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 2:9

2:9 The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. ⁶ 

He does this so he can build his nest way up high

and escape the clutches of disaster. ⁷ 

Habakuk 2:12

2:12 The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead ⁸  –

he who starts ⁹  a town by unjust deeds.

Habakuk 2:15

2:15 “You who force your neighbor to drink wine ¹⁰  are as good as dead ¹¹  –

you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ¹² 

so you can look at their genitals. ¹³ 

Habakuk 2:19

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ¹⁴  –

he who says ¹⁵  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ¹⁶ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

[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.

[2:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who profits unjustly by evil unjust gain for his house.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “to place his nest in the heights in order to escape from the hand of disaster.”

[2:9]  sn Here the Babylonians are compared to a bird, perhaps an eagle, that builds its nest in an inaccessible high place where predators cannot reach it.

[2:12]  ⁸ tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:12]  ⁹ tn Or “establishes”; or “founds.”

[2:15]  ¹⁰ tn No direct object is present after “drink” in the Hebrew text. “Wine” is implied, however, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:15]  ¹¹ tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:15]  ¹² tc Heb “pouring out your anger and also making drunk”; or “pouring out your anger and [by] rage making drunk.” The present translation assumes that the final khet (ח) on מְסַפֵּחַ (misapeakh, “pouring”) is dittographic and that the form should actually be read מִסַּף (missaf, “from a bowl”).

[2:15]  sn Forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger. The Babylonian’s harsh treatment of others is compared to intoxicating wine which the Babylonians force the nations to drink so they can humiliate them. Cf. the imagery in Rev 14:10.

[2:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “their nakedness,” a euphemism.

[2:15]  sn Metaphor and reality are probably blended here. This may refer to the practice of publicly humiliating prisoners of war by stripping them naked. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 124.

[2:19]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ¹⁶ 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).