Habakuk 2:18

2:18 What good ¹  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ² 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ³ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ⁴ 

and make ⁵  such mute, worthless things?

Habakuk 3:16

Habakkuk Declares His Confidence

3:16 I listened and my stomach churned; ⁶ 

the sound made my lips quiver.

My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, ⁷ 

and I shook as I tried to walk. ⁸ 

I long ⁹  for the day of distress

to come upon ¹⁰  the people who attack us.

[2:18]  ¹ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “to make.”

[3:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “my insides trembled.”

[3:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “decay entered my bones.”

[3:16]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to come up toward.”