An Emendation of Hab 2:4a in the Light of Hab 1:5

Abstract

The first half of Hab 2:4 has long been a crux; numerous emendations have been proposed over the years. This essay returns to an earlier proposal that the letter sequence עפלה is the result of a metathesis and argues that פעל refers back to Hab 1:5 with the grapheme ה originally functioning as an interrogative pronoun with לא . The result is a reading of the vision which makes reference to the divine as well as human protagonists.