Habakkuk 2:6

“But all these nations will someday taunt him ¹  and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ²  ‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ³  (How long will this go on?) ⁴  – he who gets rich by extortion!’ ⁵ 

Nu 23:7,18; Job 20:15-29; Job 22:6-10; Ps 94:3; Pr 22:16; Isa 14:4-19; Isa 44:20; Isa 55:2; Jer 29:22; Jer 50:13; Jer 51:34,35; Eze 32:21; Mic 2:4; Hab 1:9,10,15; Hab 2:13; Lu 12:20; 1Co 7:29-31; Jas 5:1-4; 1Pe 4:7

¹ tn Heb “Will not these, all of them, take up a taunt against him…?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.

² tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”

³ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who increases [what is] not his.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe,” “ah”) was used in funeral laments and carries the connotation of death.

⁴ tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.

⁵ tn Heb “and the one who makes himself heavy [i.e., wealthy] [by] debts.” Though only appearing in the first line, the term הוֹי (hoy) is to be understood as elliptical in the second line.