“You who force your neighbor to drink wine ¹  are as good as dead ²  – you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ³  so you can look at their genitals. ⁴ 

biblegateway Hab 2:15

"Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness!

Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath and even making them drunk, in order to look at their nakedness!

"’How horrible it will be for the one who makes his neighbor drink from the bowl of God’s rage, making him drunk in order to stare at his nakedness.’

biblegateway Hab 2:15

"Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbours, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies.

"Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink-- you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

bibleoremus Hab 2:15

"Alas for you who make your neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath until they are drunk, in order to gaze on their nakedness!"

Woe betide the person who makes his companions drink the outpouring of God's wrath, making them drunk to watch their naked orgies!

biblegateway Hab 2:15

"Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness!

Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to [him], and makest [him] drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

biblegateway Hab 2:15

“You who force your neighbor to drink wine ¹  are as good as dead ²  – you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ³  so you can look at their genitals. ⁴ 

¹ tn No direct object is present after “drink” in the Hebrew text. “Wine” is implied, however, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

³ tc Heb “pouring out your anger and also making drunk”; or “pouring out your anger and [by] rage making drunk.” The present translation assumes that the final khet (ח) on מְסַפֵּחַ (misapeakh, “pouring”) is dittographic and that the form should actually be read מִסַּף (missaf, “from a bowl”).

³ sn Forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger. The Babylonian’s harsh treatment of others is compared to intoxicating wine which the Babylonians force the nations to drink so they can humiliate them. Cf. the imagery in Rev 14:10.

⁴ tn Heb “their nakedness,” a euphemism.

⁴ sn Metaphor and reality are probably blended here. This may refer to the practice of publicly humiliating prisoners of war by stripping them naked. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 124.