translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: HAB

label: NET study note

text: Habakkuk compares himself to a watchman stationed on the city wall who keeps his eyes open for approaching messengers or danger.


text: Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16 ; Isa 5:14 ; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World , 168.


text: The house mentioned in vv. 9-10 represents the Babylonian empire, which became great through imperialism. Here the materials of this “house” ( the stones in the walls , the wooden rafters ) are personified as witnesses who testify that the occupants have built the house through wealth stolen from others.


text: The Lord’s right hand represents his military power. He will force the Babylonians to experience the same humiliating defeat they inflicted on others.