12
Are you not from old,
Yãhweh,
Almĩghty of my Holy One?º
We will not die¹
Yãhweh².
For judgment
you appoint Him³
and the Rockª
for making correctionⁿ,
you established Himº.
(MISB, Hab. 1:12):
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/BasicBooks/habakkuk.html#1:12
(Link to MISB:
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html)
o. Compare Gen. 24:48: אֱלֹהֵי אֲדֹנִ֣י = “Almighty of my master”. This case is like Psalm 110:1, only this time the Prophet has Yahweh as the “Almighty of my Holy One”. Who is the Prophet’s Holy One whose Almighty is Yahweh? He is Messiah. Read אֱלֹהֵי as construct plural instead of a “my” suffix: אֱלֹהַי.
1. The tiqqune sopherim lists claim here to have changed the text to “we shall not die” (cf. BHS) and that the original reading was “you shall not die”; however, the LXX does not confirm this. It reads “we shall not die” in agreement with the MT; further, inclusion in the list is no guarantee which reading is original; indeed some lists have “he will not die”; the MT reading is also implied by 1QpHab. So “we will not die” is original.
2. The Rabbis would be highly motivated to change this reading to, “you will not die”; such motivation would be sufficient to explain the reason for the tiq. Soph. here. For it instantly blots out the Messianic reading of the passage, and also makes it more difficult for Messiah, who is YHWH in the flesh to experience death. If the tiq. soph. were accepted then we would have to interpret it as “you do not die” and say that it only means that YHWH is not mortal (subject to death process), yet not prohibited from allowing himself to be killed. It is better however to read the passage in the same messianic sense as Isa. 53 and Ps. 110. “We will not die”, and the next phrase supplies the reason.
3. The text is a triple entendre when decoded for the Messianic sense. Firstly, Messiah is appointed to receive our judgment so that we may not die. This explains the previous clause, and why the change of the scribes is unnecessary. Secondly, Messiah is appointed to judge Babylon, and because he will not be “too late” (cf. Hab. 2:3) to judge it, we shall be saved from death. The two senses are divided up between Yeshua’s first coming and his second coming. The third sense is “For judgment you appoint it”, which refers to Babylon. All senses are literal, but the Messianic sense is primary, because it is the spirit of prophecy, and only it has the power to explain the oddities in the text.
a. “Rock” is a messianic title for Messiah. While butchering the text, the NAS translators correctly recognized the sense, “Rock”. See 1Sam. 2:2; Deut. 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31; Is. 8:14, “And he be’eth as a holy place, and for a Stone to strike and for a Rock of stumbling to the two houses of Israel!” (cf. 1Pe 2:8; Rom. 9:33). Moses was to strike the Rock but once. For by his stripes we are healed. Again there is treble sense here. Messiah is the Rock that takes our blow. Messiah is the Rock that smashes Babylon, and brings down the whole statute. Babylon is the rock in the hand of Messiah to judge the wicked in Israel. Again the Messianic sense is most literal, as it is the spirit of propehcy.
n. The Hebrew לְהוֹכִיחַ may mean several things, “reproof”, “correction”, or “decision”. Messiah will reprove the nations. He will correct his people. He is one over who a decision must be made, either for him or against him. Yes, Babylon too will be a rock for correction in his hand. But he himself is the Rock that corrects Babylon.
o. “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a stone of testing¹, a costly keystone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who puts his support² on it will not be disturbed³” (Isa. 28:16). Three times Isaiah refers to Messiah as a foundation stone using the same root יָסַד. “I founded...foundation...being founded.”
4
Beholdⁿ,
she is heedless¹—she²
is
not
uprightª—itsº
soul
in it³;
but
the
righteous
byº
Hisº
faithfulness¹
will live².
(MISB, Hab. 2:4):
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/BasicBooks/habakkuk.html#2:4
(Link to MISB:
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html)
n. The Nahal Hever 8HevXIIgr (50BC-1AD) reading agrees with the MT here against the LXX. 8HevXIIgr reads: ἰδοὺ.
1. Babylon
2. Babylon
a. Nahal Hever 8HevXIIgr reads, “straight” εὐθεῖα, which agrees with the MT: יָשְׁרָ֥ה and is against the LXX.
o. The Nahal Hever 8HevXIIgr reading agrees with the MT: (נַפְשׁ֖וֹ) here against the LXX. 8HevXIIgr reads: αὐτοῦ.
3 Or “his soul in him”. The text speaks of the man of lawlessness, the anti-Messiah, whose soul is the soul of Babylon. Soul and Babylon/Chaldea are normally treated as feminine in gender (though they are common gender words), but the man of sin is masculine, and the prophet is trying to tell us about both at the same time. Babylon, the beast with the head wound is one of the fallen five. It will rise again and subdue all nations.
o. Nahal Hever 8HevXIIgr reads ἐν here instead of ἐκ (LXX), which agrees better with בֶּ and shows that the scribe of 8HevXIIgr was certainly working with a Hebrew source and not a Greek one. If he had the LXX, he corrected it correctly against the Hebrew.
o. This also reads, “his”. The reading of the 3ms pronoun agrees with the Nahal Hever 8HevXIIgr MSS against the LXX. Paul quotes eliptically because he wants to give both the Messianic interpretation and the anthropological interpretation. I have captialized the word, “His” to show the Messianic interpretation. Both interpretations are valid.
1. I will first quote the NET Bible, (www.bible.org), and then add my own note at the end of the verse: “Or “loyalty”; or “integrity.” The Hebrew word אֱמוּנָה (’emunah) has traditionally been translated “faith,” but the term nowhere else refers to “belief” as such. When used of human character and conduct it carries the notion of “honesty, integrity, reliability, faithfulness.” The antecedent of the suffix has been understood in different ways. It could refer to God’s faithfulness” (Hab. 2:4). And Also the NET note on Gen. 15:6, “The Hebrew verb אָמַן (’aman) means “to confirm, to support”...Its derivative nouns refer to something or someone that/who provides support, such as a “pillar,” “nurse,” or “guardian, trustee.”” It is evident on a study of Hebrew, moreover, that “support” is the primary sense over “confirm”, and further that the meaning is not limited to a particular stem.
2. The proper translation of the Hebrew is “faithfulness”, and is founded in a verb whose meaning is “support”. The verb converts to a noun, a support and then to an abstract noun supportiveness. The verb root also forms the basis of the word Amæn: let it be supported. As a verb, one can say “I support what you say”, and means believe, or “I support You Yahweh”, then it is a declaration of loyalty. And almost all the texts dealing with salvation are of the latter form (with a personal object), meaning to be loyal, faithful, i.e. supportive of the Almighty. Everywhere Paul uses the noun, he means faithfulness/supportiveness. In Hab. 2:4 the text has double meaning or compound meaning. “His faithfulness” means first Yahweh’s faithfulness, and secondly the faithful person’s faithfulness. Paul used both senses (cf. Romans 1:17). We receive the benefit of Yahweh’s faithfulness, which in Paul is spelled out as the faithfulness of Messiah (cf. Gal. 2:16) which is His work, and not our works. But we receive it through our faithful response to His faithfulness (Rom. 1:17), which is our repentance and commitment to Messiah, and so works are required to abide or remain in Yahweh’s faithfulness (Exodus. 20:6; John 14:21; 15:10, 1John 2:3, Rev. 22:11), and this paradigm works consistently through all of Paul after we correct the mistranslations gnostic thinking has imposed Paul’s letters.