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 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ⁶ 

I am awed, ⁷  Lord, by what you accomplished. ⁸ 

In our time ⁹  repeat those deeds; ¹⁰ 

in our time reveal them again. ¹¹ 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ¹² 

[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.

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”