Yesaya 47:10

47:10 You were complacent in your evil deeds; ¹ 

you thought, ²  ‘No one sees me.’

Your self-professed ³  wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,

when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’ ⁴ 

Yeremia 50:31-32

50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” ⁵ 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ⁶ 

“Indeed, ⁷  your day of reckoning ⁸  has come,

the time when I will punish you. ⁹ 

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 51:53

51:53 Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky ¹¹ 

and fortifies her elevated stronghold, ¹² 

I will send destroyers against her,” ¹³ 

says the Lord. ¹⁴ 

Daniel 4:22

4:22 it is you, ¹⁵  O king! For you have become great and strong. Your greatness is such that it reaches to heaven, and your authority to the ends of the earth.

Daniel 4:30

4:30 The king uttered these words: “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence ¹⁶  by my own mighty strength ¹⁷  and for my majestic honor?”

Daniel 5:23

5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ¹⁸  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ¹⁹  your very breath and all your ways!

Daniel 11:36

11:36 “Then the king ²⁰  will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every deity and he will utter presumptuous things against the God of gods. He will succeed until the time of ²¹  wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must occur. ²² 

Habakuk 2:5-8

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ²³ 

His appetite ²⁴  is as big as Sheol’s; ²⁵ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ²⁶  all the nations;

he seizes ²⁷  all peoples.

The Proud Babylonians are as Good as Dead

2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him ²⁸ 

and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ²⁹ 

‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ³⁰ 

(How long will this go on?) ³¹  –

he who gets rich by extortion!’ ³² 

2:7 Your creditors will suddenly attack; ³³ 

those who terrify you will spring into action, ³⁴ 

and they will rob you. ³⁵ 

2:8 Because you robbed many countries, ³⁶ 

all who are left among the nations ³⁷  will rob you.

You have shed human blood

and committed violent acts against lands, cities, ³⁸  and those who live in them.

Habakuk 2:2

The Lord Assures Habakkuk

2:2 The Lord responded: ³⁹ 

“Write down this message! ⁴⁰  Record it legibly on tablets,

so the one who announces ⁴¹  it may read it easily. ⁴² 

Habakuk 2:4

2:4 Look, the one whose desires are not upright will faint from exhaustion, ⁴³ 

but the person of integrity ⁴⁴  will live ⁴⁵  because of his faithfulness. ⁴⁶ 

[47:10]  ¹ tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”

[47:10]  ² tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”

[47:10]  ³ tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[47:10]  ⁴ tn See the note at v. 8.

[50:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “Behold, I am against you, proud one.” The word “city” is not in the text but it is generally agreed that the word is being used as a personification of the city which had “proudly defied” the Lord (v. 29). The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance see the study note on 2:19.

[50:31]  ⁷ tn The particle כִּי (ki) is probably asseverative here (so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 739, n. 13, and cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for other examples). This has been a common use of this particle in the book of Jeremiah.

[50:31]  ⁸ tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:31]  ⁹ sn Compare v. 27.

[50:32]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.

[51:53]  ¹¹ tn Or “ascends [into] heaven.” Note the use of the phrase in Deut 30:12; 2 Kgs 2:11; and Amos 9:2.

[51:53]  ¹² tn Heb “and even if she fortifies her strong elevated place.”

[51:53]  ¹³ tn Heb “from me destroyers will go against her.”

[51:53]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[4:22]  ¹⁵ sn Much of modern scholarship views this chapter as a distortion of traditions that were originally associated with Nabonidus rather than with Nebuchadnezzar. A Qumran text, the Prayer of Nabonidus, is often cited for parallels to these events.

[4:30]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “house.”

[4:30]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “by the might of my strength.”

[5:23]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

[11:36]  ²⁰ sn The identity of this king is problematic. If vv. 36-45 continue the description of Antiochus Epiphanes, the account must be viewed as erroneous, since the details do not match what is known of Antiochus’ latter days. Most modern scholars take this view, concluding that this section was written just shortly before the death of Antiochus and that the writer erred on several key points as he tried to predict what would follow the events of his own day. Conservative scholars, however, usually understand the reference to shift at this point to an eschatological figure, viz., the Antichrist. The chronological gap that this would presuppose to be in the narrative is not necessarily a problem, since by all accounts there are many chronological gaps throughout the chapter, as the historical figures intended by such expressions as “king of the north” and “king of the south” repeatedly shift.

