Discovery BoxHabakkuk 2:3 
Context2:3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; 1
it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. 2
Even if the message 3 is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; 4
for it will certainly come to pass – it will not arrive late.
Habakkuk 2:19
Context2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead 5 –
he who says 6 to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’
Can it give reliable guidance? 7
It is overlaid with gold and silver;
it has no life’s breath inside it.
1 tn Heb “For the vision is still for the appointed time.” The Hebrew word עוֹד (’od, “still”) is better emended to עֵד (’ed, “witness”) in light of the parallelism (see the note on the word “turn out” in the following line). The “appointed time” refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in vv. 6-20 will be realized.
2 tn Heb “and a witness to the end and it does not lie.” The Hebrew term יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) has been traditionally understood as a verb form from the root פּוּחַ (puakh, “puff, blow”; cf. NEB “it will come in breathless haste”; NASB “it hastens toward the goal”) but recent scholarship has demonstrated that it is actually a noun meaning “witness” (cf. NIV “it speaks of the end / and will not prove false”; NRSV “it speaks of the end, and does not lie”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 106. “The end” corresponds to “the appointed time” of the preceding line and refers to the time when the prophecy to follow will be fulfilled.
3 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the message) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “If it should delay, wait for it.” The Hebrew word חָזוֹן (khazon, “vision, message”) is the subject of the third person verbs in v. 3 and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix in the phrase “for it.”
5 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
6 tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.
7 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).
