[395] See above, pp. [125] f. Nowack (1897) agrees that Cornill’s and others’ conclusion that vv. 9–20 are not Habakkuk’s is too sweeping. He takes the first, second and fourth of the taunt-songs as authentic, but assigns the third (vv. 12–14) and the fifth (18–20) to another hand. He deems the refrain, 8b and 17b, to be a gloss, and puts 19 before 18. Driver, Introd., 6th ed., holds to the authenticity of all the verses.
[396] The text reads, For also wine is treacherous, under which we might be tempted to suspect some such original as, As wine is treacherous, so (next line) the proud fellow, etc. (or, as Davidson suggests, Like wine is the treacherous dealer), were it not that the word wine appears neither in the Greek nor in the Syrian version. Wellhausen suggests that היין, wine, is a corruption of הוי, with which the verse, like vv. 6b, 9, 12, 15, 19, may have originally begun, but according to 6a the taunt-songs, opening with הוי, start first in 6b. Bredenkamp proposes וְאֶפֶס כְּאַיִן.
[397] The text is ינוה, a verb not elsewhere found in the Old Testament, and conjectured by our translators to mean keepeth at home, because the noun allied to it means homestead or resting-place. The Syriac gives is not satisfied, and Wellhausen proposes to read ירוה with that sense. See Davidson’s note on the verse.
[398] A.V. thick clay, which is reached by breaking up the word עבטיט, pledge or debt, into עב, thick cloud, and טיט, clay.
[399] Literally thy biters, נשכיך, but נשך, biting, is interest or usury, and the Hiphil of נשך is to exact interest.
[400] LXX. sing., Heb. pl.
[401] These words occur again in ver. 17. Wellhausen thinks they suit neither here nor there. But they suit all the taunt-songs, and some suppose that they formed the refrain to each of these.
[402] Dynasty or people?
[403] So LXX.; Heb. cutting off.
[404] The grammatical construction is obscure, if the text be correct. There is no mistaking the meaning.