What Does Habakkuk 2:11 Mean in the King James?
For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
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 wall becomes a witness: its stone raises an outcry, and the timber answers.
THE MEANING
What is built around concealed harm carries its testimony within it. The stone cries from the wall, and the timber answers; the structure becomes a voice for what its makers would leave unspoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a polished structure can bury the harm that made it possible; the work itself can bear witness.
THE ROOT
תִּזְעַק
tiz'aq
GROWS FROM
זעק
זעק (za’aq): to cry out, to raise an outcry.
The Hebrew verb תִּזְעַק comes from זעק (za’aq, cry out), the same family as זְעָקָה (ze’aqah, outcry). English can make the stone’s cry sound like an isolated action, while this root connects it to the language of an outcry raised against wrong, as in Genesis 18:20.
ALSO GROWS
ze'aqah: Outcry, cry for help.
זְעָקָה
This noun makes the stone’s cry part of a wider language of public witness.
za'aqat: Outcry of; the construct form of ‘outcry.’
זַעֲקַת
Genesis 18:20 uses this form for the outcry associated with Sodom and Gomorrah, linking the stone’s cry to testimony against harm.
יַעֲנֶנָּה
ya'anennah
GROWS FROM
ענה
ענה (ʿanah): to answer, respond.
The timber does not merely echo; it answers. The root ענה names response, and מַעֲנֶה (ma’aneh, an answer) makes the beam an active reply in the verse’s call and response.
ALSO GROWS
ma'aneh: An answer, a response.
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root clarifies that the timber’s role is to respond to the stone’s outcry.
ʿoneh: Answering, responding.
עֹנֶה
This participial form keeps the act of response present in the scene: the timber is answering.
THE PATTERN
When human voices fall silent, the created world can still bear witness and make its testimony heard.
And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;The Hebrew behind “the cry” is זַעֲקַת (za’aqat), from the same root זעק as Habakkuk’s “cry out.” Genesis names an outcry rising from a city; Habakkuk places that same outcry in the wall itself, where the construction cannot keep it silent.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us