Habakuk 2:18

2:18 What good ¹  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ² 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ³ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ⁴ 

and make ⁵  such mute, worthless things?

Habakuk 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ⁶ 

I am awed, ⁷  Lord, by what you accomplished. ⁸ 

In our time ⁹  repeat those deeds; ¹⁰ 

in our time reveal them again. ¹¹ 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ¹² 

[2:18]  ¹ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “to make.”

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”