Core Glossary
Habakkuk — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
Legend
- Status: Reused — term already fixed in
translation_memory.json(Romans baseline); rendering copied verbatim, no alteration permitted. - Status: New — term first surfaces in Habakkuk; rendering proposed here as a candidate pending formal review; not yet permanent.
- Risk tiers follow the baseline’s exact definitions (Critical / High / Medium / Low) in
bible_term_registry.json.
A. Reused Baseline Terms (locked renderings, applied to Habakkuk contexts)
| English Term | Hebrew / (LXX Greek where relevant) | Hmong Rendering (locked) | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Habakkuk Occurrences | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God (generic/Elohim) | אֱלֹהִים / (θεός) | Vajtswv | Low | Cross-cutting | 1:12, 3:3, 3:18 | Reused exactly; kept distinct from Yawmsaub and tus Tswv. |
| Lord (Adonai) | אֲדֹנָי / (κύριος) | tus Tswv | Low | Cross-cutting | 3:19 | Reused exactly. |
| Righteous / Righteousness | צַדִּיק / (δίκαιος, δικαιοσύνη) | tus ncaj ncees | Critical | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith; Wrestling with Injustice | 1:4, 1:13, 2:4 | Direct OT anchor of Romans 1:17; must be taught in explicit continuity with the Romans baseline entry. |
| Faith / Believe | אֱמוּנָה / (πίστις) | kev ntseeg / ntseeg | Critical | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith | 2:4 | Central term of the entire curriculum; teaching note required on the broader Hebrew emunah (steadfastness/faithfulness) sense layered onto the established baseline rendering. |
| Salvation / Save | יֶשַׁע, יְשׁוּעָה / (σωτηρία, σῴζω) | kev cawm dim / cawm | High | Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship | 3:13, 3:18 | Must remain anchored to Yawmsaub/God as agent (OT context); canonically points forward to Yexus Khetos per baseline convention. |
| Glory | כָּבוֹד, הוֹד / (δόξα) | lub yeeb koob | Low | Trust and Rejoicing; Sovereignty | 2:14, 3:3, 3:4, 2:16 (shame vs. glory) | Reused exactly. |
| Wrath of God | רֹגֶז, אַף / (ὀργὴ θεοῦ) | kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv | High | Wrestling with Injustice; Sovereignty in Judgment | 3:2, 3:8, 3:12, 2:16 | Reused exactly; must retain baseline’s “righteous, judicial, not appeasable by ritual” contrast-teaching. |
| Power | כֹּחַ, עֹז, חַיִל / (δύναμις) | Vajtswv hwjchim (mandatory qualifier) | High | Sovereignty; Trust and Rejoicing | 1:11, 3:4, 3:19 | Reused exactly; Habakkuk 1:11 supplies a vivid negative case-study (self-idolized military power) reinforcing why the qualifier is mandatory. |
| Idol | פֶּסֶל, מַסֵּכָה, אֱלִיל / (εἴδωλον) | dab mlom | High | Sovereignty in Judgment | 1:16 (net-worship), 2:18-19 | Reused exactly. |
| Law (Mosaic/Divine) | תּוֹרָה / (νόμος) | Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes) | Critical | Wrestling with Injustice | 1:4 | Reused exactly with mandatory qualifier, no exceptions. |
| Mercy | רַחֲמִים / (ἔλεος) | txoj kev khuv leej | Medium | Trust and Rejoicing; Wrestling with Injustice | 3:2 | Reused exactly; must stay lexically distinct from grace/txiaj ntsim per baseline note. |
| Hope | תִּקְוָה (concept; not a Habakkuk lexeme, but doctrinally present) | kev cia siab | Low | Trust and Rejoicing | 2:3, 3:16 (conceptual) | Reused exactly for the “wait for it” / “quietly wait” trust-posture. |
| Endurance | (conceptual, from חָכָה/אָנוּח) | kev ua siab ntev | Low | Trust and Rejoicing | 2:3, 3:16 | Reused exactly. |
| Nations / Gentiles | גּוֹיִם / (ἔθνη) | lwm Haiv Neeg | Low-Medium | Sovereignty in Judgment | 1:5, 2:5, 2:8, 2:10, 3:6, 3:12 | Reused with contextual note: here denotes generic political/military nations, not the Jew-Gentile soteriological contrast of Romans. |
| Truth (reliability of God’s word) | (conceptual, from כָּזַב “not lie”) | qhov tseeb | Low | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith | 2:3 | Reused exactly. |
| World / Earth | אֶרֶץ (all the earth) / (κόσμος, גῆ) | lub ntiajteb | Low | Sovereignty in Judgment | 2:14, 2:20 | Reused exactly. |
| Promise (reliability) | (conceptual) | lus cog tseg | Low | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith | 2:3 | Reused exactly, reinforcing certainty of the vision. |
| Boasting/pride | (conceptual, from עָפְלָה, יָהִיר) | kev khav theeb | Low | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith | 2:4, 2:5 | Reused exactly for the “proud/puffed up” contrast term. |
| Creation (natural order) | (conceptual, mountains/sun/moon imagery) | tej uas raug tsim los | Low | Trust and Rejoicing | 3:6, 3:10-11 | Reused exactly for theophanic natural-order imagery. |
| Sanctification/Holy (root) | קֹדֶשׁ (root) / (ἁγιασμός) | dawb huv (root shared with baseline kev raug ua kom dawb huv) | High | Sovereignty; Wrestling with Injustice | 1:12 (“Holy One”), 2:20 (“holy temple”) | Root reused with baseline’s folk ritual-purity collision caution extended to the new divine-title compounds below. |
B. New Terms Surfaced in Habakkuk (candidate renderings — pending TM-revision review)
