Habakkuk 2:2

The Lord Assures Habakkuk

2:2 The Lord responded: ¹ 

“Write down this message! ²  Record it legibly on tablets,

so the one who announces ³  it may read it easily. ⁴ 

Habakkuk 2:15

2:15 “You who force your neighbor to drink wine ⁵  are as good as dead ⁶  –

you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ⁷ 

so you can look at their genitals. ⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “the Lord answered and said.” The redundant expression “answered and said” has been simplified in the translation as “responded.”

² tn Heb “[the] vision.”

³ tn Or “reads from.”

⁴ tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.

⁵ 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.

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

⁷ 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”).

⁸ tn Heb “their nakedness,” a euphemism.