Habakuk 2:17-20

2:17 For you will pay in full for your violent acts against Lebanon; ¹ 

terrifying judgment will come upon you because of the way you destroyed the wild animals living there. ² 

You have shed human blood

and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them.

2:18 What good ³  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ⁴ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ⁵ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ⁶ 

and make ⁷  such mute, worthless things?

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ⁸  –

he who says ⁹  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ¹⁰ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

2:20 But the Lord is in his majestic palace. ¹¹ 

The whole earth is speechless in his presence!” ¹² 

[2:17]  ¹ tn Heb “for the violence against Lebanon will cover you.”

[2:17]  ² tc The Hebrew appears to read literally, “and the violence against the animals [which] he terrified.” The verb form יְחִיתַן (yÿkhitan) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with third feminine plural suffix (the antecedent being the animals) from חָתַת (khatat, “be terrified”). The translation above follows the LXX and assumes a reading יְחִתֶּךָ (yÿkhittekha, “[the violence against the animals] will terrify you”; cf. NRSV “the destruction of the animals will terrify you”; NIV “and your destruction of animals will terrify you”). In this case the verb is a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with second masculine singular suffix (the antecedent being Babylon). This provides better symmetry with the preceding line, where Babylon’s violence is the subject of the verb “cover.”

[2:17]  sn The language may anticipate Nebuchadnezzar’s utilization of trees from the Lebanon forest in building projects. Lebanon and its animals probably represent the western Palestinian states conquered by the Babylonians.

[2:18]  ³ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “to make.”

[2:19]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ¹⁰ 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).

[2:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “holy temple.” The Lord’s heavenly palace, rather than the earthly temple, is probably in view here (see Ps 11:4; Mic 1:2-3). The Hebrew word ֹקדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holy”) here refers to the sovereign transcendence associated with his palace.

[2:20]  ¹² tn Or “Be quiet before him, all the earth!”