What Does Habakkuk 2:16 Mean in the King James?
Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’s right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.
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 glory used to expose another becomes the surface where one’s own shame is poured.
THE MEANING
A person who claims glory through another’s humiliation faces the LORD’s cup turned back toward them. Their body is exposed, and shameful spewing lands on the very glory they displayed: the reversal reaches reputation and flesh together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a person can humiliate others for honor while keeping their own body and reputation beyond exposure.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy, weighty; to carry weight.
Kavod is more than prestige: the word carries the sense of weight. Here the claimed weight of glory is stained with disgrace, as the one who exposes another is exposed in turn.
ALSO GROWS
heavy: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This adjective shows the concrete sense carried by the root beneath glory.
honor: To honor, to treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
The same root links honor to giving weight, a connection made explicit in 1 Samuel 2:30.
THE PATTERN
Oppressive self-glory is answered by a reversal that returns the cup and shame to the one who pours them out.
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.THE THREAD
Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.In Habakkuk, glory is kavod, from כבד (k-b-d), the root of weight; in Samuel, honour comes from that same root. The verse’s contrast with being lightly esteemed makes the exchange visible: what is treated as weighty or weightless returns as the measure.
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