Habakuk 2:6

The Proud Babylonians are as Good as Dead

2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him ¹ 

and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ² 

‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ³ 

(How long will this go on?) ⁴  –

he who gets rich by extortion!’ ⁵ 

Habakuk 3:17

3:17 When ⁶  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, ⁷ 

and the fields yield no crops; ⁸ 

when the sheep disappear ⁹  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

[2:6]  ¹ tn Heb “Will not these, all of them, take up a taunt against him…?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.

[2:6]  ² tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”

[2:6]  ³ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who increases [what is] not his.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe,” “ah”) was used in funeral laments and carries the connotation of death.

[2:6]  ⁴ tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.

[2:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the one who makes himself heavy [i.e., wealthy] [by] debts.” Though only appearing in the first line, the term הוֹי (hoy) is to be understood as elliptical in the second line.

[3:17]  ⁶ tn Or “though.”

[3:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

[3:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “food.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Or “are cut off.”