Habakkuk 1:17

1:17 Will he then ¹  continue to fill and empty his throw net? ² 

Will he always ³  destroy ⁴  nations and spare none? ⁵ 

Habakkuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ⁶ 

His appetite ⁷  is as big as Sheol’s; ⁸ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ⁹  all the nations;

he seizes ¹⁰  all peoples.

Habakkuk 3:13

3:13 You march out to deliver your people,

to deliver your special servant. ¹¹ 

You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ¹² 

laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ¹³  Selah.

Habakkuk 3:9

3:9 Your bow is ready for action; ¹⁴ 

you commission your arrows. ¹⁵  Selah.

You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. ¹⁶ 

[1:17]  ¹ tn Or “therefore.”

[1:17]  ² tn Heb “Will he then empty his throw net?” The words “continue to fill and” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:17]  ³ tn Or “continually.”

[1:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “kill.”

[1:17]  ⁵ tn Or “without showing compassion.”

[2:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “Indeed wine betrays a proud man and he does not dwell.” The meaning of the last verb, “dwell,” is uncertain. Many take it as a denominative of the noun נָוָה (navah, “dwelling place”). In this case it would carry the idea, “he does not settle down,” and would picture the drunkard as restless (cf. NIV “never at rest”; NASB “does not stay at home”). Some relate the verb to an Arabic cognate and translate the phrase as “he will not succeed, reach his goal.”

[2:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “who opens wide like Sheol his throat.” Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in a physical sense, meaning “throat,” which in turn is figurative for the appetite. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 11-12.

[2:5]  ⁸ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16; Isa 5:14; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 168.

[2:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

[3:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “anointed one.” In light of the parallelism with “your people” in the preceding line this could refer to Israel, but elsewhere the Lord’s anointed one is always an individual. The Davidic king is the more likely referent here.

[3:13]  ¹² tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

[3:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”

[3:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”

[3:9]  ¹⁷ 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.

[3:9]  ¹⁸ 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.