Habakuk 2:13

2:13 Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed:

The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke;

their exhausting work will be for nothing. ¹ 

Habakuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ² 

His appetite ³  is as big as Sheol’s; ⁴ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ⁵  all the nations;

he seizes ⁶  all peoples.

Habakuk 3:17

3:17 When ⁷  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, ⁸ 

and the fields yield no crops; ⁹ 

when the sheep disappear ¹⁰  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

[2:13]  ¹ tn Heb “Is it not, look, from the Lord of hosts that the nations work hard for fire, and the peoples are exhausted for nothing?”

[2:5]  ² tn Heb “Indeed wine betrays a proud man and he does not dwell.” The meaning of the last verb, “dwell,” is uncertain. Many take it as a denominative of the noun נָוָה (navah, “dwelling place”). In this case it would carry the idea, “he does not settle down,” and would picture the drunkard as restless (cf. NIV “never at rest”; NASB “does not stay at home”). Some relate the verb to an Arabic cognate and translate the phrase as “he will not succeed, reach his goal.”

[2:5]  sn The Babylonian tyrant is the proud, restless man described in this line as the last line of the verse, with its reference to the conquest of the nations, makes clear. Wine is probably a metaphor for imperialistic success. The more success the Babylonians experience, the more greedy they become just as a drunkard wants more and more wine to satisfy his thirst. But eventually this greed will lead to their downfall, for God will not tolerate such imperialism and will judge the Babylonians appropriately (vv. 6-20).

[2:5]  ³ tn Heb “who opens wide like Sheol his throat.” Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in a physical sense, meaning “throat,” which in turn is figurative for the appetite. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 11-12.

[2:5]  ⁴ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16; Isa 5:14; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 168.

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

[3:17]  ⁷ tn Or “though.”

[3:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “food.”

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn Or “are cut off.”