Habakuk 1:12

Habakkuk Voices Some Concerns

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

my sovereign God, ²  you are immortal. ³ 

Lord, you have made them ⁴  your instrument of judgment. ⁵ 

Protector, ⁶  you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment. ⁷ 

Habakuk 2:10

2:10 Your schemes will bring shame to your house.

Because you destroyed many nations, you will self-destruct. ⁸ 

Habakuk 3:17

3:17 When ⁹  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, ¹⁰ 

and the fields yield no crops; ¹¹ 

when the sheep disappear ¹²  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

Habakuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ¹³ 

His appetite ¹⁴  is as big as Sheol’s; ¹⁵ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ¹⁶  all the nations;

he seizes ¹⁷  all peoples.

[1:12]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “for judgment.”

[1:12]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “to correct, reprove.”

[2:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “you planned shame for your house, cutting off many nations, and sinning [against] your life.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Or “though.”

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

[3:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “food.”

[3:17]  ¹² tn Or “are cut off.”

[2:5]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”