Habakkuk 2:12
New International Version
“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice!

New Living Translation
“What sorrow awaits you who build cities with money gained through murder and corruption!

English Standard Version
“Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!

Berean Standard Bible
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

King James Bible
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!

New King James Version
“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity!

New American Standard Bible
“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, And founds a town with violence!

NASB 1995
“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence!

NASB 1977
“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence!

Legacy Standard Bible
“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with injustice!

Amplified Bible
“Woe (judgment is coming) to him who builds a city with bloodshed And establishes a town by violence!

Christian Standard Bible
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice!

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice!

American Standard Version
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Woe to him who builds the city in blood and he fashions the city with evil!

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Woe to him that builds a city with blood, and establishes a city by unrighteousness.

Contemporary English Version
You're doomed! You built a city on crime and violence.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and prepareth a city by iniquity.

English Revised Version
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!

GOD'S WORD® Translation
" 'How horrible it will be for the one who builds a city by slaughter and founds a town by crime.'

Good News Translation
You are doomed! You founded a city on crime and built it up by murder.

International Standard Version
"Woe to the one who founds a city upon bloodshed, and constructs a city by lawlessness.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, And establisheth a city by iniquity!

Literal Standard Version
Woe [to] him who is building a city by blood, | And establishing a city by iniquity.

Majority Standard Bible
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

New American Bible
Ah! you who build a city by bloodshed, and who establish a town with injustice!

NET Bible
The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead--he who starts a town by unjust deeds.

New Revised Standard Version
“Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on iniquity!”

New Heart English Bible
Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity.

Webster's Bible Translation
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!

World English Bible
Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!

Young's Literal Translation
Woe to him who is building a city by blood, And establishing a city by iniquity.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Woe to the Chaldeans
11For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork. 12Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity! 13Is 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?…

Cross References
2 Corinthians 1:21
Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us,

Ezekiel 24:9
Yes, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high.

Micah 3:10
who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.

Nahum 3:1
Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.

Habakkuk 2:6
Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: 'Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?'


Treasury of Scripture

Woe to him that builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!

him.

Genesis 4:11-17
And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; …

Joshua 6:26
And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.

1 Kings 16:34
In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.

blood.

Habakkuk 2:8
Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

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Basing Blood Bloodshed Buildeth Building Builds City Crime Curse Establishes Establisheth Establishing Evil-Doing Iniquity Stablisheth Unrighteousness Violence Wo Woe
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Basing Blood Bloodshed Buildeth Building Builds City Crime Curse Establishes Establisheth Establishing Evil-Doing Iniquity Stablisheth Unrighteousness Violence Wo Woe
Habakkuk 2
1. Unto Habakkuk, waiting for an answer, is shown that he must wait by faith.
5. The judgment upon the Chaldean for unsatiableness,
9. for covetousness,
12. for cruelty,
15. for drunkenness,
18. and for idolatry.














(12-14) "Woe on the extension of Babylon by oppression and enforced labour.

Verses 12-14. - § 10. The third woe: for founding their power in blood and devastation. Verse 12. - The Chaldeans are denounced for the use they make of the wealth acquired by violence. That buildeth a town with blood (Micah 3:19, where see note). They used the riches gained by the murder of conquered nations in enlarging and beautifying their own city. By iniquity. To get means for these buildings, and to carry on their construction, they used injustice and tyranny of every kind. That mercy was not an attribute of Nebuchadnezzar we learn from Daniel's advice to him (Daniel 4:27). The captives and deported inhabitants of conquered countries were used as slaves in these public works (see an illustration of this from Koyunjik, Rawlinson's 'Anc. Men.,' 1:497). What was true of Assyria was no less true of Babylon. Professor Rawlinson (2:528, etc.) tells of the extreme misery and almost entire ruin of subject kingdoms. Not only are lands wasted, cattle and effects carried off, the people punished by the beheading or impalement of hundreds or thousands, but sometimes wholesale deportation of the inhabitants is practised, tons or hundreds of thousands being carried away captive. "The military successes of the Babylonians," he says (3:332), "were accompanied with needless violence, and with outrages not unusual in the East, which the historian must nevertheless regard as at once crimes and follies. The transplantation of conquered races may, perhaps, have been morally defensible, notwithstanding the sufferings which it involved. But the mutilations of prisoners, the weary imprisonments, the massacre of non-combatants, the refinement of cruelty shown in the execution of children before the eyes of their fathers, - these and similar atrocities, which are recorded of the Babylonians, are wholly without excuse, since they did not so much terrify as exasperate the conquered nations, and thus rather endangered than added strength or security to the empire. A savage and inhuman temper is betrayed by these harsh punishments, one that led its possessors to sacrifice interest to vengeance, and the peace of a kingdom to a tiger-like thirst for blood...we cannot be surprised that, when final judgment was denounced against Babylon, it was declared to be sent in a great measure 'because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwelt therein.'"

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Woe
ה֛וֹי (hō·w)
Interjection
Strong's 1945: Ah! alas! ha!

to him who builds
בֹּנֶ֥ה (bō·neh)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 1129: To build

a city
עִ֖יר (‘îr)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5892: Excitement

with bloodshed
בְּדָמִ֑ים (bə·ḏā·mîm)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1818: Blood, of man, an animal, the juice of the grape, bloodshed

and establishes
וְכוֹנֵ֥ן (wə·ḵō·w·nên)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3559: To be erect

a town
קִרְיָ֖ה (qir·yāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 7151: A town, city

by iniquity!
בְּעַוְלָֽה׃ (bə·‘aw·lāh)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5766: Injustice, unrighteousness


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OT Prophets: Habakkuk 2:12 Woe to him who builds a town (Hab Hb)
Habakkuk 2:11
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