Habakkuk 2:3 (YLT)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

Habakkuk 2:1 On my charge I stand, and I station myself on a bulwark, and I watch to see what He doth speak against me, and what I do reply to my reproof.

Habakkuk 2:2 And Jehovah answereth me and saith: `Write a vision, and explain on the tables, That he may run who is reading it.

Habakkuk 2:3 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.

Habakkuk 2:4 Lo, a presumptuous one! Not upright is his soul within him, And the righteous by his stedfastness liveth.

Habakkuk 2:5 And also, because the wine <FI>is<Fi> treacherous, A man is haughty, and remaineth not at home, Who hath enlarged as sheol his soul, And is as death that is not satisfied, And doth gather unto itself all the nations, And doth assemble unto itself all the peoples,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "vision", "season", "breatheth", "doth", "tarry", "wait", "surely", and "cometh". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "vision" and "season", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "And Jehovah answereth me and saith Write..." into verse 4's "Lo a presumptuous one Not upright is...", so "vision" and "season" belong inside that flow. In Habakkuk context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "vision" and "season" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.