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 3:7

3:7 I see the tents of Cushan overwhelmed by trouble; ⁵ 

the tent curtains of the land of Midian are shaking. ⁶ 

Habakkuk 3:10

3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.

The torrential downpour sweeps through. ⁷ 

The great deep ⁸  shouts out;

it lifts its hands high. ⁹ 

[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”).

[3:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “under trouble I saw the tents of Cushan.”

[3:7]  ⁶ tn R. D. Patterson takes תַּחַת אֲוֶן (takhat ’aven) in the first line as a place name, “Tahath-Aven.” (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 237.) In this case one may translate the verse as a tricolon: “I look at Tahath-Aven. The tents of Cushan are shaking, the tent curtains of the land of Midian.”

[3:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.

[3:10]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.