| # | English Term | Hebrew | Transliteration | Proposed Hmong Rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Habakkuk Occurrences | Rationale / Collision Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N1 | LORD (covenant name YHWH) | יהוה | YHWH | Yawmsaub | High | All four | 1:2,12; 2:2,20; 3:2,18,19 (and throughout) | Established Hmong Bible-tradition rendering for the divine covenant name, distinct from Vajtswv/tus Tswv; no baseline entry existed because Romans (NT) never required rendering YHWH directly. Must never be confused with sectarian “Yehauvas” pattern already forbidden in the baseline for a different reason. Requires mandatory three-way distinction teaching (Yawmsaub / Vajtswv / tus Tswv). |
| N2 | Complaint/legal case (lament) | תּוֹכַחְתִּי | tokhachti | kuv tej lus thov/tsis txaus siab uas kuv tau hais rau Yawmsaub | Medium-High | Wrestling with Injustice | 2:1 (cf. 1:2-4 conceptually) | Covenant-lawsuit lament genre; risk of sounding disrespectful in Hmong elder-deference culture if unglossed, or of being softened into mild questioning if over-glossed. |
| N3 | Violence | חָמָס | chamas | kev nruj kev tsiv thiab kev quab yuam | Medium | Wrestling with Injustice | 1:2,3,9; 2:8,17 | No prior baseline entry; core vocabulary of Habakkuk’s opening complaint. |
| N4 | Justice | מִשְׁפָּט | mishpat | kev txiav txim ncaj | High | Wrestling with Injustice | 1:4,7 | Distinct from but paired with baseline tus ncaj ncees; central to the injustice-complaint doctrine. |
| N5 | Wicked (one) | רָשָׁע | rasha | tus limhiam | Medium | Wrestling with Injustice; Sovereignty | 1:4,13; 3:13 | Direct antithesis-partner to reused tus ncaj ncees. |
| N6 | God’s sovereign “raising up” of a judgment-nation | מֵקִים / פֹּעַל | meqim / poal | Vajtswv/Yawmsaub tsa [haiv neeg] sawv los ua tus rau txim | Critical | God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment | 1:5-6, 1:11 | Direct structural analogue to the baseline’s Critical election_choose/foreknow_predestine entries; carries the identical hmoov (fate) collision risk and must inherit the same “never use fate vocabulary” forbidden-substitution rule by extension. Highest-priority new entry for theologian review. |
| N7 | Watchman/watchpost | מִשְׁמָר / מָצוֹר / צָפָה | mishmar / matsor / tsaphah | chaw zov tsom / zov tos saib | Medium | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith | 2:1 | Risk of conflation with shamanic trance-vigilance awaiting spirit contact; must be taught as expectant waiting on the one true God’s authoritative word. |
| N8 | Vision (prophetic revelation) | חָזוֹן | chazon | zaj yog toog uas Yawmsaub qhia | High | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith | 2:2,3 | Strong comprehension/authority-collision risk with shamanic divination (ua neeb, saib yaig); requires explicit contrast-teaching analogous to baseline’s hwjchim/kev cawm dim qualifier strategy. |
| N9 | Appointed time | מוֹעֵד | moed | lub caij uas Vajtswv twb teem tseg lawm | Medium | The Righteous Shall Live by Faith; Sovereignty | 2:3 | Must not be heard as impersonal fate (hmoov); personally fixed by God. |
| N10 | Woe (prophetic judgment-oracle) | הוֹי | hoy | Txom Nyem rau… | Medium | Sovereignty in Judgment | 2:6,9,12,15,19 | Fixed prophetic-oracle literary marker; needs consistent, recognizable formulaic rendering across all five occurrences. |
| N11 | Cup of wrath | כּוֹס | kos | khob kev npau taws | High | Sovereignty in Judgment | 2:15-16 | Metaphor extension of reused baseline wrath_of_god; inherits its caution. |
| N12 | Holy temple | הֵיכַל קָדְשׁוֹ | heikal qodsho | lub Tuam Tsev Dawb Huv ntawm Yawmsaub | Medium | Sovereignty in Judgment | 2:20 | Shares “dawb huv” root flagged in baseline sanctification entry; here a spatial/temple sense requiring its own disambiguation note. |
| N13 | Holy One (divine title) | קָדוֹשׁ | qadosh | tus Dawb Huv | Medium-High | Wrestling with Injustice | 1:12 | Divine title, not a ritual-purity state; parallels baseline’s sanctification caution but applied to a title rather than a process. |
| N14 | Pestilence/plague (judgment-agents) | דֶּבֶר / רֶשֶׁף | dever / resheph | kab mob thiab kev puas tsuaj uas mus ua ntej Yawmsaub | Medium-High | Sovereignty in Judgment | 3:5 | Risk of being heard as autonomous malevolent spirits per Hmong illness-causation folk belief; must be taught as God’s sovereign, commanded agents. |
| N15 | Anointed One (mashiach) | מָשִׁיחַ | mashiach | tus uas Vajtswv tsa los ua Vajntxwv (Mexiyas) | Medium-High | Trust and Rejoicing; (typological link to Justification by Faith doctrine set) | 3:13 | Requires typological teaching note connecting to Yexus Khetos (“Christ” = “Anointed One”) without collapsing the OT historical referent. |
| N16 | Rejoice/exult (grounded, promise-based joy) | גִּיל / שׂוֹשׂ | gil / sus | kev xyiv fab / kev zoo siab rau hauv Yawmsaub | High | Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship | 3:18 | Doctrinal climax term; must be taught as Spirit-enabled, promise-grounded joy independent of circumstance, parallel to baseline’s caution against reducing hope to mere optimism. |
| N17 | Day of trouble | יוֹם צָרָה | yom tsarah | hnub kev txom nyem | Low-Medium | Trust and Rejoicing | 3:16 | Comprehension-level; pairs with reused endurance/hope terms. |
| N18 | Burden/oracle (book heading) | מַשָּׂא | massa | tsab lus hnyav uas Yawmsaub qhia | Low-Medium | (structural, all) | 1:1 | Comprehension-level technical heading term. |
| N19 | Teacher of lies | מוֹרֶה שָׁקֶר | moreh shaqer | tus qhia lus dag | Low-Medium | Sovereignty in Judgment | 2:18 | Minor contrast term to true chazon (vision). |
| N20 | Plunder/extortion | שָׁלָל / חֶמְסָה | shalal / chemsah | kev lws thiab kev nyiag | Low-Medium | Sovereignty in Judgment | 2:8 | Minor economic-injustice vocabulary. |
C. Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Index
| Doctrine | Reused Baseline Terms Engaged | New Terms Engaged |
|---|---|---|
| Wrestling with God over Injustice | tus ncaj ncees, Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv/Mauxes), kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv | Yawmsaub (N1), tokhachti/complaint (N2), chamas/violence (N3), mishpat/justice (N4), rasha/wicked (N5), tus Dawb Huv (N13) |
| The Righteous Shall Live by Faith | tus ncaj ncees, kev ntseeg/ntseeg, qhov tseeb, lus cog tseg, kev khav theeb | watchman (N7), chazon/vision (N8), moed/appointed time (N9) |
| God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment | lwm Haiv Neeg, Vajtswv hwjchim, dab mlom, lub yeeb koob, lub ntiajteb | God’s “raising up” a nation (N6, Critical), hoy/woe (N10), cup of wrath (N11), holy temple (N12), pestilence/plague (N14), teacher of lies (N19), plunder (N20), burden/oracle (N18) |
| Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship | kev cawm dim, txoj kev khuv leej, kev cia siab, kev ua siab ntev, lub yeeb koob, tej uas raug tsim los | anointed one (N15), rejoice/exult (N16, High), day of trouble (N17) |
D. Escalation Summary
- Critical-risk new term requiring mandatory theologian review before any adoption: N6 (God’s sovereign “raising up” of a judgment-nation) — direct structural analogue to the baseline’s Critical election/predestination collision.
- High-risk new terms requiring mandatory theologian review: N1 (Yawmsaub/YHWH), N8 (vision/chazon), N16 (rejoice/exult joy-doctrine term).
- All remaining new terms (Medium and Medium-High) require native-speaker review at minimum, per baseline escalation routing, before promotion to permanent TM status.
- No new term in this glossary contradicts or proposes an alternate rendering for any existing Critical/High baseline term. All baseline reuse is verbatim per §A above.
Critical Risk Terms
Righteousness Of God Righteous
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txoj kev ncaj ncees / tus ncaj ncees
Transliteration: dikaiosynē theou / dikaios (cf. Hebrew tsaddiq)
Doctrine: Justification by Faith (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (Habakkuk, direct OT anchor of Romans 1:17)
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘kev ncaj ncees’ without the reckoning qualifier — rejected, reads as self-achieved moralism
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: this is ‘tus ncaj ncees’ at 1:4, 1:13, and the core-passage anchor 2:4, quoted via LXX in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38. Must be taught in explicit continuity with the Romans baseline entry, not as a separate, unrelated OT ethical term; must always co-occur with the reckoning/imputation teaching note even though 2:4 itself does not use a separate reckoning verb, to prevent a moralistic ‘became good’ misreading.
Law Mosaic Divine
Approved rendering: Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes)
Transliteration: nomos (cf. Hebrew torah)
Doctrine: The Law and Its Purpose (Romans) / Wrestling with God over Injustice (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘Txoj Kevcai’ without qualifier — rejected, collapses into kev cai dab qhuas (ancestral spirit-worship customs)
Inherited from Romans package. Mandatory qualifier retained at every occurrence without exception. In Habakkuk 1:4 (‘the law is paralyzed/slacked’), the qualifier prevents readers from hearing pervasive social injustice as merely a breakdown of ancestral custom-keeping rather than of God’s own covenant Law.
Election Choose
Approved rendering: kev xaiv (Vajtswv xaiv raws li nws lub siab nyiam)
Transliteration: eklogē / eklegomai
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God (Romans) / God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment (Habakkuk, structural analogue)
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (impersonal fate/fortune) vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses personal divine choice into fatalism
Inherited from Romans package. Cited here as the direct structural analogue governing the NEW Critical entry ‘raising_up_nation_for_judgment’ below: the same forbidden-substitution rule against hmoov-family vocabulary must be extended by direct analogy to God’s sovereign ‘raising up’ of the Chaldeans (Hab 1:5-6).
Faith Faithfulness Emunah Habakkuk
Approved rendering: kev ntseeg / ntseeg
Transliteration: emunah (Hebrew; LXX pistis; same fixed Hmong string as baseline ‘faith_believe’)
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: treating this occurrence as identical in weight to ordinary NT trust/assent usage without the durative teaching note — rejected, thins the single most doctrinally load-bearing term in the curriculum, any alternate Hmong rendering distinct from the baseline ‘kev ntseeg / ntseeg’ string — FORBIDDEN, this is the OT source-text for Romans 1:17 and must use the identical fixed string
NEW ENTRY documenting an ELEVATED TEACHING REQUIREMENT on the existing baseline rendering, not an alternate rendering. Habakkuk 2:4b’s emunah carries the fuller Hebrew sense — firmness, steadfastness, covenant fidelity, loyal trust sustained across time and hardship (from the root ‘aman,’ also underlying ‘Amen’) — broader than the assent/trust sense the Romans baseline’s NT usage was built to carry. Mandatory teaching note: every occurrence of ‘kev ntseeg’ in Habakkuk material must be taught with this fuller durative sense IN ADDITION TO the established baseline sense, and must explicitly cross-reference Romans 1:17 so learners perceive one continuous doctrinal line from Habakkuk through Paul. Ranked #2 highest-priority term in analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §5. Mandatory human theologian review before publication of any lesson touching Hab 2:4.
Raising Up Nation For Judgment
Approved rendering: Vajtswv/Yawmsaub tsa [haiv neeg] sawv los ua tus rau txim
Transliteration: meqim
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (impersonal fate/fortune) vocabulary applied to a nation’s rise — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN by direct analogy to the Romans baseline’s election/foreknowledge prohibition, bare-noun paraphrase omitting the volitional verb phrase — rejected, exactly mirrors the baseline’s rule that election must never be a bare noun that could be mistaken for hmoov
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:5-6, reinforced 1:11), the single highest-priority new term in this Language Package. Direct structural analogue to the Romans baseline’s Critical ‘election_choose’/‘foreknow_predestine’ collision: Hmong traditional cosmology’s impersonal fate/fortune vocabulary (hmoov) could flatten God’s personal, purposeful sovereign commissioning of a pagan empire into mere impersonal fate striking a nation — a DOUBLE doctrinal loss, since it would simultaneously erase both God’s personal sovereign will AND the instrument-nation’s own moral culpability (later judged in the five woes, 2:6-20). The volitional verb-phrase is mandatory at every occurrence, never a bare noun. Ranked #1 in analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §5; mandatory human theologian review before any curriculum content ships that touches Hab 1:5-11.
High Risk Terms
Salvation Save
Approved rendering: kev cawm dim / cawm
Transliteration: sōtēria / sōzō (cf. Hebrew yesha / yeshuah)
Doctrine: The Gospel as the Power of God for Salvation (Romans) / Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: unanchored ‘dim’ (escape) parallel to shamanic ua neeb soul-rescue — rejected without explicit anchoring
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 3:13, 3:18, this OT-context occurrence must be anchored to Yawmsaub/God as agent (matching the baseline’s own convention for OT-historical salvation clauses, e.g. ‘all_israel_will_be_saved’), with a canonical forward-pointing teaching note (not a lexical substitution) connecting typologically to salvation through Yexus Khetos. Do not silently insert Christ’s name into the OT clause itself.
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: orgē theou (cf. Hebrew rogez / aph)
Doctrine: Original Sin and Universal Guilt (Romans) / Wrestling with God over Injustice; God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment; Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘npau taws’ associated only with capricious spirit/ancestor anger — rejected without explicit contrast teaching
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: 2:16, 3:2, 3:8, 3:12. Habakkuk sharpens the baseline’s existing ‘righteous, judicial, not appeasable by ritual’ contrast-teaching in two new directions: (1) God’s forbearance/apparent silence (1:13) must also be taught as righteous, purposeful forbearance, not capricious inattention; (2) the 3:2 petition ‘in wrath remember mercy’ requires this term and ‘mercy’ to remain lexically and conceptually distinct in the same clause.
Power
Approved rendering: Vajtswv hwjchim
Transliteration: dynamis (cf. Hebrew koach / oz / chayil)
Doctrine: The Gospel as the Power of God for Salvation (Romans) / God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment; Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: bare, unqualified hwjchim — FORBIDDEN, identical to a shaman’s (txiv neeb) ritual power
Inherited from Romans package. Mandatory qualifier retained without exception. In Habakkuk: 1:11 supplies a vivid negative case study (the Chaldeans’ self-idolized military might, see new entry ‘self_idolized_power’) reinforcing exactly why the qualifier can never be dropped; 3:4, 3:19 use the qualified positive form theophanically.
Idol
Approved rendering: dab mlom
Transliteration: eidōlon (cf. Hebrew pesel / massekah)
Doctrine: Original Sin and Universal Guilt (Romans) / God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘statue’ softening — rejected, must not soften the term since the text condemns exactly this category
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: reinforced across three passages — 1:16 (sacrifices to one’s own net), 2:18-19 (wood/stone/gold idols as false ‘teachers of lies’ who cannot give breath) — raising a consistency burden across repeated occurrences rather than introducing new collision content.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: kev raug ua kom dawb huv
Transliteration: hagiasmos (root cf. Hebrew qodesh)
Doctrine: Sanctification and Life in the Spirit (Romans) / Wrestling with God over Injustice; God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: treating dawb huv as a repeatable ritual-cleansing state — rejected
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk, the shared ‘dawb huv’ root is now extended into two NEW compounds — the divine title ‘tus Dawb Huv’ (Holy One, 1:12, see ‘holy_one_title’) and the spatial ‘lub Tuam Tsev Dawb Huv’ (holy temple, 2:20, see ‘holy_temple’) — requiring a single consolidated footnote at first occurrence (1:12) distinguishing all three senses (process/title/spatial) so they are not collapsed into one folk ritual-purity concept.
Human Spirit Soul
Approved rendering: ntsuj plig
Transliteration: pneuma (anthropological; extended in Habakkuk to Hebrew nephesh)
Doctrine: Sanctification and Life in the Spirit (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: Vaj Ntsuj Plig — forbidden for this referent, reserved exclusively for the Holy Spirit
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 2:4a (‘his soul/nephesh is not upright’), this rendering is proposed for reuse to cover the broader Hebrew nephesh (self, appetite, desire — wider than Greek pneuma). The absolute no-‘Vaj’-prefix rule carries over unchanged; requires a supplementary teaching note distinguishing this occurrence from both the Hmong animistic multi-soul concept and the narrower NT pneuma sense. See new entry ‘soul_self_nephesh’ for the full teaching-note requirement. Flagged for mandatory theologian review before final adoption at this extended sense.
Foreknow Predestine
Approved rendering: twb paub ua ntej lawm / twm chaw ua ntej lawm
Transliteration: proginōskō / proorizō
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God (Romans) / God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment (Habakkuk, structural analogue)
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (fate) vocabulary — rejected, same collision risk as election_choose
Inherited from Romans package. Same structural-analogue relationship to the new entry ‘raising_up_nation_for_judgment’ as ‘election_choose’ above; cited to reinforce cross-book consistency of the fate/hmoov forbidden-substitution rule.
Yahweh Covenant Name
Approved rendering: Yawmsaub
Transliteration: YHWH (Yahweh)
Doctrine: Cross-cutting — Wrestling with God over Injustice; The Righteous Shall Live by Faith; God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment; Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Rejected alternatives: Yehauvas (sectarian NWT-style divine-name substitution pattern) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, the same collision the Romans baseline already forbids for Rom 10:9-13, collapsing into bare Vajtswv — rejected, erases the covenant name’s personal, relational intimacy and the mandatory three-way distinction, collapsing into bare tus Tswv — rejected, same reason
NEW ENTRY. Established Hmong Bible-tradition rendering for the covenant name YHWH, kept lexically distinct from generic ‘Vajtswv’ (Elohim) and ‘tus Tswv’ (Adonai/kyrios). Occurs approximately 13 times across Habakkuk 1-3 (1:2,12; 2:2,20; 3:2,18,19; etc.). A consistent three-way distinction (Yawmsaub / Vajtswv / tus Tswv) must be taught explicitly at first occurrence in every lesson module so hearers do not infer three separate gods. High risk because failure to maintain this distinction consistently could either suggest multiple deities or collapse the covenant name’s intimacy into a generic title. Human theologian + native-speaker TM-revision review mandatory before promotion to fully permanent status.
Compound Closing Epithet
Approved rendering: Yawmsaub, kuv tus Tswv, yog kuv lub hwjchim
Transliteration: Adonai YHWH cheyli
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Rejected alternatives: dropping any one of the three name-elements (Yawmsaub / tus Tswv / hwjchim) for brevity — FORBIDDEN, collapses the book’s deliberate three-name climactic intensification into a single generic divine reference
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:19), the book’s closing confession. Requires simultaneous, careful coordination of three fixed terms — ‘yahweh_covenant_name’ (Yawmsaub), baseline ‘lord’ (tus Tswv), and baseline ‘power’ with its mandatory qualifier (Vajtswv hwjchim, here ‘kuv lub hwjchim’) — in a single clause. All three must appear together at every occurrence; this is the only term whose risk increases with repetition rather than decreasing, since inconsistent handling compounds across the whole book.
Vision Chazon
Approved rendering: zaj yog toog uas Yawmsaub qhia
Transliteration: chazon
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘zaj yog toog’ with no divine-source anchor — rejected, places biblical prophecy on the same authority level as shamanic divination (ua neeb, saib yaig)
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:2-3). Unlike most High-risk terms in this Language Package, this one collides with an ACTIVE, ONGOING competing authority-claim in Hmong religious life (shamanic trance-vision, spirit-divination), meaning a poorly taught occurrence could be actively reinforced by hearers’ lived religious experience outside the church. Requires explicit contrast-teaching parallel to the baseline’s hwjchim/kev cawm dim qualifier strategy. Ranked #4 in analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §5.
Justice Mishpat
Approved rendering: kev txiav txim ncaj
Transliteration: mishpat
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
Rejected alternatives: collapsing into bare ‘ncaj ncees’/forensic-righteousness vocabulary — rejected, would fold a social-ethical claim (absence of civic/judicial order, 1:4) into the soteriological reckoning frame reserved for the core-passage righteousness term
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:4, 1:7). Distinct from but tightly paired with baseline ‘righteousness_of_god_righteous’; central to the Wrestling-with-Injustice doctrine’s distinct emphasis. Requires a root-family map teaching device (see ‘upright_not_upright_yashar’ entry) so learners see the shared root without doctrinal conflation.
Soul Self Nephesh
Approved rendering: ntsuj plig
Transliteration: nephesh
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: adding the ‘Vaj’ prefix — FORBIDDEN, reserved exclusively for the Holy Spirit, a separate Hebrew-loanword transliteration distinct from the Romans baseline’s pneuma rendering — rejected, would fracture anthropology vocabulary across Testaments within a single curriculum family
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:4a), candidate reuse of the Romans baseline’s ‘human_spirit_soul’ rendering for the broader Hebrew nephesh (self, appetite, desire — wider than Greek pneuma). Sits at the intersection of two prior fences (Romans’ anthropological pneuma fence and Hmong folk multi-soul cosmology); requires a supplementary teaching note distinguishing this occurrence from both. Flagged for mandatory theologian review before final adoption at this extended semantic range.
Work Of God Poal
Approved rendering: haujlwm uas Yawmsaub yuav ua
Transliteration: poal
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: framing as one impersonal historical event among many — rejected, undercuts the doctrine’s claim of a specific, sovereign, purposeful divine act
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:5). Directly connects to ‘raising_up_nation_for_judgment’ below; risk is that without careful teaching, ‘a work God is doing’ could be heard as generic historical happenstance rather than God’s decisive, purposeful initiative.
Self Idolized Power
Approved rendering: nws hwm nws tus kheej lub hwjchim yam li tus dab
Transliteration: kocho le’eloho
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: qualifying with ‘Vajtswv’ — deliberately NOT done here, since this clause depicts the Chaldeans’ FALSE self-deification and must not read as a parallel positive usage of God’s power
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:11). Vivid negative illustration of exactly the collision the baseline’s ‘power’ entry warns against: unqualified hwjchim functioning as a rival god. Must be taught explicitly as a worked example of why ‘Vajtswv hwjchim’ qualification is mandatory — flip this vivid negative case into a teaching asset, not merely a risk to be contained.
Cup Of Wrath
Approved rendering: khob kev npau taws
Transliteration: kos
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: reading as one more appeasement-drink in a shamanic exchange — rejected, must retain the baseline’s righteous/judicial/not-ritually-appeasable framing
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:15-16), metaphor extension of baseline ‘wrath_of_god’. Inherits the baseline caution that God’s wrath is righteous and judicial, not appeasable by ritual, unlike traditional spirit-anger remedied by sacrificial appeasement.
Rejoice Exult Gil Sus
Approved rendering: kev xyiv fab / kev zoo siab rau hauv Yawmsaub, tus Vajtswv uas cawm kuv
Transliteration: gil / sus
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Rejected alternatives: circumstantial-happiness framing — rejected, this joy is explicitly independent of and even contrary to agricultural/economic outcome, koob hmoov-style good-fortune-tied-to-harvest framing — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN by direct analogy to the Romans baseline’s grace prohibition; this is the strongest available anti-koob-hmoov illustration in the entire curriculum
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:18), the doctrinal climax term of Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship. Must be taught as Spirit-enabled, promise-grounded joy — parallel to the baseline’s caution that ‘hope’ is not mere optimism — using the text’s own list of failed crops/flocks (3:17) as the pedagogical anchor. Must reuse baseline ‘salvation_save’ (‘kev cawm dim’) for ‘my salvation’ within the same clause. Ranked #6 in analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §5.
Medium Risk Terms
Faith Believe
Approved rendering: kev ntseeg / ntseeg
Transliteration: pistis / pisteuō (cf. Hebrew emunah)
Doctrine: Justification by Faith (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (Habakkuk)
Inherited from Romans package (baseline Medium risk for NT trust/assent usage). In Habakkuk 2:4 this exact rendering is retained, but see the companion new entry ‘faith_faithfulness_emunah_habakkuk’ below, which documents the Critical-tier teaching requirement layering the fuller Hebrew emunah (steadfast, loyal, covenant-faithful endurance across time) onto this same fixed Hmong string. No alternate rendering is introduced; only the doctrinal teaching-note requirement is elevated for this book.
Mercy
Approved rendering: txoj kev khuv leej
Transliteration: eleos (cf. Hebrew rachamim)
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God (Romans) / Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (Habakkuk)
Rejected alternatives: txiaj ntsim (grace) used interchangeably for mercy — rejected, mercy and grace are theologically distinct emphases and must not be flattened into one term
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 3:2, this term sits in the same clause as ‘kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv’ (wrath) — ‘in wrath remember mercy’ — a doctrinally essential but linguistically fragile pairing requiring both terms to remain distinct so hearers do not assume ritual appeasement of an angered spirit rather than freely-given divine compassion held in tension with righteous judgment.
Holy Temple
Approved rendering: lub Tuam Tsev Dawb Huv ntawm Yawmsaub
Transliteration: heikal qodsho
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘lub tuam tsev dawb huv’ without the ‘ntawm Yawmsaub’ anchor — rejected, risks conflation with a folk shrine (dab teem) concept
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:20). Spatial/architectural sense of the same ‘dawb huv’ root as ‘holy_one_title’; the compound with ‘ntawm Yawmsaub’ is mandatory and must never be abbreviated. Comprehension gap (no native Hmong temple concept) plus the same ritual-purity resonance requiring disambiguation from folk shrine practice.
