Discovery BoxHabakkuk 2:9 
Context2:9 The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. 1
He does this so he can build his nest way up high
and escape the clutches of disaster. 2
Habakkuk 2:15
Context2:15 “You who force your neighbor to drink wine 3 are as good as dead 4 –
you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, 5
so you can look at their genitals. 6
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who profits unjustly by evil unjust gain for his house.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
2 tn Heb “to place his nest in the heights in order to escape from the hand of disaster.”
sn Here the Babylonians are compared to a bird, perhaps an eagle, that builds its nest in an inaccessible high place where predators cannot reach it.
3 tn No direct object is present after “drink” in the Hebrew text. “Wine” is implied, however, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
4 tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
5 tc Heb “pouring out your anger and also making drunk”; or “pouring out your anger and [by] rage making drunk.” The present translation assumes that the final khet (ח) on מְסַפֵּחַ (misapeakh, “pouring”) is dittographic and that the form should actually be read מִסַּף (missaf, “from a bowl”).
sn Forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger. The Babylonian’s harsh treatment of others is compared to intoxicating wine which the Babylonians force the nations to drink so they can humiliate them. Cf. the imagery in Rev 14:10.
6 tn Heb “their nakedness,” a euphemism.
sn Metaphor and reality are probably blended here. This may refer to the practice of publicly humiliating prisoners of war by stripping them naked. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 124.
