Habakkuk 2:13-15

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. 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?”
2. 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.”
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.