Habakuk 1:5

The Lord Reveals Some Startling News

1:5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! ¹ 

You will be shocked and amazed! ² 

For I will do something in your lifetime ³ 

that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. ⁴ 

Habakuk 2:2

The Lord Assures Habakkuk

2:2 The Lord responded: ⁵ 

“Write down this message! ⁶  Record it legibly on tablets,

so the one who announces ⁷  it may read it easily. ⁸ 

Habakuk 2:19

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ⁹  –

he who says ¹⁰  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ¹¹ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

[1:5]  ¹ tn Or “look among the nations and observe.” The imperatival forms in v. 5 are plural, indicating that the Lord’s message is for the whole nation, not just the prophet.

[1:5]  ² tn The Hebrew text combines the Hitpael and Qal imperatival forms of the verb תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”). A literal translation might read, “Shock yourselves and be shocked!” The repetition of sounds draws attention to the statement. The imperatives here have the force of an emphatic assertion. On this use of the imperative in Hebrew, see GKC 324 §110.c and IBHS 572-73 §34.4c.

[1:5]  ³ tc Heb “for a work working in your days.” Following the LXX reading, some supply a first person singular pronoun with the participle פֹּעֵל (po’el). Ellipsis of a first singular pronoun before participles is relatively rare (see GKC 360 §116.s); perhaps an original אֲנֹכִי (’anoki; or אֲנִי, ’aniy) followed the initial כִּי (ki) and was omitted by homoioteleuton.

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “you will not believe when it is told.” In this context the force of כִּי (ki) may be “when,” “if,” or “even though.”

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord answered and said.” The redundant expression “answered and said” has been simplified in the translation as “responded.”

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “[the] vision.”

[2:2]  ⁷ tn Or “reads from.”

[2:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.

[2:19]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ¹¹ 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).