Habakkuk 2:7

2:7 Your creditors will suddenly attack; ¹ 

those who terrify you will spring into action, ² 

and they will rob you. ³ 

Habakkuk 1:13

1:13 You are too just ⁴  to tolerate ⁵  evil;

you are unable to condone ⁶  wrongdoing.

So why do you put up with such treacherous people? ⁷ 

Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour ⁸  those more righteous than they are? ⁹ 

Habakkuk 3:14

3:14 You pierce the heads of his warriors ¹⁰  with a spear. ¹¹ 

They storm forward to scatter us; ¹² 

they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. ¹³ 

Habakkuk 2:8

2:8 Because you robbed many countries, ¹⁴ 

all who are left among the nations ¹⁵  will rob you.

You have shed human blood

and committed violent acts against lands, cities, ¹⁶  and those who live in them.

Habakkuk 2:17

2:17 For you will pay in full for your violent acts against Lebanon; ¹⁷ 

terrifying judgment will come upon you because of the way you destroyed the wild animals living there. ¹⁸ 

You have shed human blood

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

Habakkuk 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ¹⁹ 

I am awed, ²⁰  Lord, by what you accomplished. ²¹ 

In our time ²²  repeat those deeds; ²³ 

in our time reveal them again. ²⁴ 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ²⁵ 

[2:7]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “[Will not] the ones who make you tremble awake?”

[2:7]  ³ tn Heb “and you will become their plunder.”

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “[you] are too pure of eyes.” God’s “eyes” here signify what he looks at with approval. His “eyes” are “pure” in that he refuses to tolerate any wrongdoing in his presence.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “to see.” Here “see” is figurative for “tolerate,” “put up with.”

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “to look at.” Cf. NEB “who canst not countenance wrongdoing”; NASB “You can not look on wickedness with favor.”

[1:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “Why do you look at treacherous ones?” The verb בָּגַד (bagad, “be treacherous”) is often used of those who are disloyal or who violate agreements. See S. Erlandsson, TDOT 1:470-73.

[1:13]  ⁸ tn Or “swallow up.”

[1:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “more innocent than themselves.”

[3:14]  ⁷ tn Some take “warriors” with the following line, in which case one should translate, “you pierce [his] head with a spear; his warriors storm forward to scatter us” (cf. NIV). The meaning of the Hebrew term פְּרָזוֹ (pÿrazo), translated here “his warriors,” is uncertain.

[3:14]  ⁸ tc Heb “his shafts.” Some emend to “your shafts.” The translation above assumes an emendation to מַטֶּה (matteh, “shaft, spear”), the vav-yod (ו-י) sequence being a corruption of an original he (ה).

[3:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “me,” but the author speaks as a representative of God’s people.

[3:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their rejoicing is like devouring the poor in secret.”

[2:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “nations.”

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “peoples.”

[2:8]  ¹² 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.

[2:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “for the violence against Lebanon will cover you.”

[2:17]  ¹⁴ tc The Hebrew appears to read literally, “and the violence against the animals [which] he terrified.” The verb form יְחִיתַן (yÿkhitan) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with third feminine plural suffix (the antecedent being the animals) from חָתַת (khatat, “be terrified”). The translation above follows the LXX and assumes a reading יְחִתֶּךָ (yÿkhittekha, “[the violence against the animals] will terrify you”; cf. NRSV “the destruction of the animals will terrify you”; NIV “and your destruction of animals will terrify you”). In this case the verb is a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with second masculine singular suffix (the antecedent being Babylon). This provides better symmetry with the preceding line, where Babylon’s violence is the subject of the verb “cover.”

[3:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ²¹ 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.

[3:2]  ²² tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”