Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Habakkuk 2:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse declares that peoples labor for fire and exhaust themselves for emptiness under the LORD's judgment.
Read It With
- Habakkuk 2:12-14
Read Habakkuk 2:13 with 2:12-14. This verse declares that peoples labor for fire and exhaust themselves for emptiness under the LORD's judgment. The full unit establishes this movement: A city built through bloodshed and injustice turns human labor into fuel for nothing, while the promised horizon is not imperial glory but earth-wide knowledge of the LORD's glory.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The taunt contrasts the oppressor's monumental project with the LORD's purposes and denies that bloodshed can produce lasting glory. Within that movement, this verse declares that peoples labor for fire and exhaust themselves for emptiness under the LORD's judgment.
What Remains True
Exploitative projects can consume human labor without producing durable good.
How It Can Shape Life
- Measure success by human flourishing rather than monument or output alone.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Habakkuk 2:12-14 — Third Woe: Blood-Built Cities Meet the LORD's GlorySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The fire may be literal destruction, poetic futility, or both.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 2:12-14, 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, 2:12-14
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. 1773, translation and notes on 2:12-14
Open source ↗