Habakkuk 2:3
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Study Note
Study Note
The divine reassurance 'the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry' introduces the most important hermeneutic of prophetic eschatology in the Hebrew Bible: the vision's delay is not its failure but its appointed season. The verse comes in response to Habakkuk's second complaint about Babylon's apparently unchecked violence (2:1), framing the prophet as a watchman waiting for divine answer — an image Ezekiel 3:17 and Isaiah 21:6-10 develop extensively. Hebrews 10:37 quotes this verse with a christological intensification ('he that shall come will come, and will not tarry'), applying the expected vision to the parousia of Christ and using it to exhort perseverance under persecution. The verse became the canonical basis for Christian theology of eschatological patience: delay is not denial, and the promise carries its own chronological guarantee.
Other Translations
For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay.
For yet the vision <FI>is<Fi> for a season, And it breatheth for the end, and doth not lie, If it tarry, wait for it, For surely it cometh, it is not late.
For the vision is still for the fixed time, and it is moving quickly to the end, and it will not be false: even if it is slow in coming, go on waiting for it; because it will certainly come, it will not be kept back.
Cross References
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it …
And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil …
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that …
And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that …
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and …
For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their …
And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land …