Habakkuk 2:1-20
2 At my guard post I will keep standing,+ and I will keep myself stationed upon [the] bulwark;* and I shall keep watch,+ to see what he will speak by* me+ and what I shall reply at the reproof of me.+
2 And Jehovah proceeded to answer me and to say: “Write down [the] vision, and set [it] out plainly upon tablets,+ in order that the one reading aloud from it may do so fluently.*+
3 For [the] vision is yet for the appointed time,+ and it keeps panting on to the end,* and it will not tell a lie. Even if it should delay, keep in expectation of it; for it will without fail come true.+ It will not be late.
4 “Look! His soul* has been swelled up;+ it has not been upright within him.* But as for the righteous one, by his faithfulness he will keep living.+
5 And, indeed, because the wine is dealing treacherously,+ an able-bodied man is self-assuming;+ and he will not reach his goal,+ he who has made his soul spacious just like Sheʹol,* and who is like death and cannot be satisfied.+ And he keeps gathering to himself all the nations and collecting together to himself all the peoples.+
6 Will not these very ones, all of them, lift up against him a proverbial saying+ and an alluding remark, insinuations at him? And one will say,
“‘Woe to him who is multiplying what is not his own+—O how long!+—and who is making debt heavy against himself!
7 Will not those claiming interest of you rise up suddenly, and those wake up who are violently shaking you, and you certainly become to them something to pillage?+
8 Because you yourself despoiled many nations, all the remaining ones of [the] peoples will despoil you,+ because of the shedding of blood of mankind* and the violence to [the] earth, [the] town and all those dwelling in it.+
9 “‘Woe to the one that is making evil gain for his house,+ in order to set his nest on the height, so as to be delivered from the grasp* of what is calamitous!+
10 You have counseled something shameful to your house, the cutting off of many peoples;+ and your soul is sinning.+
11 For out of [the] wall a stone itself will cry out plaintively, and from the woodwork a rafter* itself will answer it.+
12 “‘Woe to the one that is building a city by bloodshed,* and that has solidly established a town by unrighteousness!+
13 Look! Is it not from Jehovah of armies* that peoples will toil on only for the fire, and that national groups will tire themselves out merely for nothing?+
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowing of the glory of Jehovah* as the waters themselves cover over [the] sea.+
15 “‘Woe to the one giving his companions something to drink, attaching [to it] your rage* and anger, in order to make [them] drunk,+ for the purpose of looking upon their parts of shame.+
16 You will certainly be satiated with dishonor instead of glory.+ Drink also, you yourself,+ and be considered uncircumcised.+ The cup of the right hand of Jehovah* will come around to you,+ and there will be disgrace upon your glory;
17 because the violence [done] to Lebʹa·non+ is what will cover you, and the rapacity upon [the] beasts that terrifies them, because of the shedding of blood of mankind* and the violence [done] to [the] earth,+ the town and all those dwelling in it.+
18 Of what benefit has a carved image been,+ when the former of it has carved it, a molten statue, and an instructor in falsehood?+ when the former of its form has trusted in it,+ to the extent of making valueless gods* that are speechless?+
19 “‘Woe to the one saying to the piece of wood: “O do awake!” to a dumb stone: “O wake up! It itself will give instruction”!+ Look! It is sheathed in gold and silver,+ and there is no breath* at all in the midst of it.+
20 But Jehovah* is in his holy temple.*+ Keep silence before him, all the earth!’”+
Footnotes
^ Or, “with; to.”
^ “Bulwark.” Heb., ma·tsohrʹ; Gr., peʹtran, and Syr., kiʼ·phaʼ, “rock”; Lat., mu·ni·ti·oʹnem, “fortification.”
^ Lit., “may run.”
^ “It is a disclosure for the end,” by a slight correction.
^ “His soul.” Heb., naph·shohʹ; Lat., aʹni·ma. See App 4A.
^ “If anyone shrinks back, my soul [Gr., psy·kheʹ] has no pleasure in him,” LXX.
^ “Like Sheol.” Heb., kish·ʼohlʹ; Gr., haiʹdes; Syr., shiul; Lat., in·ferʹnus. See App 4B.
^ Or, “earthling men.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ, sing. but in a collective sense.
^ Lit., “from the palm.” Heb., mik·kaphʹ.
^ Possibly, “the stuccowork.”
^ Lit., “bloods.”
^ “Jehovah of armies,” MTVg; LXX, “Jehovah Almighty.”
^ See App 1C §2.
^ “Attaching [to it] your rage.” Heb., מספ]ח[ חמתך; by omitting the possible dittography of ח, “from the bowl [or, goblet] of your rage.”
^ See App 1C §2.
^ Or, “earthling man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ Or, “worthless gods.” Heb., ʼeli·limʹ; LXX, “idols.”
^ “Breath.” Heb., ruʹach; Gr., pneuʹma; Lat., spiʹri·tus.
^ See App 1C §2.
