Habakkuk 2:6

The Proud Babylonians are as Good as Dead

2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him21

and ridicule him with proverbial sayings:22

‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead23

(How long will this go on?)24—

he who gets rich by extortion!’25

21	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.
22	tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”
23	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.
24	tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.
25	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.