Bible Strands
Habakkuk 2:16
You will be filled with shame instead of glory. You too must drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Habakkuk delivers a divine judgment against a proud oppressor who has used intoxication to expose the shame of his neighbors. This pronouncement follows the woe against the drinker in verse 15 and directly precedes the warning about violence against Lebanon and the land in verse 17.
The words — The Hebrew קָלוֹן (qalōn) means "shame," set in direct opposition to כָּבוֹד (kāḇōḏ), "honor or glory," while תִּסּוֹב (tissōḇ) literally means "it will come around." These terms establish a structural reversal where the oppressor's intended humiliation returns upon himself.
The thread — The cup imagery and exposed shame recur in Psalm 75:8, Isaiah 47:3, and Nahum 3:5. These passages consistently pair the LORD's hand with a measured cup and the lifting of skirts to depict divine judgment on the proud.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that violent exploitation and the deliberate exposure of others will result in the oppressor's own public disgrace. It requires the reader to understand divine justice as a direct, measured reversal of human cruelty rather than an abstract threat.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 47:3 Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
- Nahum 3:5 “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.
- Psalms 75:8 For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.
- Proverbs 3:35 The wise will inherit honor, but fools are held up to shame.
- Isaiah 20:4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.
- Isaiah 28:7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
- Isaiah 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
- Isaiah 51:21 Therefore now hear this, you afflicted one, drunken, but not with wine.
- Jeremiah 25:15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.
- Jeremiah 25:26 all the kings of the north, both near and far, one after another—all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.