Habakuk 1:13

1:13 You are too just ¹  to tolerate ²  evil;

you are unable to condone ³  wrongdoing.

So why do you put up with such treacherous people? ⁴ 

Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour ⁵  those more righteous than they are? ⁶ 

Habakuk 2:6

The Proud Babylonians are as Good as Dead

2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him ⁷ 

and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ⁸ 

‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ⁹ 

(How long will this go on?) ¹⁰  –

he who gets rich by extortion!’ ¹¹ 

[1:13]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “to see.” Here “see” is figurative for “tolerate,” “put up with.”

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “to look at.” Cf. NEB “who canst not countenance wrongdoing”; NASB “You can not look on wickedness with favor.”

[1:13]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or “swallow up.”

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “more innocent than themselves.”

[2:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “Will not these, all of them, take up a taunt against him…?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.

[2:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”

[2:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who increases [what is] not his.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe,” “ah”) was used in funeral laments and carries the connotation of death.

[2:6]  ¹⁰ tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.

[2:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the one who makes himself heavy [i.e., wealthy] [by] debts.” Though only appearing in the first line, the term הוֹי (hoy) is to be understood as elliptical in the second line.