Bible Strands
Habakkuk 2:12
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Habakkuk delivers this oracle against a ruler who constructs urban centers through violent and unjust means.
The words — ה֛וֹי (Ho) = woe to! and בְּ/דָמִ֑ים (be./da.Mim) = by blood.
The thread — Micah 3:10 applies identical phrasing to the building of Zion and Jerusalem, while Nahum 3:1 extends the "woe to the city of blood" motif to Nineveh.
Why it lands — The text states that building a city through bloodshed and iniquity is a condemned act, and the surrounding context confirms that such labor only feeds destruction and exhausts the nations in vain.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
Cross-references
- Micah 3:10 who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
- Nahum 3:1 Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.
- Daniel 4:27 Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”
- Joshua 6:26 At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”
- Jeremiah 22:13 “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
- Revelation 17:6 I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.
- Genesis 4:11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
- 1 Kings 16:34 In Ahab’s days, Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho. At the cost of Abiram his firstborn he laid its foundation, and at the cost of Segub his youngest he set up its gates, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through Joshua son of Nun.
- Ezekiel 24:9 Yes, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high.
- John 11:47 Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.