[11:36]  ²¹ tn The words “the time of” are added in the translation for clarification.

[11:36]  ²² tn Heb “has been done.” The Hebrew verb used here is the perfect of certitude, emphasizing the certainty of fulfillment.

[2:5]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

[2:6]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”

[2:6]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.

[2:6]  ³² 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.

[2:7]  ³³ tn Heb “Will not your creditors suddenly rise up?” 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.

[2:7]  sn Your creditors will suddenly attack. The Babylonians are addressed directly here. They have robbed and terrorized others, but now the situation will be reversed as their creditors suddenly attack them.

[2:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “[Will not] the ones who make you tremble awake?”

[2:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and you will become their plunder.”

[2:8]  ³⁶ tn Or “nations.”

[2:8]  ³⁷ tn Or “peoples.”

[2:8]  ³⁸ tn Heb “because of the shed blood of humankind and violence against land, city.” The singular forms אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) and קִרְיָה (qiryah, “city”) are collective, referring to all the lands and cities terrorized by the Babylonians.

[2:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the Lord answered and said.” The redundant expression “answered and said” has been simplified in the translation as “responded.”

[2:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “[the] vision.”

[2:2]  ⁴¹ tn Or “reads from.”

[2:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.

[2:4]  ⁴³ tn The meaning of this line is unclear, primarily because of the uncertainty surrounding the second word, עֲפְּלָה (’apÿlah). Some read this as an otherwise unattested verb עָפַל (’afal, “swell”) from which are derived nouns meaning “mound” and “hemorrhoid.” This “swelling” is then understood in an abstract sense, “swell with pride.” This would yield a translation, “As for the proud, his desires are not right within him” (cf. NASB “as for the proud one”; NIV “he is puffed up”; NRSV “Look at the proud!”). A multitude of other interpretations of this line, many of which involve emendations of the problematic form, may be found in the commentaries and periodical literature. The present translation assumes an emendation to a Pual form of the verb עָלַף (’alaf, “be faint, exhausted”). (See its use in the Pual in Isa 51:20, and in the Hitpael in Amos 8:13 and Jonah 4:8.) In the antithetical parallelism of the verse, it corresponds to חָיָה (khayah, “live”). The phrase לֹא יָשְׁרָה נַפְשׁוֹ בּוֹ (lo’ yoshrah nafsho bo), literally, “not upright his desire within him,” is taken as a substantival clause that contrasts with צַדִּיק (tsadiq, “the righteous one”) and serves as the subject of the preceding verb. Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in the sense of “desire” (see BDB 660-61 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ for a list of passages where the word carries this sense).

[2:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “righteous.” The oppressed individuals mentioned in 1:4 are probably in view here.

[2:4]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “will be preserved.” In the immediate context this probably refers to physical preservation through both the present oppression and the coming judgment (see Hab 3:16-19).

[2:4]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “loyalty”; or “integrity.” The Hebrew word אֱמוּנָה (’emunah) has traditionally been translated “faith,” but the term nowhere else refers to “belief” as such. When used of human character and conduct it carries the notion of “honesty, integrity, reliability, faithfulness.” The antecedent of the suffix has been understood in different ways. It could refer to God’s faithfulness, but in this case one would expect a first person suffix (the original form of the LXX has “my faithfulness” here). Others understand the “vision” to be the antecedent. In this case the reliability of the prophecy is in view. For a statement of this view, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 111-12. The present translation assumes that the preceding word “[the person of] integrity” is the antecedent. In this case the Lord is assuring Habakkuk that those who are truly innocent will be preserved through the coming oppression and judgment by their godly lifestyle, for God ultimately rewards this type of conduct. In contrast to these innocent people, those with impure desires (epitomized by the greedy Babylonians; see v. 5) will not be able to withstand God’s judgment (v. 4a).