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Monday, April 28th, 2025
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Read the Bible

New King James Version

Habakkuk 2:12

"Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blood;   Homicide;   Rulers;   Thompson Chain Reference - Woes;   The Topic Concordance - Glory;   Iniquity;   Profit;   Shame;   Violence;   Wealth;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Ambition;   Blood;   Cities;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Woe;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - War;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Habakkuk;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Jeremiah;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Woe;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Habakkuk;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Habakkuk;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshedand founds a town with injustice!
Hebrew Names Version
Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!
King James Version (1611)
Woe to him that buildeth a towne with blood, and stablisheth a citie by iniquitie.
King James Version
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
English Standard Version
"Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!
New American Standard Bible
"Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, And founds a town with violence!
New Century Version
"How terrible it will be for the nation that kills people to build a city, that wrongs others to start a town.
Amplified Bible
"Woe (judgment is coming) to him who builds a city with bloodshed And establishes a town by violence!
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wo vnto him that buildeth a towne with blood, and erecteth a citie by iniquitie.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"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 bloodshedAnd founds a town with injustice!
Berean Standard Bible
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!
Contemporary English Version
You're doomed! You built a city on crime and violence.
Complete Jewish Bible
"‘Woe to him who builds a city with blood and founds a town on injustice,
Darby Translation
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by unrighteousness!
Easy-to-Read Version
"Look at them! They kill people to build their city and do wicked things to make their walled city strong.
George Lamsa Translation
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!
Good News Translation
You are doomed! You founded a city on crime and built it up by murder.
Lexham English Bible
Woe to him who builds a city by bloodguilt, and who founds a city by wickedness!
Literal Translation
Woe to him who builds a town with blood and establishes a city by iniquity!
American Standard Version
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!
Bible in Basic English
A curse on him who is building a place with blood, and basing a town on evil-doing!
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wo vnto him that buyldeth a towne with blood, and erecteth a citie by iniquitie.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Woe to him that builds a city with blood, and establishes a city by unrighteousness.
English Revised Version
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
World English Bible
Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wo to hym that bildith a citee in bloodis, and makith redi a citee in wickidnesse.
Update Bible Version
Woe to him that 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!
New English Translation
The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead— he who starts a town by unjust deeds.
New Living Translation
"What sorrow awaits you who build cities with money gained through murder and corruption!
New Life Bible
"It is bad for him who builds a city with blood, and builds a town with wrong-doing!
New Revised Standard
"Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on iniquity!"
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Alas! for him who buildeth a city with deeds of blood, - and establisheth a town with perversity.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and prepareth a city by iniquity.
Revised Standard Version
Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and founds a city on iniquity!
Young's Literal Translation
Wo [to] him who is building a city by blood, And establishing a city by iniquity.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Wo vnto him, yt buyldeth the towne with bloude, and maynteneth ye cite with vnrightuousnes.
THE MESSAGE
"Who do you think you are— building a town by murder, a city with crime? Don't you know that God -of-the-Angel-Armies makes sure nothing comes of that but ashes, Makes sure the harder you work at that kind of thing, the less you are? Meanwhile the earth fills up with awareness of God 's glory as the waters cover the sea.

Contextual Overview

5 "Indeed, because he transgresses by wine,He is a proud man,And he does not stay at home.Because he enlarges his desire as hell, [fn] And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied,He gathers to himself all nationsAnd heaps up for himself all peoples. 6 "Will not all these take up a proverb against him,And a taunting riddle against him, and say,'Woe to him who increasesWhat is not his--how long?And to him who loads himself with many pledges'? [fn] 7 Will not your creditors [fn] rise up suddenly?Will they not awaken who oppress you?And you will become their booty. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men's blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it. 9 "Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster! 10 You give shameful counsel to your house, Cutting off many peoples, And sin against your soul. 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it. 12 "Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hostsThat the peoples labor to feed the fire, [fn] And 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

him: Genesis 4:11-17, Joshua 6:26, 1 Kings 16:34, Jeremiah 22:13-17, Ezekiel 24:9, Daniel 4:27-31, Micah 3:10, Nahum 3:1, John 11:47-50, Revelation 17:6

blood: Heb. bloods, Habakkuk 2:8

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 21:19 - Hast thou killed 2 Chronicles 21:13 - hast slain Isaiah 10:1 - Woe James 1:13 - no man

Cross-References

Exodus 28:20
and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold settings.
Exodus 39:13
the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold in their mountings.
Numbers 11:7
Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium.
Job 28:16
It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire.
Ezekiel 28:13
You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!] This is what the stone and beam should say, if others were silent. The town and city are the church of Rome, mystical Babylon, the great city, called spiritually Egypt and Sodom; the builder of this is the pope of Rome, the bishops of it in succession, who built it with blood: the pope of Rome received his title as head of the church from Phocas, that murdered the emperor Mauritius; the foundation of the church of Rome is the blood of the saints, shed in persecutions and wars; hence she is said to be drunk with the blood of them, and to have the blood of prophets and saints found in her, Revelation 17:5 and it is established by unjust exactions of tribute from all countries subject to it, and by indulgences, processions, and various methods taken to extort money from the people, to support its pageantry, pomp, and grandeur; but there is a "woe" denounced against such that are concerned herein, and which will take place in due time, nor can it be awarded, as follows:

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity! - Nebuchadnezzar “encircled the inner city with three walls and the outer city also with three, all of burnt brick. And having fortified the city with wondrous works, and adorned the gates like temples, he built another palace near the palace of his fathers, surpassing it in height and its great magnificence.” He seemed to strengthen the city, and to establish it by outward defenses. But it was built through cruelty to conquered nations, and especially God’s people, and by oppression, against His holy Will. So there was an inward rottenness and decay in what seemed strong and majestic, and which imposed on the outward eye; it would not stand, but fell. Babylon, which had stood since the flood, being enlarged contrary to the eternal laws of God, fell in the reign of his son. Such is all empire and greatness, raised on the neglect of God’s laws, by unlawful conquests, and by the toil and sweat and hard service of the poor. Its aggrandizement and seeming strength is its fall. Daniel’s exhortation to Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 4:27, “Redeem thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy on the poor,” implies that oppressiveness had been one of his chief sins.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Habakkuk 2:12. Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood — At the expense of much slaughter. This is the answer of the beam to the stone. And these things will refer to the vast fortunes gained, and the buildings erected, by means of the slave-trade; where, to a considerate and humane mind, the walls appear as if composed of the bones of negroes, and cemented by their blood! But the towns or houses established by this iniquity soon come to ruin; and the fortunes made have, in most cases, become as chaff and dust before the whirlwind of God's indignation. But where are the dealers in the souls and bodies of men? Ask him who has them in his keeping. He can tell.


 
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