2:18 What good 1 is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? 2
What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? 3
Why would its creator place his trust in it 4
and make 5 such mute, worthless things?
3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. 6
He gives me the agility of a deer; 7
he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. 8
(This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) 9
1 tn Or “of what value.”
2 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.
3 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.
4 tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.
5 tn Heb “to make.”
6 tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”
7 tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”
8 tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”
sn Difficult times are coming, but Habakkuk is confident the
9 tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”