Habakkuk 2:1-5, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Habakkuk 2:1-5
Watch, Write, Wait: The Proud and the Righteous
Watch, write it plain, and wait without a calendar
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. The LORD answers: Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
The vision is public and durable. Appointed time is not a date a later reader can calculate. Waiting is commanded because the word is true, not because delay is imaginary.
The just shall live by his faith — here, under this delay
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. The Hebrew emunah is firmness, fidelity, faithfulness. In this book it is the righteous person's life while proud distortion still swells and the vision has not yet arrived. It is not a mood, not a prosperity method, and not an order to stop naming oppression.
Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews later reuse forms of this line in their own arguments. That is reception. It must not erase Habakkuk's protest or lift the sentence out of waiting under violence. The Masoretic wording is his faithfulness; a Greek tradition reads my faith. Do not mash those witnesses into one original slogan. Verse 5 then shows the proud man as death that never has enough, gathering nations and heaping peoples — the hunger the woes will answer.
How this should shape us
Keep 2:4 in this oppression-and-waiting scene. Practice durable fidelity while you still tell the truth and keep records. Do not invent a timetable, and do not let later Pauline use delete the prophet's complaint.
Teach it back
Explain Habakkuk 2:1-5 in your own words. Include its place in Habakkuk's complaint-answer-woe-prayer movement, the unit's main turn, one material uncertainty, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters dispute the runner, the vision's precise content, the first half of verse 4, whether emunah emphasizes fidelity or believing trust, the relevant suffix tradition, and wine versus wealth in verse 5. The contextual judgment is strong: proud appetite fails while the righteous lives through faithful reliance during delay.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Habakkuk 2:1-5, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated terms, clause relationships, and base forms behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hab.xml, 2:1-5
Supports: Verse-level translation, Hebrew, text-critical, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Habakkuk PDF, printed pp. 1771-1772, translation and notes on 2:1-5
Supports: Whole-book setting, complaint-and-answer structure, 2:4, five woes, chapter 3 theophany, and closing trust.
Gowan, 'Habakkuk,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 601-604
Supports: Book movement, complaint and oracle forms, Chaldean horizon, 2:4, five woes, 2:20 transition, theophany, salvation, and the closing confidence.
Thompson, 'Prayer, Oracle and Theophany,' pp. 37-40
Supports: Habakkuk 2:4 in context, Hebrew and Greek differences, early Jewish interpretation, and later Pauline reuse.
Lim, 'Why Did Paul Cite Habakkuk 2:4b?', pp. 225-232, especially the discussion of Habakkuk 2:1-5, MT/LXX suffixes, 1QpHab, and Pauline reception
Supports: Controlled English access to the Old Greek form and its material differences from the Masoretic tradition.
NETS, The Twelve Prophets, printed pp. 807-810, Habbakoum 2:1-5
Supports: Ancient manuscript evidence and sectarian reception of Habakkuk 1-2, kept distinct from the book's original horizon.
Israel Museum Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QpHab; Habakkuk 2:4 interpretation cross-checked at column VII.17-VIII.3 through Lim pp. 228-230
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Exact location: Habakkuk 2:1-5, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Habakkuk
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated terms, clause relationships, and base forms behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hab.xml, 2:1-5
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Habakkuk with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, Hebrew, text-critical, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Habakkuk PDF, printed pp. 1771-1772, translation and notes on 2:1-5
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Habakkuk
Donald E. Gowan
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book setting, complaint-and-answer structure, 2:4, five woes, chapter 3 theophany, and closing trust.
Exact location: Gowan, 'Habakkuk,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 601-604
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Prayer, Oracle and Theophany: The Book of Habakkuk
Michael E. W. Thompson
Tyndale Bulletin 44.1, 1993
Supports: Book movement, complaint and oracle forms, Chaldean horizon, 2:4, five woes, 2:20 transition, theophany, salvation, and the closing confidence.
Exact location: Thompson, 'Prayer, Oracle and Theophany,' pp. 37-40
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Why Did Paul Cite Habakkuk 2:4b?
Timothy H. Lim
The Expository Times 133.6, 2022
Supports: Habakkuk 2:4 in context, Hebrew and Greek differences, early Jewish interpretation, and later Pauline reuse.
Exact location: Lim, 'Why Did Paul Cite Habakkuk 2:4b?', pp. 225-232, especially the discussion of Habakkuk 2:1-5, MT/LXX suffixes, 1QpHab, and Pauline reception
Open source ↗ancient greek translation in modern english
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: The Twelve Prophets
George E. Howard
Oxford University Press / International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 2009, electronic corrections through 2021
Supports: Controlled English access to the Old Greek form and its material differences from the Masoretic tradition.
Exact location: NETS, The Twelve Prophets, printed pp. 807-810, Habbakoum 2:1-5
Open source ↗ancient manuscript and digital facsimile
The Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll (1QpHab)
Ancient Qumran scribe; digital presentation by the Israel Museum
The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, second half of the first century BCE; digital edition current at inspection
Supports: Ancient manuscript evidence and sectarian reception of Habakkuk 1-2, kept distinct from the book's original horizon.
Exact location: Israel Museum Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QpHab; Habakkuk 2:4 interpretation cross-checked at column VII.17-VIII.3 through Lim pp. 228-230
Open source ↗