them (Deut. 1:43). They entered arrogantly and heedlessly and, thus, were defeated by the inhabitants of the land (see Num. 14:44–45). The text here in Habakkuk then comments that this person’s ‘soul … is not upright [or ‘straight’] within him’. No, this one is crooked and bent in his very being. In contrast is the ‘righteous’ man. This adjective contrasts with ‘not straight’ in the first line of the verse. This term literally means ‘one who is straight and acts rightly’.5 It often refers to one
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