Discovery BoxHabakkuk 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 2:16
Context2:16 But you will become drunk 8 with shame, not majesty. 9
Now it is your turn to drink and expose your uncircumcised foreskin! 10
The cup of wine in the Lord’s right hand 11 is coming to you,
and disgrace will replace your majestic glory!
Habakkuk 2:18
Context2:18 What good 12 is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? 13
What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? 14
Why would its creator place his trust in it 15
and make 16 such mute, worthless things?
Habakkuk 3:2
Context3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; 17
I am awed, 18 Lord, by what you accomplished. 19
In our time 20 repeat those deeds; 21
in our time reveal them again. 22
But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! 23
[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.”
[2:16] 8 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] 10 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] 11 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.
[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] 22 tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”
[3:2] 23 tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw,
[3:2] 25 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] 26 tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).
[3:2] 27 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.
