Habakuk 3:15

3:15 But you trample on the sea with your horses,

on the surging, raging waters. ¹ 

Habakuk 1:7

1:7 They are frightening and terrifying;

they decide for themselves what is right. ² 

Habakuk 1:11

1:11 They sweep by like the wind and pass on. ³ 

But the one who considers himself a god will be held guilty.” ⁴ 

Habakuk 1:6

1:6 Look, I am about to empower ⁵  the Babylonians,

that ruthless ⁶  and greedy ⁷  nation.

They sweep across the surface ⁸  of the earth,

seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.

Habakuk 2:2

The Lord Assures Habakkuk

2:2 The Lord responded: ⁹ 

“Write down this message! ¹⁰  Record it legibly on tablets,

so the one who announces ¹¹  it may read it easily. ¹² 

Habakuk 2:16

2:16 But you will become drunk ¹³  with shame, not majesty. ¹⁴ 

Now it is your turn to drink and expose your uncircumcised foreskin! ¹⁵ 

The cup of wine in the Lord’s right hand ¹⁶  is coming to you,

and disgrace will replace your majestic glory!

Habakuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ¹⁷ 

His appetite ¹⁸  is as big as Sheol’s; ¹⁹ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ²⁰  all the nations;

he seizes ²¹  all peoples.

Habakuk 2:18

2:18 What good ²²  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ²³ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ²⁴ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ²⁵ 

and make ²⁶  such mute, worthless things?

Habakuk 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ²⁷ 

I am awed, ²⁸  Lord, by what you accomplished. ²⁹ 

In our time ³⁰  repeat those deeds; ³¹ 

in our time reveal them again. ³² 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ³³ 

[3:15]  ¹ tn Heb “the foaming of the mighty [or “many”] waters.”

[1:7]  ² 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.

[1:11]  ³ tn The precise meaning of v. 11a is uncertain. The present translation assumes the first line further describes the Babylonian hordes, comparing them to a destructive wind. Another option is to understand רוּחַ (ruakh) as “spirit,” rather than “wind,” and take the form וְאָשֵׁם (vÿ’ashem) with what precedes (as suggested by the scribal punctuation). Repointing this form as a geminate verb from שָׁמַם (shamam, “be astonished”), one could then translate the line, “The spirit passed on and departed, and I was astonished.” In this case the line would describe the cessation of the divine revelation which began in v. 5. For a detailed defense of this view, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 97-100.

[1:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “and guilty is the one whose strength is his god.” This assumes that אָשֵׁם (’ashem) is a predicate adjective meaning “guilty” and that it relates to what follows.

[1:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”

[1:6]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “the open spaces.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord answered and said.” The redundant expression “answered and said” has been simplified in the translation as “responded.”

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[the] vision.”

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “reads from.”

[2:2]  ¹² tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.

[2:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “are filled.” The translation assumes the verbal form is a perfect of certitude, emphasizing the certainty of Babylon’s coming judgment, which will reduce the majestic empire to shame and humiliation.

[2:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “glory.”

[2:16]  ¹⁵ tc Heb “drink, even you, and show the foreskin.” Instead of הֵעָרֵל (he’arel, “show the foreskin”) one of the Dead Sea scrolls has הֵרָעֵל (hera’el, “stumble”). This reading also has support from several ancient versions and is followed by the NEB (“you too shall drink until you stagger”) and NRSV (“Drink, you yourself, and stagger”). For a defense of the Hebrew text, see P. D. Miller, Jr., Sin and Judgment in the Prophets, 63-64.

[2:16]  ¹⁶ sn The Lord’s right hand represents his military power. He will force the Babylonians to experience the same humiliating defeat they inflicted on others.

[2:5]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

[2:18]  ²² tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to make.”

[3:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”