Habakkuk 2:12-13

2:12 The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead ¹  –

he who starts ²  a town by unjust deeds.

2:13 Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed:

The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke;

their exhausting work will be for nothing. ³ 

¹ tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

² tn Or “establishes”; or “founds.”

³ 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?”