eng_aiv Amundson Interpretive Version Habakkuk Habakkuk Habakkuk Hab Habakkuk id=eng_aiv name=Amundson Interpretive Version (AIV) status=draft spec=USFM-USX 3.1.1 export=2026-11-02 char:add=translator-addition-italic char:wj=words-of-Jesus-as-received-unmapped note:f=footnotes para:r=parallel-passage-references para:d=psalm-superscriptions Habakkuk’s First Complaint The burden that Habakkuk the prophet saw. Until when, O YHWH, will I cry out, and you will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” And will you not save? Why do you cause me to me see iniquity and to look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me, and there is strife, and contention rises up. Over this, the law is numb, and justice does not go forth forever. For the wicked are surrounding the righteous. Upon thus, twisted justice goes forth. Yahweh’s Answer “Look among the nations and observe them, and be utterly astonished. For a work I am doing in your⁺ days, that you⁺ would not believe even if it were recounted.1.5 LXX Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish! 1.5 Cited in Acts 13:41 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,1.6 That is, the Babylonians that bitter and hasty nation, marching through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places not unto them. He is terrible and fearsome; his justice and his dignity go forth from him. Their horses are swifter than leopards and fiercer than wolves of the evening; their horsemen spring about; and their horsemen come from afar, and they fly like the eagle hurrying to devour. They all come for violence; the full force of their faces is the east wind, and they gather captives like the sand. And he mocks the kings, and princes are an object of scorn for him; at every fortification he laughs, and heaps up earth and seizes it. Then he sweeps through like the wind and passes on; he is guilty, this one; his power is unto his god.” Habakkuk’s Second Complaint (Psalm 11:1–7) Are You not from everlasting, O YHWH my God, my Holy One? We will not die. O YHWH, for judgment You have appointed them, and, O Rock, for reproof You have established them. Purer of eyes than to behold evil, and You are not able to look on wickedness. Why do You look on those acting treacherously, and remain quiet when the wicked is devouring one more righteous than he? And You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without one ruling over them. He brings up each with a hook; he catches him in his net, and gathers him in his dragnet; upon thus he is glad and rejoices. Upon thus he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his portion is rich and his food fat. Upon thus he will empty his net, and continue to slay nations without having mercy? Yahweh Answers Again At my guard post I will stand, and I will take my stand on the rampart, and I will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will return upon my reproof. And YHWH answered me and said, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tablets, that the one calling may run with it. For is yet the vision for an appointed time, and it breathes of the end, and it will not lie; if it lingers, wait for it, because it will surely come and will not delay. 2.3 Or though He lingers, wait for Him, since He will surely come and will not delay; see also LXX; cited in Hebrews 10:37. Behold, one is not puffed up whose soul is upright within him, and the righteous one will live by his faith.2.4 LXX If he should draw back, My soul has no pleasure in him 2.4 Or faithfulness; cited in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38 And indeed because wealth2.5 DSS; MT wine is treacherous, a proud man who does not stay at home, who enlarges his appetite like Sheol and he is like death, and is not satisfied, and he gathers to himself all the nations, and he collects for himself all the peoples. Woe to the Chaldeans Will not these, all of them, take up a clever saying against him, and a taunt with riddles against him, and say, ‘Woe to the one multiplying what is not unto him. Until when will he load on himself many pledges?’ Will not your creditors suddenly rise up, and your oppressors awaken? And you will become as plunder for them! Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you for the bloodshed of man and the violence to the land, to the city and all those dwelling in it! Woe to the one biting off evil gain for his house, to set his nest in the heights, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! You have devised shame for your house, cutting off many peoples, and sinning against your soul. For a stone from the wall will cry out, and a beam from the timbers will answer it: Woe to the one building a city with bloodshed, and who establishes a town by injustice! Behold, Is it not from YHWH of Hosts that the labor of the people is for feeding the fire, and nations only in vain weary themselves? For the earth will be filled to know the glory of YHWH, as the waters cover over the sea. Woe to the one giving drink to his neighbor, pouring out your rage and even to make him drunk, in order to look upon his nakedness! You have been filled with shame instead of glory. Drink, you also, and expose your uncircumcision.2.16 DSS, LXX, and Syriac and stagger It will turn around upon you— the cup of the right hand of YHWH, and disgrace be upon your glory. For the violence to Lebanon will cover you, and the destruction of the beasts will terrify them, from the bloodshed of man and the violence to the land, to the city and all those dwelling in it. What profit is an image when its fashioner has carved it, a molten image and a teacher of falsehood? For the one fashioning trusts upon it in his fashioning, making mute idols. Woe to the one saying to the wood, ‘Awake!’ Or to a stone of silence, ‘Arise!’ Can it give instruction? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and not any breath is within it.” And YHWH is in the temple of His holiness; let all the earth be silent before Him. Habakkuk’s Prayer A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.3.1 Shigionoth is probably a musical term indicating the setting for the prayer. O YHWH, I have heard the report of You; and I was afraid, O YHWH, of Your work. In the midst of the years may You revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath, may You remember to have compassion. God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah3.3 Selah or Interlude is probably a musical or literary term; also in verses 9 and 13. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was like the light; rays were unto Him from His hand, and there was the hiding of his power. Before His face went pestilence, and plague came forth at His feet. He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations; the ancient mountains were scattered, and the hills of old bowed; the ways of old are unto Him! Under affliction I have seen the tents of Cushan; the curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. Against the rivers did it burn, O YHWH— Your anger against the rivers? Or was Your wrath against the sea, when You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation? Your bow was uncovered with nakedness speech was sworn for arrows. Selah With rivers You split the earth; the mountains saw You and trembled. A storm of waters passed by; the deep gave forth its voice, and on high its hand lifted. The sun and moon stood still in its high place; at the light of Your arrows they went forth, at the brightness of the flashing of Your spear. In wrath You marched through the land, in anger You trampled the nations. You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your anointed; You struck the head of the house of the wicked, uncovering him from base to neck. Selah You pierced the head of his warriors with his staves; they stormed out to scatter me, in their rejoicing as one who devours the afflicted in his hiding place. You tread on the sea with Your horses, a surge of great waters. I heard it, and my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the sound; decay came into my bones, and from under me I trembled, that I might rest in the day of distress, to come upon the people who invade us. Habakkuk Rejoices Though the fig tree may not bud, and there be no fruit on the vines; though the work of the olive may fail, and the fields not produce food, though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there herd is in the stalls, yet I will exult in YHWH; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. YHWH the Lord is my strength, and He will make my feet like a deer’s, and on my high places He makes me tread. To the one directing: With stringed instruments.