Discovery BoxHabakkuk 3:2 
Context3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; 1
I am awed, 2 Lord, by what you accomplished. 3
In our time 4 repeat those deeds; 5
in our time reveal them again. 6
But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! 7
Habakkuk 3:14
Context3:14 You pierce the heads of his warriors 8 with a spear. 9
They storm forward to scatter us; 10
they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. 11
1 tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”
2 tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw,
3 tn Heb “your work.”
4 tn Heb “in the midst of years.” The meaning of the phrase, which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain (cf. NIV “in our day”; NEB, NASB “in the midst of the years”).
5 tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).
6 tn Heb “make known.” The implied object is “your deeds”; the pronoun “them,” referring to “deeds” in the previous line, was employed in the translation to avoid redundancy. The suffix on the form חַיֵּיהוּ (khayyehu, “revive it”) does double duty in the parallelism.
7 tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”
8 tn Some take “warriors” with the following line, in which case one should translate, “you pierce [his] head with a spear; his warriors storm forward to scatter us” (cf. NIV). The meaning of the Hebrew term פְּרָזוֹ (pÿrazo), translated here “his warriors,” is uncertain.
9 tc Heb “his shafts.” Some emend to “your shafts.” The translation above assumes an emendation to מַטֶּה (matteh, “shaft, spear”), the vav-yod (ו-י) sequence being a corruption of an original he (ה).
10 tn Heb “me,” but the author speaks as a representative of God’s people.
11 tn Heb “their rejoicing is like devouring the poor in secret.”
