Habakkuk 1:3

1:3 Why do you force me to witness injustice? ¹ 

Why do you put up with wrongdoing? ² 

Destruction and violence confront ³  me;

conflict is present and one must endure strife. ⁴ 

Habakkuk 2:7

2:7 Your creditors will suddenly attack; ⁵ 

those who terrify you will spring into action, ⁶ 

and they will rob you. ⁷ 

Habakkuk 3:4

3:4 He is as bright as lightning; ⁸ 

a two-pronged lightning bolt flashes from his hand. ⁹ 

This is the outward display of his power. ¹⁰ 

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Why do you make me see injustice?”

[1:3]  ² tn Heb “Why do you look at wrongdoing?”

[1:3]  ³ tn Heb “are before.”

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and there is conflict and strife he lifts up.” The present translation takes the verb יִשָּׂא (yisa’) in the sense of “carry, bear,” and understands the subject to be indefinite (“one”).

[2:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “Will not your creditors suddenly rise up?” 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.

[2:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “[Will not] the ones who make you tremble awake?”

[2:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you will become their plunder.”

[3:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “[His] radiance is like light.” Some see a reference to sunlight, but the Hebrew word אוֹר (’or) here refers to lightning, as the context indicates (see vv. 4b, 9, 11). The word also refers to lightning in Job 36:32 and 37:3, 11, 15.

[3:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “two horns from his hand to him.” Sharp, pointed lightning bolts have a “horn-like” appearance. The weapon of “double lightning” appears often in Mesopotamian representations of gods. See Elizabeth Van Buren, Symbols of the Gods in Mesopotamian Art (AnOr), 70-73.

[3:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and there [is] the covering of his strength”; or “and there is his strong covering.” The meaning of this line is unclear. The point may be that the lightning bolts are merely a covering, or outward display, of God’s raw power. In Job 36:32 one reads that God “covers his hands with light [or, “lightning”].”