Habakkuk 3:9

3:9 Your bow is ready for action; ¹ 

you commission your arrows. ²  Selah.

You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. ³ 

Habakkuk 2:19

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ⁴  –

he who says ⁵  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ⁶ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

¹ tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”

² tn Heb “sworn in are the arrow-shafts with a word.” The passive participle of שָׁבַע (shava’), “swear an oath,” also occurs in Ezek 21:23 ET (21:28 HT) referencing those who have sworn allegiance. Here the Lord’s arrows are personified and viewed as having received a commission which they have vowed to uphold. In Jer 47:6-7 the Lord’s sword is given such a charge. In the Ugaritic myths Baal’s weapons are formally assigned the task of killing the sea god Yam.

³ tn Heb “[with] rivers you split open the earth.” A literal rendering like “You split the earth with rivers” (so NIV, NRSV) suggests geological activity to the modern reader, but in the present context of a violent thunderstorm, the idea of streams swollen to torrents by downpours better fits the imagery.

⁴ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

⁵ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

⁶ 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).