What Does Habakkuk 2:12 Mean in the King James?
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
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
A city established by blood carries that violence inside its very stability.
THE MEANING
The verse names a city built through bloodshed and made firm through injustice. Its warning speaks wherever a public good or shared life looks solid while others bear its cost. The structure may stand, but its standing does not erase what it is built from.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that visible stability proves a structure is just: a city can be firmly established and still be built on blood and injustice.
THE ROOT
עַוְלָה
ʿawlah
GROWS FROM
עול
To act unjustly; injustice or crooked dealing.
“iniquity” in this verse is ʿawlah. The word points to wrongdoing as an unjust course of dealing, so the verse names the city’s organizing means, not merely a private fault. Blood marks the violence; עַוְלָה (ʿawlah, injustice) describes the bent order used to secure the city.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāwal: To act unjustly or wrongfully.
עָוַל
The action form shows injustice as something done, the means by which the city is established.
ʿevel: Wrong or injustice.
עָוֶל
This noun names the wrongdoing itself, linking the city’s foundation to the unjust order that sustains it.
וְכוֹנֵן
vekhonen
GROWS FROM
כון
To be firm, prepare, or establish.
“stablisheth” in this verse is vekhonen. The verse uses a second verb for making the city firm: it is not only raised but secured. Injustice is part of its continued stability, not only part of its origin.
ALSO GROWS
nakhon: Firm, prepared, or established.
נָכוֹן
This form carries the root’s sense of a state made ready and firm, echoing the city’s established condition.
makhon: A fixed place or dwelling.
מָכוֹן
A fixed place grows from the idea of making something stand; here, the city is fixed in place through injustice.
בֹּנֶה
boneh
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build or construct.
English can make “buildeth” sound neutral, but the verse places the building directly beside blood. Hebrew then uses a different root for establishing the city, distinguishing the act of raising it from the act of making it firm.
ALSO GROWS
mivneh: A structure or form.
מִבְנֶה
The structure itself is an outgrowth of building; the verse says what enters into its making.
binyan: A building or construction.
בִּנְיָן
This noun keeps the focus on the constructed thing, which here is inseparable from the blood used to build it.
THE PATTERN
Structures secured through violence and injustice carry those means within their apparent stability.
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.The Hebrew root בנה (banah, build) appears in both verses. Psalm 127:1 places building beside keeping the city; Habakkuk shows that human establishment does not make a city secure when blood and injustice hold it together.
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