Habakkuk 1:12
Context1:12 Lord, you have been active from ancient times; 1
my sovereign God, 2 you are immortal. 3
Lord, you have made them 4 your instrument of judgment. 5
Protector, 6 you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment. 7
Habakkuk 2:14
Context2:14 For recognition of the Lord’s sovereign majesty will fill the earth
just as the waters fill up the sea. 8
Habakkuk 3:2
Context3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; 9
I am awed, 10 Lord, by what you accomplished. 11
In our time 12 repeat those deeds; 13
in our time reveal them again. 14
But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! 15
Habakkuk 1:2
Context1:2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help?
But you do not listen!
I call out to you, “Violence!”
But you do not intervene! 16
Habakkuk 2:20
Context2:20 But the Lord is in his majestic palace. 17
The whole earth is speechless in his presence!” 18
Habakkuk 3:18
Context3:18 I will rejoice because of 19 the Lord;
I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!
Habakkuk 2:2
Context“Write down this message! 21 Record it legibly on tablets,
so the one who announces 22 it may read it easily. 23
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. 24
Habakkuk 3:19
Context3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. 25
He gives me the agility of a deer; 26
he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. 27
(This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) 28
Habakkuk 3:8
Context3:8 Is the Lord mad at the rivers?
Are you angry with the rivers?
Are you enraged at the sea? 29
Is this why 30 you climb into your horse-drawn chariots, 31
your victorious chariots? 32
Habakkuk 2:16
Context2:16 But you will become drunk 33 with shame, not majesty. 34
Now it is your turn to drink and expose your uncircumcised foreskin! 35
The cup of wine in the Lord’s right hand 36 is coming to you,
and disgrace will replace your majestic glory!
Habakkuk 1:1
Context1:1 The following is the message 37 which God revealed to Habakkuk the prophet: 38
Habakkuk 1:5
Context1:5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! 39
You will be shocked and amazed! 40
For I will do something in your lifetime 41
that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. 42
Habakkuk 3:10
Context3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.
The torrential downpour sweeps through. 43
The great deep 44 shouts out;
it lifts its hands high. 45
Habakkuk 2:1
Context2:1 I will stand at my watch post;
I will remain stationed on the city wall. 46
I will keep watching, so I can see what he says to me
and can know 47 how I should answer
when he counters my argument. 48


[1:12] 1 tn Heb “Are you not from antiquity, O
[1:12] 2 tn Heb “My God, my holy one.” God’s “holiness” in this context is his sovereign transcendence as the righteous judge of the world (see vv. 12b-13a), thus the translation “My sovereign God.”
[1:12] 3 tc The MT reads, “we will not die,” but an ancient scribal tradition has “you [i.e., God] will not die.” This is preferred as a more difficult reading that can explain the rise of the other variant. Later scribes who copied the manuscripts did not want to associate the idea of death with God in any way, so they softened the statement to refer to humanity.
[1:12] 4 tn Heb “him,” a collective singular referring to the Babylonians. The plural pronoun “them” has been used in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style.
[1:12] 5 tn Heb “for judgment.”
[1:12] 6 tn Heb “Rock” or “Cliff.” This divine epithet views God as a place where one can go to be safe from danger. The translation “Protector” conveys the force of the metaphor (cf. KJV, NEB “O mighty God”).
[1:12] 7 tn Heb “to correct, reprove.”
[2:14] 8 tn Heb “for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the
[3:2] 15 tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”
[3:2] 16 tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw,
[3:2] 18 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] 19 tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).
[3:2] 20 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] 21 tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”
[2:20] 29 tn Or “holy temple.” The
[2:20] 30 tn Or “Be quiet before him, all the earth!”
[2:2] 43 tn Heb “the
[2:2] 44 tn Heb “[the] vision.”
[2:2] 46 tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.
[2:13] 50 tn Heb “Is it not, look, from the
[3:19] 57 tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”
[3:19] 58 tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”
[3:19] 59 tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”
[3:19] 60 tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”
[3:8] 64 sn The following context suggests these questions should be answered, “Yes.” The rivers and the sea, symbolizing here the hostile nations (v. 12), are objects of the Lord’s anger (vv. 10, 15).
[3:8] 65 tn Heb “so that.” Here כִּי (ki) is resultative. See the note on the phrase “make it” in 2:18.
[3:8] 66 tn Heb “you mount your horses.” As the next line makes clear, the Lord is pictured here as a charioteer, not a cavalryman. Note NRSV here, “when you drove your horses, // your chariots to victory.”
[3:8] 67 tn Or “chariots of deliverance.”
[2:16] 71 tn Heb “are filled.” The translation assumes the verbal form is a perfect of certitude, emphasizing the certainty of Babylon’s coming judgment, which will reduce the majestic empire to shame and humiliation.
[2:16] 73 tc Heb “drink, even you, and show the foreskin.” Instead of הֵעָרֵל (he’arel, “show the foreskin”) one of the Dead Sea scrolls has הֵרָעֵל (hera’el, “stumble”). This reading also has support from several ancient versions and is followed by the NEB (“you too shall drink until you stagger”) and NRSV (“Drink, you yourself, and stagger”). For a defense of the Hebrew text, see P. D. Miller, Jr., Sin and Judgment in the Prophets, 63-64.
[2:16] 74 sn The Lord’s right hand represents his military power. He will force the Babylonians to experience the same humiliating defeat they inflicted on others.
[1:1] 78 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] 79 tn Heb “The message [traditionally, “burden”] which Habakkuk the prophet saw.”
[1:5] 85 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] 86 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] 87 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] 88 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.”
[3:10] 92 tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.
[3:10] 93 sn The great deep, which is to be equated with the sea (vv. 8, 15), is a symbol of chaos and represents the Lord’s enemies.
[3:10] 94 sn Lifting the hands here suggests panic and is accompanied by a cry for mercy (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19). The forces of chaos cannot withstand the Lord’s power revealed in the storm.
[2:1] 99 sn Habakkuk compares himself to a watchman stationed on the city wall who keeps his eyes open for approaching messengers or danger.
[2:1] 100 tn The word “know” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[2:1] 101 tn Heb “concerning my correction [or, “reproof”].”