).

[1:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for by them his portion is full [or, “fat”].”

[1:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and his food is plentiful [or, “fat”].”

[1:5]  ²² tn Or “look among the nations and observe.” The imperatival forms in v. 5 are plural, indicating that the Lord’s message is for the whole nation, not just the prophet.

[1:5]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text combines the Hitpael and Qal imperatival forms of the verb תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”). A literal translation might read, “Shock yourselves and be shocked!” The repetition of sounds draws attention to the statement. The imperatives here have the force of an emphatic assertion. On this use of the imperative in Hebrew, see GKC 324 §110.c and IBHS 572-73 §34.4c.

[1:5]  ²⁴ tc Heb “for a work working in your days.” Following the LXX reading, some supply a first person singular pronoun with the participle פֹּעֵל (po’el). Ellipsis of a first singular pronoun before participles is relatively rare (see GKC 360 §116.s); perhaps an original אֲנֹכִי (’anoki; or אֲנִי, ’aniy) followed the initial כִּי (ki) and was omitted by homoioteleuton.

[1:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you will not believe when it is told.” In this context the force of כִּי (ki) may be “when,” “if,” or “even though.”

[1:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “from him his justice, even his lifting up, goes out.” In this context שְׂאֵת (sÿ’et) probably has the nuance “authority.” See R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 150.

[2:18]  ²⁷ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ³¹ tn Heb “to make.”

[2:15]  ³² tn No direct object is present after “drink” in the Hebrew text. “Wine” is implied, however, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:15]  ³³ tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:15]  ³⁴ tc Heb “pouring out your anger and also making drunk”; or “pouring out your anger and [by] rage making drunk.” The present translation assumes that the final khet (ח) on מְסַפֵּחַ (misapeakh, “pouring”) is dittographic and that the form should actually be read מִסַּף (missaf, “from a bowl”).

[2:15]  sn Forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger. The Babylonian’s harsh treatment of others is compared to intoxicating wine which the Babylonians force the nations to drink so they can humiliate them. Cf. the imagery in Rev 14:10.

[2:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “their nakedness,” a euphemism.

[2:15]  sn Metaphor and reality are probably blended here. This may refer to the practice of publicly humiliating prisoners of war by stripping them naked. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 124.

[2:19]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:19]  ³⁷ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ³⁸ tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).

[2:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “For the vision is still for the appointed time.” The Hebrew word עוֹד (’od, “still”) is better emended to עֵד (’ed, “witness”) in light of the parallelism (see the note on the word “turn out” in the following line). The “appointed time” refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in vv. 6-20 will be realized.

[2:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and a witness to the end and it does not lie.” The Hebrew term יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) has been traditionally understood as a verb form from the root פּוּחַ (puakh, “puff, blow”; cf. NEB “it will come in breathless haste”; NASB “it hastens toward the goal”) but recent scholarship has demonstrated that it is actually a noun meaning “witness” (cf. NIV “it speaks of the end / and will not prove false”; NRSV “it speaks of the end, and does not lie”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 106. “The end” corresponds to “the appointed time” of the preceding line and refers to the time when the prophecy to follow will be fulfilled.

[2:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the message) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “If it should delay, wait for it.” The Hebrew word חָזוֹן (khazon, “vision, message”) is the subject of the third person verbs in v. 3 and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix in the phrase “for it.”