What Does Habakkuk 1:1 Mean in the King James?
The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “burden” grows from “to carry,” so what Habakkuk sees is weight he bears, not merely a picture he observes.
THE MEANING
A weight in your awareness can become something visible and nameable. Here, seeing and bearing belong together: what is seen is not detached information, but something carried.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A burden is only dead weight that crushes; the word also names what is carried as a revealed message.
THE ROOT
מַשָּׂא
maśśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
nāśāʾ, lift, carry, bear.
“burden” in this verse is maśśāʾ. מַשָּׂא is formed from the root for carrying, which holds both a load and a weighty utterance in the same word family. The verse joins seeing to bearing: the vision is something Habakkuk carries.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: to lift, carry, or bear
נָשָׂא
This verb is the seed of מַשָּׂא; its concrete sense of carrying remains inside the word translated “burden.”
nāśîʾ: a prince or leader; one lifted up
נָשִׂיא
This related form extends the root’s image from bearing or lifting a load to being raised up.
חָזָה
ḥāzāh
GROWS FROM
חזה
ḥāzāh, see, behold.
“did see” in this verse is ḥāzāh. The verse presents the burden as something beheld, not simply heard or reasoned out. The same consonants appear in words for a seer and a vision, joining the act of seeing to the prophetic sight English treats as separate ideas.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōzeh: a seer
חֹזֶה
The seer is named from the same root as the act of seeing in the verse.
maḥăzeh: a vision or sight
מַחֲזֶה
This related noun makes explicit the kind of seeing that the verb חָזָה expresses.
חֲבַקּוּק
ḥăḇaqqûq
GROWS FROM
חבק
ḥāḇaq, embrace, clasp.
“Habakkuk” in this verse is ḥăḇaqqûq. The name is often heard in relation to חבק, “to embrace,” though that connection is uncertain. As a Hebrew sound-link, it places an image of holding beside the burden the prophet sees.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāḇaq: to embrace or clasp
חָבַק
This verb shares the root consonants and gives the name its possible image of holding close.
ḥōvēq: one embracing
חֹבֵק
This form from the same root carries the image of an embrace into the person doing the holding.
THE PATTERN
A weight becomes meaningful when it is brought into view or shared in bearing.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.THE THREAD
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word מַשָּׂא (maśśāʾ), from נשא (nāśāʾ), “to carry.” As in Habakkuk, what is seen is also named as something weighty enough to bear.
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