Habakuk 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ¹ 

I am awed, ²  Lord, by what you accomplished. ³ 

In our time ⁴  repeat those deeds; ⁵ 

in our time reveal them again. ⁶ 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ⁷ 

Habakuk 3:17-19

3:17 When ⁸  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, ⁹ 

and the fields yield no crops; ¹⁰ 

when the sheep disappear ¹¹  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

3:18 I will rejoice because of ¹²  the Lord;

I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!

3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. ¹³ 

He gives me the agility of a deer; ¹⁴ 

he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. ¹⁵ 

(This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) ¹⁶ 

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ² tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ³ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the midst of years.” The meaning of the phrase, which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain (cf. NIV “in our day”; NEB, NASB “in the midst of the years”).

[3:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “make known.” The implied object is “your deeds”; the pronoun “them,” referring to “deeds” in the previous line, was employed in the translation to avoid redundancy. The suffix on the form חַיֵּיהוּ (khayyehu, “revive it”) does double duty in the parallelism.

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”

[3:17]  ⁸ tn Or “though.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “food.”

[3:17]  ¹¹ tn Or “are cut off.”

[3:18]  ¹² tn Or “in.”

[3:19]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”

[3:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”

[3:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”

[3:19]  sn Difficult times are coming, but Habakkuk is confident the Lord will sustain him. Habakkuk will be able to survive, just as the deer negotiates the difficult rugged terrain of the high places without injury.

[3:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”