Habakuk 1:13

1:13 You are too just ¹  to tolerate ²  evil;

you are unable to condone ³  wrongdoing.

So why do you put up with such treacherous people? ⁴ 

Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour ⁵  those more righteous than they are? ⁶ 

Habakuk 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ⁷ 

I am awed, ⁸  Lord, by what you accomplished. ⁹ 

In our time ¹⁰  repeat those deeds; ¹¹ 

in our time reveal them again. ¹² 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ¹³ 

Habakuk 3:16-17

Habakkuk Declares His Confidence

3:16 I listened and my stomach churned; ¹⁴ 

the sound made my lips quiver.

My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, ¹⁵ 

and I shook as I tried to walk. ¹⁶ 

I long ¹⁷  for the day of distress

to come upon ¹⁸  the people who attack us.

3:17 When ¹⁹  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, ²⁰ 

and the fields yield no crops; ²¹ 

when the sheep disappear ²²  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

[1:13]  ¹ tn Heb “[you] are too pure of eyes.” God’s “eyes” here signify what he looks at with approval. His “eyes” are “pure” in that he refuses to tolerate any wrongdoing in his presence.

[1:13]  ² tn Heb “to see.” Here “see” is figurative for “tolerate,” “put up with.”

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “to look at.” Cf. NEB “who canst not countenance wrongdoing”; NASB “You can not look on wickedness with favor.”

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “Why do you look at treacherous ones?” The verb בָּגַד (bagad, “be treacherous”) is often used of those who are disloyal or who violate agreements. See S. Erlandsson, TDOT 1:470-73.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Or “swallow up.”

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “more innocent than themselves.”

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”

[3:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my insides trembled.”

[3:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “decay entered my bones.”

[3:16]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to come up toward.”

[3:17]  ¹⁹ tn Or “though.”

[3:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

[3:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “food.”

[3:17]  ²² tn Or “are cut off.”