Discovery BoxHabakkuk 1:3 
Context1:3 Why do you force me to witness injustice? 1
Why do you put up with wrongdoing? 2
Destruction and violence confront 3 me;
conflict is present and one must endure strife. 4
Habakkuk 1:9
Context1:9 All of them intend 5 to do violence;
every face is determined. 6
They take prisoners as easily as one scoops up sand. 7
Habakkuk 2:13-14
Context2:13 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. 8
2:14 For recognition of the Lord’s sovereign majesty will fill the earth
just as the waters fill up the sea. 9
1 tn Heb “Why do you make me see injustice?”
2 tn Heb “Why do you look at wrongdoing?”
sn Habakkuk complains that God tolerates social injustice and fails to intervene on behalf of the oppressed (put up with wrongdoing).
3 tn Heb “are before.”
4 tn Heb “and there is conflict and strife he lifts up.” The present translation takes the verb יִשָּׂא (yisa’) in the sense of “carry, bear,” and understands the subject to be indefinite (“one”).
5 tn Heb “come.”
6 tn Heb “The totality of their faces is to the east” (or “is forward”). The precise meaning of the Hebrew term מְגַמַּת (megammat) is unclear. For a discussion of options see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 93. NEB has “a sea of faces rolls on”; NIV “their hordes advance like a desert wind”; NRSV “with faces pressing forward.”
7 tn Heb “and he gathers like sand, prisoners.”
8 tn Heb “Is it not, look, from the
9 tn Heb “for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the
