Habakkuk 2:13

Hebrew Bible

11 For the stones in the walls will cry out, and the wooden rafters will answer back. 12 “Woe to the one who builds a city by bloodshed—he who starts a town by unjust deeds. 13 Be sure of this! The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. 14 For recognition of the Lord’s sovereign majesty will fill the earth just as the waters fill up the sea. 15 “Woe to you who force your neighbor to drink wine—you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger so you can look at their naked bodies.

Jeremiah 51:58

Hebrew Bible

56 For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. Her warriors will be captured; their bows will be broken. For the Lord is a God who punishes; he pays back in full. 57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her governors, leaders, and warriors. They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” says the King whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 58 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says, “Babylon’s thick wall will be completely demolished. Her high gates will be set on fire. The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.” 59 This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to King Zedekiah of Judah in Babylon during the fourth year of his reign. (Seraiah was a quartermaster.) 60 Jeremiah recorded on one scroll all the judgments that would come upon Babylon—all these prophecies written about Babylon.

 Notes and References

"... the woe oracles are the content of the mocking riddles pronounced by the oppressed nations. The irony is created when the oppressor becomes the object of mockery and the oppressed ones are the ones who pronounce judgment on him. This irony is further illustrated by the woe oracles that follow: the creditor becomes the debtor (2:6b-7), the plunderer becomes the one being plundered (2:8), the one who acquires gains by evil means acquires shame (2:9), and the one who intoxicates others will end up drinking the cup of wrath from the Lord (2:13-16). The interjection of doxology by Habakkuk in 2:14 and 2:20 also heightens the irony. Habakkuk interrupts the nations at strategic points to show the truthfulness of Yahweh: at the end of the third woe which may be a quotation from other prophets, and after the fifth woe to contrast with the idols. (Scholars have long noticed that the third woe is reminiscent of other prophetic sayings such as Micah 3:10; Jeremiah 51:58; and Isaiah 11:9) ..."

Ko, Grace Theodicy in Habakkuk (p. 60) University of St. Michael's College, 2009

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