Habakkuk 3:11

3:11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; ¹ 

the flash of your arrows drives them away, ² 

the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. ³ 

Habakkuk 2:3

2:3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; ⁴ 

it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. ⁵ 

Even if the message ⁶  is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; ⁷ 

for it will certainly come to pass – it will not arrive late.

Habakkuk 3:18

3:18 I will rejoice because of ⁸  the Lord;

I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!

Habakkuk 3:10

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

The torrential downpour sweeps through. ⁹ 

The great deep ¹⁰  shouts out;

it lifts its hands high. ¹¹ 

Habakkuk 3:19

3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. ¹² 

He gives me the agility of a deer; ¹³ 

he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. ¹⁴ 

(This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) ¹⁵ 

[3:11]  ¹ tn Heb “in their lofty dwelling places.”

[3:11]  ² tn Or “at the light of your arrows they vanish.”

[3:11]  ³ tn Heb “at the brightness of the lightning of your spear.”

[2:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “For the vision is still for the appointed time.” The Hebrew word עוֹד (’od, “still”) is better emended to עֵד (’ed, “witness”) in light of the parallelism (see the note on the word “turn out” in the following line). The “appointed time” refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in vv. 6-20 will be realized.

[2:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and a witness to the end and it does not lie.” The Hebrew term יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) has been traditionally understood as a verb form from the root פּוּחַ (puakh, “puff, blow”; cf. NEB “it will come in breathless haste”; NASB “it hastens toward the goal”) but recent scholarship has demonstrated that it is actually a noun meaning “witness” (cf. NIV “it speaks of the end / and will not prove false”; NRSV “it speaks of the end, and does not lie”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 106. “The end” corresponds to “the appointed time” of the preceding line and refers to the time when the prophecy to follow will be fulfilled.

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the message) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “If it should delay, wait for it.” The Hebrew word חָזוֹן (khazon, “vision, message”) is the subject of the third person verbs in v. 3 and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix in the phrase “for it.”

[3:18]  ⁷ tn Or “in.”

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

[3:10]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[3:19]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”

[3:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”

[3:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”

[3:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”