"... The words "we will not die" (Hebrew lo' namut) in the middle of verse 12 are a scribal emendation (also known as tiqqune sopherim), followed by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and most English versions, from an original "you will not die" (Hebrew lo' tamut). Evidently, the ancient scribe could not bear the thought of God's death, even if the sentence was couched in the negative (compare Rudolph 1975: 208-9). The Midrash regards Habakkuk's "we will not die" as a prayer asking God to remove death and restore the Creator's design as it was before Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Exodus Rabbah 38.2). ..."

"... The tiqqune soferim, "corrections of the scribes," recorded in the Masorah, are words referred to in the Masorah as representing early corrections by the soferim. The Masorah records for these "corrected words" the specific words representing the presumed uncorrected, original text. According to various sources, the scribes corrected the text in several places — 8 (7) according to Sifre 84 (pp. 81-82) to Numbers 10:35, and 11 (9) according to Mekhilta Shirata 6 to Exodus 15:7 (the various manuscripts of these compositions contain different items), and 18 according to additional sources. The list in the Mekhilta to Exodus 15:7 contains the following eleven instances (in this sequence in the edition of Horowitz): Zechariah 2:12; Malachi 1:13; 1 Samuel 3:13; Job 7:20; Habakkuk 1:12; Jeremiah 2:11; Psalm 106:20; Numbers 11:15; 1 Kings 12:16; Ezekiel 8:17; Numbers 12:12. For these verses the rabbis use two main terms, namely, "the verse uses a euphemism," in the early sources (Sifre 84 to Numbers 10:35; Mekhilta to Exodus 15:7) and tiqqun, "correction," in the later lists. The two terms may reflect ancient conflicting views of the phenomenon, that is, either euphemisms or ancient textual corrections. However, since the terms are used in lists of different dates, it is more likely that the differences in terminology reflect a development in conception. Probably the tradition originally referred to mere "euphemisms" (substitutions) and only afterwards were they taken as corrections. Another common characteristic of the corrections of the scribes is that most of them correct merely one or two letters, principally the pronominal suffix. If the corrections had represented changes in the text, it is hard to believe that the correctors would have limited themselves to such small details ..."

"... I am inclined to suppose that Pesher Habakkuk (1QpHab) column 5, line 3 suggests that the tiqqun recorded in several Massoretic lists for Habakkuk 1:12 (namut for tamut) is presupposed. Habakkuk probably wrote at 1:12: "Art thou not from everlasting, O Yahweh my God, my Holy One? Thou wilt not die." According to rabbinic sources, such an idea as Yahweh dying was so abhorrent even though stated negatively, that the sopherim corrected this to read: "We shall not die." ..."