Habakkuk 2:6

World English Bible (2000)

Won't all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?'

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

הֲלוֹא־אֵ֣לֶּה כֻלָּ֗ם עָלָיו֙ מָשָׁ֣ל יִשָּׂ֔אוּ וּמְלִיצָ֖ה חִיד֣וֹת ל֑וֹ וְיֹאמַ֗ר ה֚וֹי הַמַּרְבֶּ֣ה לֹּא־ל֔וֹ עַד־מָתַ֕י וּמַכְבִּ֥יד עָלָ֖יו עַבְטִֽיט׃

Transliteration

Will not these all of them against him māšāl yiśśāʾû and mĕlîṣâ ḥîdôt for him? And it will say, 'hôy hammarbe not to him! Until when? And makbîd upon him ʿabṭîṭ.'

Grammar Details

• *māšāl*: noun, masculine, singular - proverb/taunt/parable
• *yiśśāʾû*: verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural - they will lift up/take up
• *mĕlîṣâ*: noun, feminine, singular - mocking poem/satire
• *ḥîdôt*: noun, feminine, plural construct - riddles of
• *hôy*: interjection - woe/alas
• *hammarbe*: verb, hiphil participle, masculine singular with definite article - the one increasing
• *makbîd*: verb, hiphil participle, masculine singular - loading/making heavy
• *ʿabṭîṭ*: noun, masculine, singular - pledge/debt/thick clay

Word Meanings

• *māšāl*: taunt/proverb/parable/riddle
• *mĕlîṣâ*: mocking poem/satire/taunting riddle
• *ḥîdôt*: riddles/enigmas/dark sayings
• *makbîd*: making heavy/loading/burdening
• *ʿabṭîṭ*: pledges/thick clay/debt

Referenced Verses

• Job 20:15-29 : 15 He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly. 16 He shall suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue shall kill him. 17 He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter. 18 That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice. 19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up. 20 "Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights. 21 There was nothing left that he didn't devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure. 22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him. 23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. 24 He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through. 25 He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. 26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent. 27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him. 28 The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath. 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God."
• Mic 2:4 : 4 In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, 'We are utterly ruined! My people's possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!'"
• Num 23:7 : 7 He took up his parable, and said, "From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.
• Jer 50:13 : 13 Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.
• Jer 51:34-35 : 34 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast me out. 35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
• Ezek 32:21 : 21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with those who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
• Num 23:18 : 18 He took up his parable, and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
• Hab 1:9-9 : 9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand. 10 Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it.
• Hab 1:15 : 15 He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad.
• Hab 2:13 : 13 Behold, isn't it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
• Luke 12:20 : 20 "But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared--whose will they be?'
• 1 Cor 7:29-31 : 29 But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none; 30 and those who weep, as though they didn't weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn't rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn't possess; 31 and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.
• Jas 5:1-4 : 1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
• 1 Pet 4:7 : 7 But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.
• Job 22:6-9 : 6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. 7 You haven't given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. 8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. 9 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. 10 Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,
• Ps 94:3 : 3 Yahweh, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?
• Prov 22:16 : 16 Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.
• Isa 14:4-9 : 4 that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, "How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!" 5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, 6 who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained. 7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out song. 8 Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, "Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us." 9 Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10 They all will answer and ask you, "Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?" 11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you. 12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!" 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. 16 Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms; 17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn't release his prisoners to their home?" 18 All the kings of the nations, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house. 19 But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.
• Isa 44:20 : 20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"
• Isa 55:2 : 2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
• Jer 29:22 : 22 and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;