Habakuk 1:13
Konteks1:13 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
Konteks2:6 “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
Habakuk 1:4
Konteks1:4 For this reason the law lacks power, 12
and justice is never carried out. 13
Indeed, 14 the wicked intimidate 15 the innocent. 16
For this reason justice is perverted. 17
Habakuk 2:12
Konteks2:12 The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead 18 –
he who starts 19 a town by unjust deeds.
Habakuk 1:7
Konteks1:7 They are frightening and terrifying;
they decide for themselves what is right. 20
[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] 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.
[1:4] 12 tn Heb “the law is numb,” i.e., like a hand that has “fallen asleep” (see Ps 77:2). Cf. NAB “is benumbed”; NIV “is paralyzed.”
[1:4] 13 tn Heb “never goes out.”
[1:4] 15 tn Heb “surround” (so NASB, NRSV).
[1:4] 16 tn Or “righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[1:4] 17 tn Heb “comes out crooked.”
[2:12] 18 tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
[2:12] 19 tn Or “establishes”; or “founds.”
[1:7] 20 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.