Habakkuk Chapter 2 verse 7 Holy Bible
Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booty unto them?
read chapter 2 in ASV
Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you, and your troublers get up from their sleep, and you will be to them like goods taken in war?
read chapter 2 in BBE
Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and they awake up that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?
read chapter 2 in DARBY
Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?
read chapter 2 in KJV
read chapter 2 in WBT
Won't your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim?
read chapter 2 in WEB
Do not thy usurers instantly rise up, And those shaking thee awake up, And thou hast been for a spoil to them?
read chapter 2 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - That shall bite thee. As thou hast cruelly treated others, so shall they, like fierce vipers (Jeremiah 8:17), bite thee. Henderson, Delitzsch, Keil, and others see in the word a double entendre connected with the meaning of "lending on interest," so the "biting" would signify "exacting a debt with usury." Such a term for usury is not unknown to classical antiquity; thus (quoted by Henderson) Aristoph., 'Nub.,' 12 - Δακόμενος`ΝΛ´Υπὸ τὴς δαπάνης καὶ τῆς φάτνης καὶ τῶν χρεῶν "By the expenditure deep bitten,And by the manger and the debts" Lucan, 'Phars.,' 1:181," Hinc usura vorax, avidumque in tempore faenus." The "biters" rising up suddenly are the Persians who destroyed the Babylonian power as quickly and as unexpectedly as it had arisen. Vex; literally, shake violently, like διασείσητε (Luke 3:14), or like the violent arrest of a creditor (Matthew 18:28); Septuagint, οἱ ἐπίβουλοί σου, "thy plotters;" Vulgate, lacerantes te. So of the mystic Babylon, her end comes suddenly (Revelation 18:10, 17).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) Bite.--This verb nashac also means "to oppress with usury," and this is its force here. Thy turn shall come, and men shall exact usury from thee. Similarly, the verb translated "vex" is, literally, to shake violently, in allusion to a creditor's forcible seizure of his debtor. (Comp. Matthew 18:28.) The prediction of Habakkuk in these verses was fulfilled by the rise of the Medo-Persian power, and the capture of Babylon by the forces of Cyrus, cir. B.C. 538.
