Habakkuk 2:6-20

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Habakkuk 2:6 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. Habakkuk 2:6 tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”
3. Habakkuk 2:6 tn Or “increases.”
4. Habakkuk 2:6 tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.
5. Habakkuk 2:6 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.
6. Habakkuk 2:7 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. 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.
7. Habakkuk 2:7 tn Heb “[Will not] the ones who make you tremble awake?”
8. Habakkuk 2:7 tn Heb “and you will become their plunder.”
9. Habakkuk 2:8 tn Or “nations.”
10. Habakkuk 2:8 tn Or “peoples.”
11. Habakkuk 2:8 tn Heb “because of the shed blood of humankind and violence against land, city.” The singular forms אֶרֶץ (ʾerets, “land”) and קִרְיָה (qiryah, “city”) are collective, referring to all the lands and cities terrorized by the Babylonians.
12. Habakkuk 2:9 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who profits unjustly by evil unjust gain for his house.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
13. Habakkuk 2:9 tn Heb “to place his nest in the heights in order to escape from the hand of disaster.” sn Here the Babylonians are compared to a bird, perhaps an eagle, that builds its nest in an inaccessible high place where predators cannot reach it.
14. Habakkuk 2:10 tn Heb “you planned shame for your house, cutting off many nations, and sinning [against] your life.”
15. Habakkuk 2:11 sn The house mentioned in vv. 9-10 represents the Babylonian empire, which became great through imperialism. Here the materials of this “house” (the stones in the walls, the wooden rafters) are personified as witnesses who testify that the occupants have built the house through wealth stolen from others.
16. Habakkuk 2:12 tn Or “establishes”; or “founds.”
17. Habakkuk 2:13 tn Heb “Is it not, look, from the Lord of hosts that the nations work hard for fire, and the peoples are exhausted for nothing?”
18. Habakkuk 2:14 tn Heb “for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, just as the waters cover over the sea.”
19. Habakkuk 2:15 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.
20. Habakkuk 2:15 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 (m^esappeakh, “pouring”) is dittographic and that the form should actually be read מִסַּף (missaf, “from a bowl”). 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.
21. Habakkuk 2:15 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.
22. Habakkuk 2:16 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.
23. Habakkuk 2:16 tn Or “glory.”
24. Habakkuk 2:16 tc Heb “drink, even you, and show the foreskin.” Instead of הֵעָרֵל (heʿarel, “show the foreskin”) one of the Dead Sea scrolls has הֵרָעֵל (heraʿel, “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.
25. Habakkuk 2:16 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.
26. Habakkuk 2:17 tn Heb “for the violence against Lebanon will cover you.”
27. Habakkuk 2:17 tc The Hebrew appears to read literally, “and the violence against the animals [which] he terrified.” The verb form יְחִיתַן (y^ekhitan) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with third feminine plural suffix (the antecedent being the animals) from חָתַת (khatat, “be terrified”). The translation above follows the LXX and assumes a reading יְחִתֶּךָ (y^ekhittekha, “[the violence against the animals] will terrify you”; cf. NRSV “the destruction of the animals will terrify you”; NIV “and your destruction of animals will terrify you”). In this case the verb is a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with second masculine singular suffix (the antecedent being Babylon). This provides better symmetry with the preceding line, where Babylon’s violence is the subject of the verb “cover.” sn The language may anticipate Nebuchadnezzar’s utilization of trees from the Lebanon forest in building projects. Lebanon and its animals probably represent the western Palestinian states conquered by the Babylonians.
28. Habakkuk 2:18 tn Or “of what value.”
29. Habakkuk 2:18 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.
30. Habakkuk 2:18 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.
31. Habakkuk 2:18 tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.
32. Habakkuk 2:18 tn Heb “to make.”
33. Habakkuk 2:19 tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.
34. Habakkuk 2:19 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).
35. Habakkuk 2:20 tn Or “holy temple.” The Lord’s heavenly palace, rather than the earthly temple, is probably in view here (see Ps 11:4; Mic 1:2-3). The Hebrew word קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holy”) here refers to the sovereign transcendence associated with his palace.
36. Habakkuk 2:20 tn Or “Be quiet before him, all the earth!”