Jeremiah 3:23

3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods

on the hills and mountains did not help us. ¹ 

We know that the Lord our God

is the only one who can deliver Israel. ² 

Jeremiah 10:14-15

10:14 All these idolaters ³  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ⁴ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ⁵ 

10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. ⁶ 

When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.

Habakkuk 2:18-19

2:18 What good ⁷  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ⁸ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ⁹ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ¹⁰ 

and make ¹¹  such mute, worthless things?

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ¹²  –

he who says ¹³  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ¹⁴ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

Habakkuk 2:1

2:1 I will stand at my watch post;

I will remain stationed on the city wall. ¹⁵ 

I will keep watching, so I can see what he says to me

and can know ¹⁶  how I should answer

when he counters my argument. ¹⁷ 

Habakkuk 1:1

Habakkuk Complains to the Lord

1:1 The following is the message ¹⁸  which God revealed to Habakkuk the prophet: ¹⁹ 

[3:23]  ¹ tn Heb “Truly in vain from the hills the noise/commotion [and from] the mountains.” The syntax of the Hebrew sentence is very elliptical here.

[3:23]  ² tn Heb “Truly in the Lord our God is deliverance for Israel.”

[10:14]  ³ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ⁴ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.

[10:15]  ⁶ tn Or “objects of mockery.”

[2:18]  ⁷ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to make.”

[2:19]  ¹² tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:19]  ¹³ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ¹⁴ tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).

[2:1]  ¹⁵ sn Habakkuk compares himself to a watchman stationed on the city wall who keeps his eyes open for approaching messengers or danger.

[2:1]  ¹⁶ tn The word “know” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “concerning my correction [or, “reproof”].”

[1:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “The burden” (so KJV, ASV). The Hebrew term מַשָּׂא (masa’), usually translated “oracle” (NAB, NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “utterance” (BDB 672 s.v. III מַשָּׂא), in prophetic literature is a technical term introducing a message from the Lord (see Zech 9:1; 12:1; Mal 1:1). Since it derives from a verb meaning “to carry,” its original nuance was that of a burdensome message, that is, one with ominous content.

[1:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “The message [traditionally, “burden”] which Habakkuk the prophet saw.”