Habakkuk 2:19

The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ¹  – he who says ²  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’ Can it give reliable guidance? ³  It is overlaid with gold and silver; it has no life’s breath inside it.

1Ki 18:26-29; Ps 97:7; Ps 135:17; Isa 40:19; Isa 44:17; Isa 46:6; Jer 10:4,9; Jer 51:47; Da 3:1; Da 3:7,18,29; Da 5:23; Jon 1:5; Ac 17:29; Re 17:4

¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

² tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

³ 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).