Habakuk 1:2

1:2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help?

But you do not listen!

I call out to you, “Violence!”

But you do not intervene! ¹ 

Habakuk 1:6

1:6 Look, I am about to empower ²  the Babylonians,

that ruthless ³  and greedy ⁴  nation.

They sweep across the surface ⁵  of the earth,

seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.

Habakuk 2:2

The Lord Assures Habakkuk

2:2 The Lord responded: ⁶ 

“Write down this message! ⁷  Record it legibly on tablets,

so the one who announces ⁸  it may read it easily. ⁹ 

Habakuk 2:9

2:9 The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. ¹⁰ 

He does this so he can build his nest way up high

and escape the clutches of disaster. ¹¹ 

Habakuk 2:15

2:15 “You who force your neighbor to drink wine ¹²  are as good as dead ¹³  –

you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ¹⁴ 

so you can look at their genitals. ¹⁵ 

Habakuk 2:19

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ¹⁶  –

he who says ¹⁷  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ¹⁸ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

Habakuk 3:14

3:14 You pierce the heads of his warriors ¹⁹  with a spear. ²⁰ 

They storm forward to scatter us; ²¹ 

they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. ²² 

Habakuk 3:16

Habakkuk Declares His Confidence

3:16 I listened and my stomach churned; ²³ 

the sound made my lips quiver.

My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, ²⁴ 

and I shook as I tried to walk. ²⁵ 

I long ²⁶  for the day of distress

to come upon ²⁷  the people who attack us.

Habakuk 3:19

3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. ²⁸ 

He gives me the agility of a deer; ²⁹ 

he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. ³⁰ 

(This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) ³¹ 

[1:2]  ¹ tn Or “deliver.”

[1:6]  ² tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:6]  ³ tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”

[1:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “hasty, quick.” Some translate here “impetuous” (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “rash,” but in this context greed may very well be the idea. The Babylonians move quickly and recklessly ahead in their greedy quest to expand their empire.

[1:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the open spaces.”

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord answered and said.” The redundant expression “answered and said” has been simplified in the translation as “responded.”

[2:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “[the] vision.”

[2:2]  ⁸ tn Or “reads from.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.

[2:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who profits unjustly by evil unjust gain for his house.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to place his nest in the heights in order to escape from the hand of disaster.”

[2:9]  sn Here the Babylonians are compared to a bird, perhaps an eagle, that builds its nest in an inaccessible high place where predators cannot reach it.

[2:15]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:15]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ¹⁸ 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).

[3:14]  ¹⁹ tn Some take “warriors” with the following line, in which case one should translate, “you pierce [his] head with a spear; his warriors storm forward to scatter us” (cf. NIV). The meaning of the Hebrew term פְּרָזוֹ (pÿrazo), translated here “his warriors,” is uncertain.

[3:14]  ²⁰ tc Heb “his shafts.” Some emend to “your shafts.” The translation above assumes an emendation to מַטֶּה (matteh, “shaft, spear”), the vav-yod (ו-י) sequence being a corruption of an original he (ה).

[3:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “me,” but the author speaks as a representative of God’s people.

[3:14]  ²² tn Heb “their rejoicing is like devouring the poor in secret.”

[3:16]  ²³ tn Heb “my insides trembled.”

[3:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “decay entered my bones.”

[3:16]  ²⁵ tc Heb “beneath me I shook, which….” The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher) appears to be a relative pronoun, but a relative pronoun does not fit here. The translation assumes a reading אֲשֻׁרָי (’ashuray, “my steps”) as well as an emendation of the preceding verb to a third plural form.

[3:16]  ²⁶ tn The translation assumes that אָנוּחַ (’anuakh) is from the otherwise unattested verb נָוָח (navakh, “sigh”; see HALOT 680 s.v. II נוח; so also NEB). Most take this verb as נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”) and translate, “I wait patiently” (cf. NIV).

[3:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to come up toward.”

[3:19]  ²⁸ tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”

[3:19]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”

[3:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”

[3:19]  sn Difficult times are coming, but Habakkuk is confident the Lord will sustain him. Habakkuk will be able to survive, just as the deer negotiates the difficult rugged terrain of the high places without injury.

[3:19]  ³¹ tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”