Habakuk 2:7
Konteks2:7 Your creditors will suddenly attack; 1
those who terrify you will spring into action, 2
and they will rob you. 3
Habakuk 1:6
Konteks1:6 Look, I am about to empower 4 the Babylonians,
that ruthless 5 and greedy 6 nation.
They sweep across the surface 7 of the earth,
seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.
Habakuk 2:19
Konteks2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead 8 –
he who says 9 to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’
Can it give reliable guidance? 10
It is overlaid with gold and silver;
it has no life’s breath inside it.
Habakuk 3:18
Konteks3:18 I will rejoice because of 11 the Lord;
I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!
Habakuk 1:3
Konteks1:3 Why do you force me to witness injustice? 12
Why do you put up with wrongdoing? 13
Destruction and violence confront 14 me;
conflict is present and one must endure strife. 15
Habakuk 1:12
Konteks1:12 Lord, you have been active from ancient times; 16
my sovereign God, 17 you are immortal. 18
Lord, you have made them 19 your instrument of judgment. 20
Protector, 21 you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment. 22
Habakuk 3:8
Konteks3:8 Is the Lord mad at the rivers?
Are you angry with the rivers?
Are you enraged at the sea? 23
Is this why 24 you climb into your horse-drawn chariots, 25
your victorious chariots? 26
Habakuk 2:18
Konteks2:18 What good 27 is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? 28
What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? 29
Why would its creator place his trust in it 30
and make 31 such mute, worthless things?
[2:7] 1 tn Heb “Will not your creditors suddenly rise up?” 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.
[2:7] sn Your creditors will suddenly attack. The Babylonians are addressed directly here. They have robbed and terrorized others, but now the situation will be reversed as their creditors suddenly attack them.
[2:7] 2 tn Heb “[Will not] the ones who make you tremble awake?”
[2:7] 3 tn Heb “and you will become their plunder.”
[1:6] 4 tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).
[1:6] 5 tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”
[1:6] 6 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] 7 tn Heb “the open spaces.”
[2:19] 8 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] 9 tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.
[2:19] 10 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).
[1:3] 12 tn Heb “Why do you make me see injustice?”
[1:3] 13 tn Heb “Why do you look at wrongdoing?”
[1:3] sn Habakkuk complains that God tolerates social injustice and fails to intervene on behalf of the oppressed (put up with wrongdoing).
[1:3] 15 tn Heb “and there is conflict and strife he lifts up.” The present translation takes the verb יִשָּׂא (yisa’) in the sense of “carry, bear,” and understands the subject to be indefinite (“one”).
[1:12] 16 tn Heb “Are you not from antiquity, O
[1:12] 17 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] 18 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] 19 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] 20 tn Heb “for judgment.”
[1:12] 21 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] 22 tn Heb “to correct, reprove.”
[3:8] 23 sn The following context suggests these questions should be answered, “Yes.” The rivers and the sea, symbolizing here the hostile nations (v. 12), are objects of the Lord’s anger (vv. 10, 15).
[3:8] 24 tn Heb “so that.” Here כִּי (ki) is resultative. See the note on the phrase “make it” in 2:18.
[3:8] 25 tn Heb “you mount your horses.” As the next line makes clear, the Lord is pictured here as a charioteer, not a cavalryman. Note NRSV here, “when you drove your horses, // your chariots to victory.”
[3:8] 26 tn Or “chariots of deliverance.”
[2:18] 27 tn Or “of what value.”
[2:18] 28 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] 29 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] 30 tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.
