Habakkuk 2:10

2:10 Your schemes will bring shame to your house.

Because you destroyed many nations, you will self-destruct. ¹ 

Habakkuk 2:8

2:8 Because you robbed many countries, ² 

all who are left among the nations ³  will rob you.

You have shed human blood

and committed violent acts against lands, cities, ⁴  and those who live in them.

Habakkuk 2:13

2:13 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. ⁵ 

Habakkuk 3:13

3:13 You march out to deliver your people,

to deliver your special servant. ⁶ 

You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ⁷ 

laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ⁸  Selah.

Habakkuk 3:16

Habakkuk Declares His Confidence

3:16 I listened and my stomach churned; ⁹ 

the sound made my lips quiver.

My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, ¹⁰ 

and I shook as I tried to walk. ¹¹ 

I long ¹²  for the day of distress

to come upon ¹³  the people who attack us.

Habakkuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ¹⁴ 

His appetite ¹⁵  is as big as Sheol’s; ¹⁶ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ¹⁷  all the nations;

he seizes ¹⁸  all peoples.

[2:10]  ¹ tn Heb “you planned shame for your house, cutting off many nations, and sinning [against] your life.”

[2:8]  ² tn Or “nations.”

[2:8]  ³ tn Or “peoples.”

[2:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “because of the shed blood of humankind and violence against land, city.” The singular forms אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) and קִרְיָה (qiryah, “city”) are collective, referring to all the lands and cities terrorized by the Babylonians.

[2:13]  ³ tn Heb “Is it not, look, from the Lord of hosts that the nations work hard for fire, and the peoples are exhausted for nothing?”

[3:13]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

[3:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”

[3:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “my insides trembled.”

[3:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “decay entered my bones.”

[3:16]  ⁷ tc Heb “beneath me I shook, which….” The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher) appears to be a relative pronoun, but a relative pronoun does not fit here. The translation assumes a reading אֲשֻׁרָי (’ashuray, “my steps”) as well as an emendation of the preceding verb to a third plural form.

[3:16]  ⁸ tn The translation assumes that אָנוּחַ (’anuakh) is from the otherwise unattested verb נָוָח (navakh, “sigh”; see HALOT 680 s.v. II נוח; so also NEB). Most take this verb as נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”) and translate, “I wait patiently” (cf. NIV).

[3:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “to come up toward.”

[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.”