Habakkuk 2:12
10 You have plotted shame for your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting your life.
11 For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork.
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!
13 Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!
- KJV
- Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
- WEB
- Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!
- ASV
- Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!
- DARBY
- Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by unrighteousness!
- BLB
- Woe [to] the one building a city with bloodshed, and who establishes a town by injustice!
- ÅB
- Ve den som bygger en by med blod og grunnlegger en stad med urett!
- OTB
- Ve ham som bygger en by med blod,
Og grunnlegger en by med vold! - B1930
- Ve den som bygger en by med blod og grunnlegger en stad med urett!
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Micah 3:10
who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Read in contextNahum 3:1
Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.
Read in contextDaniel 4:27–31
Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”
Read in contextJeremiah 22:13–17
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
Read in contextRevelation 17:6
I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.
Read in contextJoshua 6:26
At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”
Read in contextGenesis 4:11–17
Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Read in contextEzekiel 24:9
Yes, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high.
Read in context