Discovery BoxHabakkuk 1:1
Context1:1 The following is the message 1 which God revealed to Habakkuk the prophet: 2
Habakkuk 1:5-6
Context1:5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! 3
You will be shocked and amazed! 4
For I will do something in your lifetime 5
that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. 6
1:6 Look, I am about to empower 7 the Babylonians,
that ruthless 8 and greedy 9 nation.
They sweep across the surface 10 of the earth,
seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.
Habakkuk 1:14
Context1:14 You made people like fish in the sea,
like animals in the sea 11 that have no ruler.
Habakkuk 1:16
Context1:16 Because of his success 12 he offers sacrifices to his throw net
and burns incense to his dragnet; 13
for because of them he has plenty of food, 14
and more than enough to eat. 15
Habakkuk 2:6
Context2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him 16
and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: 17
‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead 18
(How long will this go on?) 19 –
he who gets rich by extortion!’ 20
Habakkuk 2:13
Context2:13 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. 21
Habakkuk 2:18
Context2:18 What good 22 is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? 23
What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? 24
Why would its creator place his trust in it 25
and make 26 such mute, worthless things?
Habakkuk 3:2
Context3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; 27
I am awed, 28 Lord, by what you accomplished. 29
In our time 30 repeat those deeds; 31
in our time reveal them again. 32
But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! 33
Habakkuk 3:9
Context3:9 Your bow is ready for action; 34
you commission your arrows. 35 Selah.
You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. 36
Habakkuk 3:17
Context3:17 When 37 the fig tree does not bud,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
when the olive trees do not produce, 38
and the fields yield no crops; 39
when the sheep disappear 40 from the pen,
and there are no cattle in the stalls,
[1:1] 1 tn Heb “The burden” (so KJV, ASV). The Hebrew term מַשָּׂא (masa’), usually translated “oracle” (NAB, NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “utterance” (BDB 672 s.v. III מַשָּׂא), in prophetic literature is a technical term introducing a message from the
[1:1] 2 tn Heb “The message [traditionally, “burden”] which Habakkuk the prophet saw.”
[1:5] 3 tn Or “look among the nations and observe.” The imperatival forms in v. 5 are plural, indicating that the Lord’s message is for the whole nation, not just the prophet.
[1:5] 4 tn The Hebrew text combines the Hitpael and Qal imperatival forms of the verb תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”). A literal translation might read, “Shock yourselves and be shocked!” The repetition of sounds draws attention to the statement. The imperatives here have the force of an emphatic assertion. On this use of the imperative in Hebrew, see GKC 324 §110.c and IBHS 572-73 §34.4c.
[1:5] 5 tc Heb “for a work working in your days.” Following the LXX reading, some supply a first person singular pronoun with the participle פֹּעֵל (po’el). Ellipsis of a first singular pronoun before participles is relatively rare (see GKC 360 §116.s); perhaps an original אֲנֹכִי (’anoki; or אֲנִי, ’aniy) followed the initial כִּי (ki) and was omitted by homoioteleuton.
[1:5] 6 tn Heb “you will not believe when it is told.” In this context the force of כִּי (ki) may be “when,” “if,” or “even though.”
[1:6] 5 tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).
[1:6] 6 tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”
[1:6] 7 tn Heb “hasty, quick.” Some translate here “impetuous” (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “rash,” but in this context greed may very well be the idea. The Babylonians move quickly and recklessly ahead in their greedy quest to expand their empire.
[1:6] 8 tn Heb “the open spaces.”
[1:14] 7 tn The Hebrew word רֶמֶשׂ (remesh) usually refers to animals that creep, but here the referent seems to be marine animals that glide through the water (note the parallelism in the previous line). See also Ps 104:25.
[1:16] 10 sn The fishing implements (throw net and dragnet) represent Babylonian military might. The prophet depicts the Babylonians as arrogantly worshiping their own power (sacrifices…burns incense, see also v. 11b).
[1:16] 11 tn Heb “for by them his portion is full [or, “fat”].”
[1:16] 12 tn Heb “and his food is plentiful [or, “fat”].”
[2:6] 11 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.
[2:6] 12 tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”
[2:6] 13 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who increases [what is] not his.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe,” “ah”) was used in funeral laments and carries the connotation of death.
[2:6] 14 tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.
[2:6] 15 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.
[2:13] 13 tn Heb “Is it not, look, from the
[2:18] 15 tn Or “of what value.”
[2:18] 16 tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.
[2:18] 17 tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.
[2:18] 18 tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.
[3:2] 17 tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”
[3:2] 18 tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw,
[3:2] 20 tn Heb “in the midst of years.” The meaning of the phrase, which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain (cf. NIV “in our day”; NEB, NASB “in the midst of the years”).
[3:2] 21 tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).
[3:2] 22 tn Heb “make known.” The implied object is “your deeds”; the pronoun “them,” referring to “deeds” in the previous line, was employed in the translation to avoid redundancy. The suffix on the form חַיֵּיהוּ (khayyehu, “revive it”) does double duty in the parallelism.
[3:2] 23 tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”
[3:9] 19 tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”
[3:9] 20 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
[3:9] 21 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.
