SIL Translator’s Notes on Habakkuk 1:13

1:13a Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil,

You (sing.) are pure/holy, and you cannot ⌊endure⌋ looking at what is evil.
-or-
There is no sin in you, and you cannot accept ⌊anything that is⌋ evil.

1:13b and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

You (sing.) cannot look at sins and do nothing about it.
-or-
When ⌊people⌋ act wickedly, you always punish them.
-or-
You cannot ignore the evil things ⌊that people do, but you always judge and punish people for their sins⌋ .

1:13c So why do You tolerate the faithless?

Why then do you (sing.) look at people who betray others and do nothing about it?
-or-
Why do you leave people who cannot be trusted ⌊without punishment⌋ ?
-or-
You should punish people when you see them betraying/deceiving others!

1:13d Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

The question here expresses a complaint of the prophet.

Why do you (sing.) do nothing when these wicked ⌊Chaldeans/Babylonians⌋ destroy/kill those who are better than they?
-or-
Why do you not react when these evil ⌊Chaldeans/Babylonians⌋ oppress/conquer ⌊other nations⌋ who are less wicked/evil than they are?
-or-
You should respond when ⌊we (excl.) cry to you⌋ about ⌊the Chaldeans/Babylonians⌋ ! They do evil things against the people who obey you more than they do.

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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