Habakkuk 2:8

2:8 Because you robbed many countries, ¹ 

all who are left among the nations ²  will rob you.

You have shed human blood

and committed violent acts against lands, cities, ³  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. ⁴ 

Habakkuk 3:13

3:13 You march out to deliver your people,

to deliver your special servant. ⁵ 

You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ⁶ 

laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ⁷  Selah.

Habakkuk 3:16

Habakkuk Declares His Confidence

3:16 I listened and my stomach churned; ⁸ 

the sound made my lips quiver.

My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, ⁹ 

and I shook as I tried to walk. ¹⁰ 

I long ¹¹  for the day of distress

to come upon ¹²  the people who attack us.

[2:8]  ¹ tn Or “nations.”

[2:8]  ² tn Or “peoples.”

[2:8]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

[3:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my insides trembled.”

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “decay entered my bones.”

[3:16]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to come up toward.”