complete verse (Habakkuk 1:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Habakkuk 1:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “Why do you leave/allow me to see such evil? Oh yes, why can you endure sin like this? Calamity and chaos has surrounded me. People argue with one another and are fighting repeatedly.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Why do you make me look at injustice?
    Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
    Only destruction and violence are before me.
    There also is strife and conflict all around.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Why do you (sing.) show me this wickedness? Just everywhere I can-see the killing-of-one-another, hurting-one-another, fighting-one-another and disputing/arguing-with-one-another.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Why do you (sing.) cause- me -to-experience many hardships and permit evil to be-happening? Constantly I-am-able-to-see people who cause-to-be-pitied and hardship their companions. In all places there are those-who-oppose-each-other and quarrel/fight-together.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “In this vision I will be talking about things that will happen in the future.
    Now is not the time when those things will happen,
    but they certainly will happen,
    and when they occur, they will occur quickly,
    and they will not be delayed.
    Now you want those things to happen immediately, but they are not happening.
    But wait patiently for them to happen!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“look”)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, nagameteo-rare-ru (眺めておられる) or “look” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Habakkuk 1:3

The first half of the verse has the form of a double question in Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation turns it into two separate sentences. As in verse 2, the question form is an indirect way for Habakkuk to make his complaint against God. Again, it should be retained in translation if possible.

Why dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble?: first of all, it must be noted that the word translated wrongs in Revised Standard Version is translated “trouble” in Good News Translation, and the word translated trouble in Revised Standard Version is translated “wrongdoing” in Good News Translation. This may make it appear that Good News Translation has reversed the order of the first two clauses, but in fact this is not the case. Several other modern English versions also prefer to use “wrong” or “wrongdoing” in the second clause rather than the first (New English Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible). The words make me see are causative in sense; the prophet is boldly blaming God for the problems in his situation. Good News Translation expresses this more naturally as “Why do you make me see such trouble?” This means not just to look at the troubles of other people, but to experience trouble oneself. The sentence may also be phrased as “Why do you make me meet with such trouble?” or “Why do you make me receive trouble like this?” or even “Why do you bring such trouble upon me?” Wrongs is rendered as “ruin” (New American Bible), “misery” (New English Bible), “injustice” (Jerusalem Bible, New International Version), or “iniquity” (New Jerusalem Bible).

The rest of the sentence, and look upon trouble, is ambiguous in Revised Standard Version. The obvious interpretation in English is that Why dost thou make from the first clause is to be repeated in the second. This would give the meaning “Why do you make me look upon trouble?” However, this is wrong, and the Hebrew actually means “Why do you look upon trouble?” The prophet implies that the LORD is watching without taking any action to put things right. This meaning is expressed more clearly in Good News Translation, “How can you stand to look on such wrongdoing” (American edition) or “How can you endure to look on such wrongdoing” (British edition). Compare New International Version “Why do you tolerate wrong?” In many languages it will be necessary to show who is the subject of “wrongdoing.” Therefore other ways of rendering this clause are “Why do you tolerate people doing such evil things?” or “When you see people doing such evil things, why do you not pay attention (or, take action)?”

The terms Destruction and violence often go together (compare Jer 6.7; 20.8; Ezek 45.9; Amos 3.10). Here the prophet says that they are “all around me” (Good News Translation).

The last part of the verse has another pair of nouns, strife and contention, which balance Destruction and violence. Good News Translation translates these in modern terms as “there is fighting and quarreling everywhere.”

In some languages it will be necessary to use verbs to express the meaning of the second part of the verse. One may say “All around me people are attacking and oppressing others. Everywhere people are fighting and quarreling.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on the Book of Habakkuk. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .