Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Habakkuk
Risk tiers follow the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions exactly:
- Critical — mistranslation destroys essential doctrine; human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — significant theological confusion or denominational-conflation risk; human theologian review required.
- Medium — reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; native speaker review recommended.
- Low — minor imprecision; automated review sufficient.
| # | English Term | Original (Hebrew unless noted) | Transliteration | Ch. | French Rendering | Status | Risk | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | faith / faithfulness | אֱמוּנָה | emunah | 2:4 | foi | Reuse (baseline) | Critical | Reformation anchor-text (quoted Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 10:38). Hebrew leans “sustained faithfulness”; French foi leans “trust/belief.” Must gloss as enduring trust, not one-time decision. |
| 2 | righteous / righteousness | צַדִּיק / צֶדֶק | tsaddiq / tsedeq | 1:4,13; 2:4 | juste / justice | Reuse (baseline) | Critical | Forensic right-standing before God, not moral achievement; must align with baseline’s justification framework to avoid re-importing Trent-vs-Reformation ambiguity. |
| 3 | law | תּוֹרָה | torah | 1:4 | loi (la Loi) | Reuse (baseline) | High | Mosaic covenant law rendered impotent by injustice; keep narrowly Mosaic per baseline note, distinct from natural-law theology. |
| 4 | holy | קָדוֹשׁ | qadosh | 1:12; 2:20 | saint | Reuse (baseline) | Medium | Divine epithet (“mon Saint,” “sa sainte demeure/temple”); set-apart, morally pure character as grounds for trust. |
| 5 | glory | כָּבוֹד | kavod | 2:14 | gloire | Reuse (baseline) | Medium | Universal hope-promise; God’s own radiant presence filling the earth, not a triumphalist human achievement. |
| 6 | salvation | יֶשַׁע / יְשׁוּעָה | yesha / yeshuah | 3:8,13,18 | salut | Reuse (baseline) | Medium | Grounds resolved joy in 3:18; historical deliverance with canonical extension to full salvation. |
| 7 | temple | הֵיכָל | heikhal | 2:20 | temple | Reuse (baseline referent), new context | Medium | Cross-reference risk: baseline notes French Protestants call their church building “un temple.” Clarify this is God’s heavenly/Jerusalem dwelling, not a local congregation’s building. |
| 8 | nations | גּוֹי / גּוֹיִם | goy / goyim | 1:5,6,17 | nations (NOT païens) | New usage, distinct from baseline “gentiles” | Medium | Raw geopolitical nations (Babylon), morally ambivalent instrument of judgment — do not import baseline’s NT gentile-mission/unity framing anachronistically. |
| 9 | anointed / messiah | מָשִׁיחַ | mashiach | 3:13 | ton oint (lowercase; not capitalized “Messie”) | Partial reuse, qualified | High | Historically the Davidic king/anointed people; connect forward to baseline’s Messie doctrine without conflating this occurrence with the fully-developed NT title. |
| 10 | burden / oracle | מַשָּׂא | massa | 1:1 | oracle | New | Medium | Technical prophetic-genre superscription; avoid pagan-oracle (Delphi) association — anchor as authoritative divine pronouncement. |
| 11 | violence | חָמָס | chamas | 1:2,3,9 | violence | New | Medium | Broader than physical brutality — includes social/legal oppression and corrupted justice; core term for “Wrestling with God over Injustice.” |
| 12 | strife / lawsuit | רִיב / מָדוֹן | riv / madon | 1:3 | procès / querelle | New | Medium | Riv is covenant-lawsuit terminology; prefer procès to preserve formal legal-dispute genre over casual “querelle.” |
| 13 | complaint / legal case | תּוֹכַחַת | tokhachat | 2:1 | plainte (qualified: ma plainte devant Dieu) | New | High | Anchor term for lament-as-legitimate-protest doctrine; bare plainte risks trivializing to petty grumbling. Must be framed as a formal case before the divine Judge. |
| 14 | justice / judgment / verdict | מִשְׁפָּט | mishpat | 1:4,7,12 | jugement / droit (context-dependent) | New | High | Distinct Hebrew root from tsedeq/tsedaqah (righteousness); French lacks the clean split — never render with bare “justice” when tsedeq-family righteousness is also present nearby, to avoid collision with entry #2. |
| 15 | watchpost / rampart | מִשְׁמֶרֶת / מָצוֹר | mishmereth / matsor | 2:1 | poste de garde / tour de guet | New | Medium | Prophetic-sentinel image (cf. Ezekiel 33); disciplined expectant waiting, not passive resignation. |
| 16 | vision | חָזוֹן | chazon | 2:2,3 | vision (qualified: vision prophétique) | New | High | Secular French usage (“vision d’entreprise,” subjective imagination) risks flattening authoritative divine disclosure into self-generated insight. |
| 17 | appointed time | מוֹעֵד | mo’ed | 2:3 | temps fixé / moment déterminé | New | Medium | Sovereignly fixed, certain point — avoid vague “un jour” (someday), which loses certainty. |
| 18 | wait (in hope) | חכה | chakah | 2:3 | attendre / espérer | New | Medium | Confident, hope-laden waiting, not passive resignation; pair with espérance vocabulary in teaching contexts. |
| 19 | rock (divine epithet) | צוּר | tsur | 1:12 | Rocher (capitalized) | New | Medium | Divine epithet for stability/refuge; capitalize/contextualize to distinguish from generic geological “rocher.” |
| 20 | woe | הוֹי | hoy | 2:6,9,12,15,19 | Malheur (à celui qui…) | New | Medium | Formal prophetic judgment-oracle formula; must retain oracular force, not read as a casual sigh of misfortune. |
| 21 | unjust gain | בֶּצַע | betsa | 2:9 | gain injuste | New | Low | Names the specific exploitative sin of woe #2; mirror-opposite of faith-grounded security in 2:4. |
| 22 | idol / carved image | פֶּסֶל / מַסֵּכָה | pesel / massekah | 2:18 | idole / image taillée | New | Low | Standard, transparent French Bible vocabulary; keep the contrast with the living, sovereign God of 2:20 clear. |
| 23 | silence (before God) | הַס | has | 2:20 | silence (que toute la terre fasse silence) | New | Low | Reverent, awe-struck silence, not mere quiet. |
| 24 | mercy / compassion | רַחֵם | racham | 3:2 | compassion / miséricorde | New | Medium | Distinct from baseline’s forensic “grâce” (unmerited favor); this is relational, parental tenderness tempering judgment — keep the two French terms distinguishable. |
| 25 | splendor / majesty | הוֹד | hod | 3:3 | splendeur | New | Low | Theophany vocabulary describing God’s overwhelming appearing. |
| 26 | brightness | נֹגַהּ | nogah | 3:4 | éclat / clarté | New | Low | Closely related to kavod (glory); theophanic light-imagery. |
| 27 | plague / pestilence | דֶּבֶר / רֶשֶׁף | dever / resheph | 3:5 | peste (footnote resheph if transliterated) | New | Medium | ANE polemic: resheph elsewhere names a rival Canaanite plague-deity, here demoted to Yahweh’s servant. Footnote recommended to preserve the polemic. |
| 28 | rejoice / exult | עָלַז / גִּיל / רנן | alaz / gil / ranan | 3:18 | je me réjouirai / j’exulterai | New | High | Doctrinal climax of “Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship”; intense, active joy independent of circumstance — must not flatten to mild pleasantness or generic optimism. |
| 29 | fig tree (and parallel agricultural-loss terms) | תְּאֵנָה | te’enah | 3:17 | figuier | New | Low | Total covenant-agricultural collapse (cf. Deuteronomy 28 curses); cultural-background gloss recommended for urban French readers. |
| 30 | Chaldeans | כַּשְׂדִּים | Kasdim | 1:6 | Chaldéens | New (proper name) | Low | Standard historical/geographic proper name. |
Reuse Compliance Note
Terms #1–7 above are governed by the baseline translation_memory.json and MUST be enforced exactly as recorded there; no alternative renderings are permitted for these entries under any circumstances, per the baseline’s Critical/High enforcement priority order. Terms #8–30 are proposed new entries for translation_memory.json version increment ahead of Phase 2 segment translation, per the baseline’s instruction: “If a new theological term is encountered that is not in translation memory… record the new term in translation memory BEFORE completing the segment translation… flag the new entry for theologian review if the term is Critical or High risk.” Entries #9, #13, #14, #16, and #28 are flagged High risk and require theologian sign-off before Phase 2 begins; #1 and #2 remain Critical per baseline and require the same.
Critical Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion, conviction personnelle
Inherited from Romans package (baseline entry ‘faith’), rendering unchanged. In Habakkuk 2:4, translates אֱמוּנָה (emunah), which denotes sustained covenantal faithfulness under pressure, not a single act of assent. Mandatory translator’s note required at first occurrence in Habakkuk: ‘foi entendue ici comme fidélité persévérante, non comme une décision ponctuelle.’ This is the OT anchor-text quoted in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38; French rendering must remain identical across both curricula.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: justice (le juste)
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: vertu, droiture, justice méritée
Inherited from Romans package (baseline entry ‘righteousness’), rendering unchanged. In Habakkuk 2:4, 1:4b, 1:13, translates צַדִּיק/צֶדֶק (tsaddiq/tsedeq): forensic right-standing, not moral achievement. Must never be conflated with מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, see ‘justice_verdict’ below) even though both pressure toward French ‘justice’ — bare ‘justice’ is reserved exclusively for this tsedeq-family sense in Habakkuk.
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: sanctification (conflation), salut (too generic)
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Not a direct Habakkuk lexeme, but Habakkuk 2:4 is Paul’s OT proof-text for this doctrine (Rom 1:17); any curriculum commentary cross-referencing Romans must use this identical French rendering, per baseline consistency rule.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice imputée
Transliteration: justice imputée
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Relevant wherever Habakkuk 2:4 teaching material draws the Romans 4/Genesis 15:6 connection; credited, not earned, righteousness.
High Risk Terms
Law
Approved rendering: loi
Transliteration: loi (la Loi)
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
Original: תּוֹרָה
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. In Habakkuk 1:4 translates תּוֹרָה (torah): the Mosaic covenant law, described as ‘paralyzed’/ineffective due to corrupted courts. Keep narrowly Mosaic, distinct from Catholic natural-law theology and generic civil ‘loi’, per baseline note.
Grace
Approved rendering: grâce
Transliteration: grâce
Doctrine: Prayer and Worship amid Fear (contrast term)
Rejected alternatives: faveur, mérite
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged, but flagged here as a NON-REUSE term for Habakkuk 3:2: רַחֵם (racham, ‘mercy/compassion’) must never be rendered or conflated with ‘grâce’. Racham is relational, parental tenderness tempering deserved judgment; grâce is forensic, unmerited legal favor. See new entry ‘mercy_compassion’ below.
Justice Verdict
Approved rendering: jugement / droit
Transliteration: mishpat
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice; God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: justice (bare — forbidden, see forbidden substitutions)
Original: מִשְׁפָּט
Category: Injustice
New term (1:4, 1:7, 1:12). The concrete legal act of judging rightly (verdict/court ruling), distinct from tsedeq/tsedaqah (righteous standing). French has no clean lexical split; NEVER render mishpat as bare ‘justice’ when tsedeq-family righteousness also appears nearby (as across 1:4-2:4), to avoid collapsing ‘corrupted legal verdicts’ and ‘righteous standing before God’ into one word.
Complaint Legal Case
Approved rendering: plainte (qualifiée : ma plainte devant Dieu)
Transliteration: tokhachat
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
Rejected alternatives: plainte (bare, unqualified — forbidden)
Original: תּוֹכַחַת
Category: Injustice
New term (2:1). A formal covenantal case laid before God, not idle grumbling. Bare French ‘plainte’ risks trivializing to petty complaining (register-drift analogous to baseline’s ‘péché mignon’ warning). Fixed periphrasis ‘ma plainte devant Dieu’ required at every occurrence, not left to translator discretion.
Vision
Approved rendering: vision (qualifiée : vision prophétique)
Transliteration: chazon
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith; Inspiration and Authority of Prophetic Revelation
Rejected alternatives: vision (bare, unqualified — forbidden)
Original: חָזוֹן
Category: Prophecy
New term (2:2, 2:3). Authoritative prophetic disclosure, the whole oracle Habakkuk is commanded to record. Contemporary secular French ‘vision’ (corporate vision statements, subjective imagination) risks flattening this into self-generated insight. Always qualify as ‘vision prophétique’ or ‘révélation reçue de Dieu’.
Anointed
Approved rendering: ton oint
Transliteration: mashiach
Doctrine: Messianic Anticipation
Rejected alternatives: Messie (capitalized — forbidden here, reserved for the baseline’s NT title)
Original: מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
New term (3:13). Historically the Davidic king / anointed covenant people, not yet the fixed eschatological NT title. Must render lowercase ‘ton oint’, with a teaching note connecting it forward to the baseline’s capitalized ‘Messie’ doctrine, to avoid anachronistic over-identification with Jesus at this occurrence.
Rejoice Exult
Approved rendering: je me réjouirai / j’exulterai
Transliteration: alaz / gil / ranan
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Rejected alternatives: je serai content (too mild), positivité/bien-être framing (forbidden)
Original: עָלַז / גִּיל / רנן
Category: Faith
New term (3:18). Doctrinal climax of the curriculum’s fourth designated doctrine: intense, active joy grounded solely in God’s character despite total material loss (3:17). French ‘se réjouir’ alone risks flattening into mild pleasantness or secular wellness vocabulary; use intensive constructions and retain the explicit 3:17-18 contrast.
Medium Risk Terms
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Divine Holiness and Transcendence
Rejected alternatives: pur
Original: קָדוֹשׁ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. In Habakkuk 1:12 (‘mon Saint’) and 2:20 (‘sa sainte demeure/temple’), grounds the prophet’s trust that God will not act unjustly even while using a wicked instrument. Retain the set-apart/morally-pure sense, not only ritual purity.
Glory
Approved rendering: gloire
Transliteration: gloire
Doctrine: God’s Universal Glory Filling the Earth
Original: כָּבוֹד
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. In Habakkuk 2:14 (echoing Isaiah 11:9), this is God’s own future, unearned action, never Babylon’s or any nation’s triumphalist achievement — secular French ‘gloire’ (military conquest, celebrity, ‘la Gloire de la France’) is a heightened risk here.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Original: יֶשַׁע / יְשׁוּעָה
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. In Habakkuk 3:8, 3:13, 3:18, translates יֶשַׁע/יְשׁוּעָה (yesha/yeshuah): God’s historical deliverance, grounding the prophet’s resolved joy even before deliverance is visible. Keep the historical sense primary before any canonical extension to full NT soteriology.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment (contrast term)
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged, but flagged here as a NON-REUSE term for this book: Habakkuk’s גּוֹי/גּוֹיִם (goyim, Chaldeans/Babylon) must be rendered ‘nations’ (see new entry ‘nations’ below), never ‘païens’. This baseline entry is retained in Habakkuk’s translation memory solely to make the fencing rule explicit and preventable in QA — ‘païens’ belongs exclusively to the NT gentile-mission/unity doctrine and must not appear in Habakkuk 1 segment translation.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messie
Transliteration: Messie
Doctrine: Messianic Anticipation (contrast term)
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged, but flagged here as a NON-REUSE term for Habakkuk 3:13: מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach) there must be rendered lowercase ‘ton oint’ (see new entry ‘anointed’ below), never capitalized ‘Messie’. This baseline entry is retained solely to make the fencing rule explicit and preventable in QA — French readers already trained on the baseline’s capitalized NT title are specifically prone to over-identifying Habakkuk 3:13 with it.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Divine Holiness and Transcendence
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Appears throughout Habakkuk as the addressee of the prophet’s complaint and the subject of the theophany; secularization risk (casual interjection, deist abstraction) applies equally here.
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant background to Messianic Anticipation
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Not a direct Habakkuk lexeme, but underlies the Deuteronomy 28 covenant-blessing/curse background of 3:17 and the Davidic-covenant background of 3:13’s ‘ton oint’; useful for teaching cross-reference.
Providence
Approved rendering: providence
Transliteration: providence
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: destin, hasard
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Relevant to Habakkuk 1:5-11 (God ‘raising up’ the Chaldeans); baseline’s Enlightenment-deist flattening risk recurs here. Prefer active verbs (‘Dieu suscite’, ‘Dieu lève’) in the Habakkuk text itself; reserve the noun ‘providence’ for teaching cross-reference to the baseline Romans 8:28 doctrine, not as a primary rendering choice within Habakkuk segments.
Burden Oracle
Approved rendering: oracle
Transliteration: massa
Doctrine: Inspiration and Authority of Prophetic Revelation
Rejected alternatives: fardeau (too literal/opaque), prédiction
Original: מַשָּׂא
Category: Prophecy
New term (1:1). Technical prophetic-genre superscription marking an authoritative, weighty divine pronouncement, not the prophet’s private reflection. Must be glossed at first occurrence: ‘une déclaration solennelle et autorisée de Dieu, et non une prédiction divinatoire’, since French ‘oracle’ otherwise carries Delphic/pagan-divination associations.
Violence
Approved rendering: violence
Transliteration: chamas
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
Original: חָמָס
Category: Injustice
New term (1:2, 1:3, 1:9). Broader than physical brutality in Hebrew — includes social/legal oppression and corrupted courts. Must retain this broader sense in 1:2-4, not narrow to street violence.
Strife Lawsuit
Approved rendering: procès / querelle
Transliteration: riv / madon
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
Original: רִיב / מָדוֹן
Category: Injustice
New term (1:3). Riv is formal covenant-lawsuit terminology (cf. Micah 6:2); madon is interpersonal strife. Fencing rule: ‘procès’ exclusively for riv, ‘querelle’ exclusively for madon — never interchanged.
Nations
Approved rendering: nations
Transliteration: goy / goyim
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: païens (forbidden — see baseline ‘gentiles’ entry above)
Original: גּוֹי / גּוֹיִם
Category: Judgment
New term (1:5, 1:6, 1:17). Raw geopolitical nations (Babylon), morally ambivalent instrument of judgment, pre-gospel. Must NOT be rendered ‘païens’ (reserved for the baseline’s NT gentile-mission/unity doctrine); doing so would anachronistically import NT missiological framing and ‘païens’ pejorative connotation onto a 7th-century BC statement.
Rock
Approved rendering: Rocher
Transliteration: tsur
Doctrine: Divine Holiness and Transcendence
Rejected alternatives: rocher (lowercase, generic geological)
Original: צוּר
Category: God
New term (1:12). Divine epithet for stability/refuge. Capitalize consistently to distinguish from ordinary geological ‘rocher’ and to preserve the epithet sense grounding trust amid the sovereignty-in-judgment tension.
Watchpost
Approved rendering: poste de garde / tour de guet
Transliteration: mishmereth / matsor
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice; Inspiration and Authority of Prophetic Revelation
Original: מִשְׁמֶרֶת / מָצוֹר
Category: Prophecy
New term (2:1). The prophet’s sentinel posture (cf. Ezekiel 33) as he awaits God’s answer. Must be glossed as disciplined, expectant waiting, not passive resignation or merely literal military duty.
Appointed Time
Approved rendering: temps fixé / moment déterminé
Transliteration: mo’ed
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith; Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Rejected alternatives: un jour (forbidden — loses certainty)
Original: מוֹעֵד
Category: Providence
New term (2:3). A sovereignly fixed, certain point in time. Never render as vague ‘un jour’ (someday), which loses the sense of divinely-set certainty governing the delay.
Lie Deceive
Approved rendering: elle ne mentira pas / elle ne trompera pas
Transliteration: kazav
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Original: כָּזַב
Category: Faith
New term (2:3). God’s promised word will not fail to materialize; retain the personal-word framing (a trustworthy speech-act of God), grounding the certainty underlying 2:4’s call to faith.
Wait
Approved rendering: attendre / espérer
Transliteration: chakah
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Original: חכה
Category: Faith
New term (2:3). Confident, hope-laden waiting, not mere passive delay. French ‘attendre’ is neutral by default; pair with ‘espérance’ vocabulary in teaching contexts, never leave isolated.
Live
Approved rendering: vivra
Transliteration: chayah (yichyeh)
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Original: חיה
Category: Salvation
New term (2:4). Covenantal survival through the coming Babylonian catastrophe in its historical setting, canonically extended by Paul/Hebrews to eternal/spiritual life. Teaching material must present the historical sense first before the fuller canonical extension.
Woe
Approved rendering: Malheur (à celui qui…)
Transliteration: hoy
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Idolatry
Rejected alternatives: malheur (lowercase, casual exclamation — avoid in this formulaic use)
Original: הוֹי
Category: Judgment
New term (2:6, 2:9, 2:12, 2:15, 2:19). Formal prophetic judgment-oracle formula structuring the five woes. Must retain oracular force per the historic French Bible tradition’s own ‘Malheur à…’ formula, not read as a casual sigh of misfortune.
Temple
Approved rendering: temple
Transliteration: heikhal
Doctrine: Divine Holiness and Transcendence
Original: הֵיכָל
Category: God
New term (2:20). God’s own heavenly/Jerusalem dwelling. Must be explicitly distinguished from French Protestant usage, where ‘un temple’ names a local congregation’s own building (per baseline’s church-building distinction note); Habakkuk 2:20 refers to God’s transcendent dwelling, not any contemporary congregation’s building.
Mercy Compassion
Approved rendering: compassion / miséricorde
Transliteration: racham
Doctrine: Prayer and Worship amid Fear
Original: רַחֵם
Category: God
New term (3:2). Deep, visceral, parental compassion (root ‘womb’), pleaded for to temper deserved judgment. Must be kept distinct from the baseline’s forensic ‘grâce’ (unmerited legal favor — see baseline ‘grace’ entry above). Prefer ‘compassion’ as primary rendering; if ‘miséricorde’ is used, note that French ‘miséricorde’ carries strong specifically Catholic devotional resonance (Divine Mercy devotion) not intended by Habakkuk’s plain plea.
Plague Pestilence
Approved rendering: peste (note de bas de page pour resheph si transcrit)
Transliteration: dever / resheph
Doctrine: Theophany and the Divine Warrior
Original: דֶּבֶר / רֶשֶׁף
Category: God
New term (3:5). Destructive forces personified as Yahweh’s attendants; resheph is elsewhere an ANE rival plague-deity, here demoted to servant-status. French readers cannot recognize the polemic without an explanatory footnote; use a footnote rather than a substitute term.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration and Authority of Prophetic Revelation
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Habakkuk is named ‘le prophète’ in 1:1 and 3:1; avoid ‘voyant’ (fortune-teller connotation).
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Inspiration and Authority of Prophetic Revelation
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Applies to the whole book’s genre-classification as a prophetic oracle (massa), distinct from astrological or fortune-telling prediction.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Messianic Anticipation background
Inherited from Romans package, rendering unchanged. Relevant as teaching-note background for Habakkuk 3:13’s ‘ton oint’ (the Davidic king/covenant line), though the name itself does not occur in Habakkuk’s text.
Chaldeans
Approved rendering: Chaldéens
Transliteration: Kasdim
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Original: כַּשְׂדִּים
Category: Judgment
New term (1:6). Standard historical/geographic proper name across all French Bible traditions; no live doctrinal risk.
Tablet
Approved rendering: tablettes
Transliteration: luach
Doctrine: Inspiration and Authority of Prophetic Revelation
Original: לוּחַ
Category: Prophecy
New term (2:2). Flat writing surface for public, legible inscription; standard, transparent rendering.
Make Plain
Approved rendering: rendre clair / graver lisiblement
Transliteration: ba’ar
Doctrine: Inspiration and Authority of Prophetic Revelation
Original: בָּאֵר
Category: Prophecy
New term (2:2). To engrave/explain clearly; God’s revelation is not cryptic esotericism.
Puffed Up
Approved rendering: gonflé d’orgueil / enflé en lui-même
Transliteration: aphal
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (antithesis)
Original: עָפַל
Category: Sin
New term (2:4). Describes the arrogant oppressor’s inner disposition, the direct antithesis of the humble, trusting righteous person.
Upright
Approved rendering: droit
Transliteration: yashar
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (antithesis)
Original: יָשָׁר
Category: Sin
New term (2:4). Ethical uprightness absent in the proud oppressor.
Unjust Gain
Approved rendering: gain injuste
Transliteration: betsa
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Idolatry
Original: בֶּצַע
Category: Sin
New term (2:9). Profit gained through violence or dishonesty; mirror-opposite of the faith-grounded security of 2:4.
Idol
Approved rendering: idole / image taillée
Transliteration: pesel / massekah
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Idolatry
Original: פֶּסֶל / מַסֵּכָה
Category: Sin
New term (2:18). Carved/cast cult image; standard, transparent French Bible vocabulary. Keep the sharp contrast with the living God of 2:20 legible in surrounding teaching notes.
Silence
Approved rendering: silence (que toute la terre fasse silence)
Transliteration: has
Doctrine: Reverent Silence before God’s Sovereignty
Original: הַס
Category: Worship
New term (2:20). Reverent, awe-struck silence before God’s sovereign presence, not mere absence of noise; retain the reverential framing in surrounding commentary.
Prayer
Approved rendering: prière
Transliteration: tefillah
Doctrine: Prayer and Worship amid Fear
Original: תְּפִלָּה
Category: Worship
New term (3:1). Formal liturgical prayer; frames chapter 3 as worship, not merely theological reflection.
Splendor
Approved rendering: splendeur
Transliteration: hod
Doctrine: Theophany and the Divine Warrior
Original: הוֹד
Category: God
New term (3:3). Theophany vocabulary describing God’s overwhelming, awe-inspiring appearing.
Brightness
Approved rendering: éclat / clarté
Transliteration: nogah
Doctrine: Theophany and the Divine Warrior
Original: נֹגַהּ
Category: God
New term (3:4). Theophanic light-imagery, closely related to kavod (glory).
Fig Tree
Approved rendering: figuier
Transliteration: te’enah
Doctrine: Covenant Agricultural Judgment and Blessing
Original: תְּאֵנָה
Category: Covenant
New term (3:17). Part of a comprehensive picture of total covenant-agricultural collapse (Deuteronomy 28 background); cultural-background gloss recommended for urban French readers.
Doe Deer
Approved rendering: biche
Transliteration: ayalah
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Original: אַיָּלָה
Category: Faith
New term (3:19). Closing image of God-given strength and sure-footedness, the practical outworking of the resolve to rejoice in 3:18.
Shigionoth
Approved rendering: sur un mode de lamentation
Transliteration: Shigionoth
Doctrine: Prayer and Worship amid Fear
Rejected alternatives: Shigionoth (bare transliteration, unglossed — avoid)
New term (3:1 superscription). Obscure musical/liturgical genre marker of uncertain precise meaning. Follow the historic Segond precedent of paraphrasing (Segond 1910: ‘sur le mode des complaintes’) rather than transliterating; footnote identifying it as an obscure musical/liturgical term is required.
Selah
Approved rendering: Séla
Transliteration: Selah
Doctrine: Prayer and Worship amid Fear; Theophany and the Divine Warrior
Rejected alternatives: (Pause) — Segond 1910 paraphrase, not used in this ecumenical-register curriculum
New term (3:3, 3:9, 3:13, and 3:19 in some versifications). Liturgical pause/interlude marker. Transliterate as ‘Séla’, matching established ecumenical (TOB/BJ) French Bible convention consistent with this curriculum’s target register; footnote once explaining it as a musical/liturgical pause, not narrative content.
Referenced passages