Theophany God From Teman
Approved rendering: Vajtswv/Yawmsaub tuaj hauv lub tebchaws Temas los, nws lub yeeb koob npog ib puag ncig ntuj ceeb tsheej
Transliteration: Eloah mi-Teman yavo
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
Rejected alternatives: generalizing ‘Teman’ to ‘the south’ — rejected, loses the specific historical geographic anchor
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:3). Reuses baseline ‘glory’ inside a theophanic frame recalling the Exodus/Sinai deliverance; comprehension-level risk only (unfamiliar geography), no direct traditional-religion collision. ‘Teman’ transliterated as a proper noun.
Watchmans Post
Approved rendering: chaw zov tsom / zov tos saib
Transliteration: mishmar / matsor / tsaphah
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: leaving unglossed alongside shamanic vigilance postures — rejected, risks conflation with the trance-vigilance a txiv neeb adopts awaiting spirit contact
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:1). Must be taught explicitly as Habakkuk’s disciplined, expectant waiting on the one true God’s authoritative verdict, not a divinatory trance posture.
Appointed Time Moed
Approved rendering: lub caij uas Vajtswv twb teem tseg lawm
Transliteration: moed
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: framing as impersonal hmoov-style fate — rejected, this is a personally fixed divine appointment, not fatalistic inevitability
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:3). Same caution the baseline documents for election/foreknowledge extends here: must be heard as God’s personal, purposeful timing, not impersonal fate.
Woe Hoy
Approved rendering: Txom Nyem rau…
Transliteration: hoy
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: casual pity or generic complaint phrasing — rejected, must be taught as a fixed prophetic-oracle literary marker
NEW ENTRY. Occurs five times (2:6, 9, 12, 15, 19); must be rendered with the IDENTICAL fixed formula at every occurrence per the Consistency Requirement (12_ai_translation_requirements.md §5). Consistency-execution risk (natural-sounding Hmong prose across five repetitions) rather than a doctrinal-collision risk.
Violence Chamas
Approved rendering: kev nruj kev tsiv thiab kev quab yuam
Transliteration: chamas
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
NEW ENTRY. Core vocabulary of Habakkuk’s opening complaint (1:2,3,9; 2:8,17); comprehension/register risk only, no prior baseline entry existed.
Wicked One Rasha
Approved rendering: tus limhiam
Transliteration: rasha
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice / God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:4, 1:13; 3:13). Direct antithesis-partner to the reused baseline ‘righteousness_of_god_righteous’ (‘tus ncaj ncees’); comprehension-level risk, no traditional-religion collision identified.
Builds Town With Blood
Approved rendering: kev tsim lub nroog los ntawm kev nchuav ntshav
Transliteration: boneh ir be-damim
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:12). Reuses the ‘violence_chamas’ vocabulary family; connects to the doctrine’s warning that violent empires are themselves subject to judgment.
Proud Puffed Up Uphlah
Approved rendering: nws lub siab khav theeb, tsis ncaj
Transliteration: uphlah
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: flattening the antithetical parallel structure into two unrelated observations — rejected, loses the entire rhetorical point of 2:4
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:4a, 2:5). Reuses baseline ‘boasting’ descriptively. Must preserve the antithetical parallel (proud/self-reliant vs. righteous/faith-reliant) that is the verse’s central rhetorical structure.
Eyes Too Pure To See Evil
Approved rendering: koj ob lub qhov muag dawb huv, thiaj tsis kam saib kev phem
Transliteration: tehor enayim
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:13). Intensifies the ‘holy_one_title’ divine title; sharpens Habakkuk’s confusion over God’s apparent toleration of Babylon’s evil, directly fueling the Wrestling-with-Injustice doctrine. Shares the ‘dawb huv’ collision caution.
Wait Eagerly Chakah
Approved rendering: ua siab ntev tos
Transliteration: chakah
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: passive fatalistic resignation framing — rejected, must be confident expectation grounded in God’s promise
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:3), combining reused baseline ‘endurance’ with a waiting posture. Must be taught, exactly as the baseline’s ‘hope’ entry requires, as confident expectation, not passive fatalism or mere wishing.
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: theos (cf. Hebrew Elohim)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Ntuj (impersonal sky/heaven) — rejected, lacks personal deity sense, dab (spirit) — rejected, denotes false/lesser spirit
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: renders generic Elohim (1:12, 3:3, 3:18); must be kept lexically distinct from the new covenant-name entry ‘yahweh_covenant_name’ (Yawmsaub) and from ‘lord’ (tus Tswv). A consistent three-way distinction (Yawmsaub / Vajtswv / tus Tswv) must be taught explicitly.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: kyrios (cf. Hebrew Adonai)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: renders Adonai (3:19), appearing combined with the covenant name Yawmsaub in the closing epithet ‘Adonai YHWH cheyli’ — see new entry ‘compound_closing_epithet’.
Jesus Christ
Approved rendering: Yexus Khetos
Transliteration: Iēsous Christos
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: not directly named in the OT text, but required for the mandatory typological teaching note bridging ‘Anointed One’ (mashiach, 3:13, see new entry ‘anointed_one_mashiach’) to Christ, since ‘Khetos’ itself is the Greek translation of ‘Messiah/Anointed One’.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Leej Tub ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: huios theou
Doctrine: Union with Christ
Rejected alternatives: diminished-sonship renderings found in sectarian materials — rejected, must preserve full deity
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: not a direct lexical occurrence, but supplies the canonical destination-point for the mashiach typological bridge (3:13) alongside ‘jesus_christ’.
