What Does Habakkuk 2:13 Mean in the King James?
Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
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 verse joins labor for fire with exhaustion for emptiness: some work spends itself as it is made, leaving nothing that can endure.
THE MEANING
Your effort can be consumed in the making, leaving no substance behind; a whole people can wear itself out for an empty return. The LORD of hosts exposes this pattern: sheer effort cannot make an empty end fruitful.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that relentless effort must produce lasting value.
THE ROOT
רִיק
rîq
GROWS FROM
ריק
To be empty; emptiness or nothing.
The word rendered “vanity” is emptiness: the nations exhaust themselves for an outcome with nothing in it. The root also appears in words for being empty-handed, sharpening the image of effort that yields no return.
ALSO GROWS
rêq: Empty, void.
רֵיק
It shows that “vanity” here is an absence of substance, not merely disappointment.
rêqām: Empty-handed; without return.
רֵיקָם
It makes the verse’s wasted striving vivid: all that effort can still leave the worker with nothing.
hērîq: To empty out or pour out.
הֵרִיק
It echoes how a person can pour out strength toward an end that remains empty.
וְיִגְעוּ
veyigʿu
GROWS FROM
יגע
To toil or labor, and to grow weary.
“labour” in this verse is veyigʿu. This root holds exertion and weariness together: the toil is already draining. Beside רִיק (rîq, emptiness), it connects the cost of the work to its hollow result.
ALSO GROWS
yegîaʿ: Toil or labor.
יְגִיעַ
It names the effort itself, underscoring that the people are spending real strength.
yāgēaʿ: Weary or exhausted.
יָגֵעַ
It brings the cost of that labor into view: the work leaves people worn down.
THE PATTERN
Effort bears lasting substance only when what it serves can endure.
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.Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Habakkuk’s רִיק (rîq, emptiness) names what the peoples spend themselves for; Isaiah uses a form of the same root in “return unto me void” (רֵיקָם, rêqām). The shared root sharpens the contrast: human effort can end empty-handed, while the word sent by God accomplishes its purpose.
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