February 17, 2025

Through My Bible Yr 2 – February 17

4 minutes

Through My Bible Yr 2 – February 17Habakkuk 1 – 2:5 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – FEbruary 17

Habakkuk 1 – 2:5 (EHV)

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/tmb-ehv/02-0217db.mp3

See series: Through My Bible

Habakkuk 1

1 The threatening oracle which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

Habakkuk’s Question

2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help, but you do not listen?

I call out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save!

3 Why do you cause me to see injustice?

Why do you overlook misery?

Devastation and violence confront me.

There is strife, and tensions rise.

4 For this reason the law has become powerless. [1]

Justice is never carried out.

In fact, the wicked overwhelm the righteous

so that justice is perverted.

The Lord Answers

5 Look at the nations and pay attention! Be completely dumbfounded, because I will do something in your lifetime that you will not believe, even though you are warned ahead of time. 6 Watch, I am raising up the Chaldeans, [2] that savage, reckless nation. They will sweep across the whole width of the earth, seizing lands and homes that do not belong to them. 7 They are frightening and terrifying. They invent their own standard of justice and their own values. 8 Their horses are quicker than leopards and fiercer than wolves that prowl at night. Their war horses come galloping. Their war horses come from far away. They fly like vultures [3] swooping down to devour. 9 All of them come to commit violence. Their hordes blow by like the desert wind [4] and sweep up prisoners like sand. 10 They mock kings, and rulers are subjected to scorn. They laugh at every fortified city. They heap up siege ramps and capture cities. 11 But then the wind blows and passes over them, [5] and they will bear their guilt—these men whose own strength is their god.

Habakkuk Replies

12 Are you not from ancient times, O Lord?

My God, my Holy One, you will not die. [6]

Lord, you have made them your instrument of judgment.

You, our Rock, have established them as your instrument of discipline. [7]

13 You whose eyes are too pure to tolerate evil,

you who are not able to condone wrongdoing,

why do you put up with treacherous people?

Why do you keep silent when the wicked swallow up those who are more righteous than they are?

14 You treat people like fish in the sea,

like creeping creatures that have no ruler.

15 The wicked man [8] pulls them all up on a fishhook.

He hauls them in with a net.

He gathers them with his dragnet and is very happy about it.

16 Therefore he offers sacrifices to his nets

and burns incense to his dragnet,

because, through these, his catch is large,

and his food is plentiful.

17 Will he empty one net after another

and continue to destroy nations without sparing any?

Habakkuk 2

1 I will stand at my watch post and station myself on the city wall. I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer he will give to my complaint. [9]

The Lord Responds

2 Then the Lord answered me. He said:

Record the vision and write it plainly on tablets so that a herald may run with it.

3 Indeed, the vision is waiting for the appointed time. It longs for fulfillment and will not prove false. If it seems slow in coming, wait for it, because it will certainly come and will not be delayed.

4 Look, his soul is puffed up and is not righteous within him [10] —but the righteous one will live by his faith. [11] 5 Indeed, wine [12] betrays that arrogant and restless one, because he is as greedy as the grave, and like death he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations and collects all the peoples to himself.

Footnotes

Habakkuk 1:4 Or paralyzed or ineffective

Habakkuk 1:6 The Chaldeans were the ethnic group ruling Babylon.

Habakkuk 1:8 Or eagles

Habakkuk 1:9 Or their faces look straight ahead

Habakkuk 1:11 Or then the wind blows and they move on. The meaning of this sentence is uncertain.

Habakkuk 1:12 The translation follows the alternate Hebrew reading, known as a correction of the scribes. The standard Hebrew text reads we will not die, likely because scribes did not want to mention death and God in the same sentence.

Habakkuk 1:12 In this verse it is uncertain whether the Lord made the Babylonians recipients of judgment because of their godlessness or whether he made them instruments of judgment against Israel. The translation follows the second option.

Habakkuk 1:15 The subject the wicked man is supplied for clarity.

Habakkuk 2:1 The translation follows the alternate Hebrew reading known as a correction of the scribes. The standard Hebrew text reads what answer to give when I am rebuked, likely because scribes considered Habakkuk to be impudent by demanding an answer from the Lord. The alternate reading is also supported by the Syriac and the parallelism with the preceding line.

Habakkuk 2:4 The antecedent of his and him is uncertain, and there are other difficulties with the Hebrew. The phrase must refer to an ungodly man—in the immediate context, to the Babylonians.

Habakkuk 2:4 The word can also mean faithfulness, but in Romans 1:17 Paul uses the phrase in reference to faith.

Habakkuk 2:5 Hebrew variant wealth

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