Habakkuk 2:6-8

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.