Glory
Approved rendering: lub yeeb koob
Transliteration: doxa (cf. Hebrew kavod / hod)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: 2:14 (earth filled with knowledge of the glory of the LORD), 2:16 (shame vs. glory), 3:3-4 (theophanic splendor).
Hope
Approved rendering: kev cia siab
Transliteration: elpis (conceptual; underlies Hebrew chakah/anuach in Habakkuk)
Doctrine: Sanctification and Life in the Spirit (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith; Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (Habakkuk)
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: 2:3 (‘though it tarry, wait for it’) and 3:16 (‘I will quietly wait’); retains the baseline caution against reducing hope to mere optimism/wishing — Habakkuk’s hope is confident expectation grounded in God’s promise, not passive fatalism.
Endurance
Approved rendering: kev ua siab ntev
Transliteration: hypomonē (conceptual; underlies Hebrew chakah/anuach in Habakkuk)
Doctrine: Sanctification and Life in the Spirit (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith; Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (Habakkuk)
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk: 2:3, 3:16 waiting-postures; combined with ‘hope’ in the new entries ‘wait_eagerly_chakah’ and ‘quietly_wait_day_of_trouble’.
Nations Gentiles
Approved rendering: lwm Haiv Neeg
Transliteration: ethnē (cf. Hebrew goyim)
Doctrine: The Future of Israel (Romans) / God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment (Habakkuk)
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk (1:5, 2:5, 2:8, 2:10, 3:6, 3:12), this reused term denotes GENERIC POLITICAL/MILITARY NATIONS, NOT the Jew-Gentile soteriological contrast central to Romans. Every occurrence in Habakkuk curriculum content must carry a one-line disambiguating gloss on first use per lesson module.
Truth
Approved rendering: qhov tseeb
Transliteration: alētheia (conceptual, from Hebrew kazab ‘not lie’ in Habakkuk)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 2:3, reinforces the certainty of the vision (‘it will not lie/fail’).
World
Approved rendering: lub ntiajteb
Transliteration: kosmos (cf. Hebrew erets)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 2:14, 2:20 (the whole earth filled with knowledge of God’s glory / commanded to silence).
Promise
Approved rendering: lus cog tseg
Transliteration: epangelia (conceptual)
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (Habakkuk)
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 2:3, reinforces the certainty of the vision’s fulfillment at its appointed time.
Boasting
Approved rendering: kev khav theeb
Transliteration: kauchēsis (conceptual, from Hebrew uphlah/yahir in Habakkuk)
Doctrine: Justification by Faith (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (Habakkuk)
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 2:4-5, used descriptively within the periphrasis for the ‘proud/puffed up’ one, the direct antithesis to the righteous-by-faith person; see new entry ‘proud_puffed_up_uphlah’.
Creation
Approved rendering: tej uas raug tsim los
Transliteration: ktisis (conceptual)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 3:6, 3:10-11, used for theophanic natural-order imagery (mountains, sun, moon responding to God’s appearing).
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: txoj sia nyob mus ib txhis
Transliteration: zōē aiōnios
Doctrine: Union with Christ (Romans) / The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (Habakkuk, canonical destination)
Inherited from Romans package. In Habakkuk 2:4b, the immediate OT rendering deliberately OMITS this qualifier (see new entry ‘shall_live_chayah’), since Habakkuk’s referent is temporal survival of Babylonian judgment. This baseline entry is retained here specifically to support the mandatory two-stage teaching note holding temporal preservation (Habakkuk) and eternal life (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38) together in proper canonical order without collapsing one into the other.
It Will Not Lie Kazab
Approved rendering: yuav tsis dag hlo li
Transliteration: kazab
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:3). Reuses the established truth/promise vocabulary family (baseline ‘truth’, ‘promise’); no collision identified.
Shigionoth
Approved rendering: Sikiyoos
Transliteration: shigyonot
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (structural heading)
Rejected alternatives: paraphrasing into a definite genre claim — rejected, term is genuinely obscure even in Hebrew scholarship; overclaiming precision the source term does not have
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:1). Transliterated with a gloss (‘ib hom nkauj thov Vajtswv’); comprehension-level only, marks the genre shift to psalm/prayer.
Strife Contention Riv Madon
Approved rendering: kev sib cav sib ceg
Transliteration: riv u-madon
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:3). Stable descriptive phrase for social/legal conflict accompanying pervasive injustice; no collision.
Chaldeans Proper Name
Approved rendering: cov Kadees
Transliteration: Kasdim
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
NEW ENTRY. Simple ethnonym transliteration, consistent with the baseline’s pattern for ‘cov Yudas’/‘cov Kilis’; no theological content to paraphrase.
Ways Are Everlasting
Approved rendering: nws txoj kev nyob mus ib txhis
Transliteration: halikhot olam
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:6). Reinforces the ‘from_everlasting_miqedem’ theme; stable descriptive phrase, no collision.
Medium-High Risk Terms
Holy One Title
Approved rendering: tus Dawb Huv
Transliteration: qadosh
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
Rejected alternatives: treating this as a process/state term interchangeable with the sanctification entry — rejected, this is a fixed divine TITLE, not a repeatable ritual-purity condition
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:12). Shares the ‘dawb huv’ root flagged in the Romans baseline’s sanctification entry as colliding with folk ritual-purity/spirit-contamination concepts. Here applied as a divine title expressing God’s transcendent moral perfection, not a process; must be taught as ‘the One who is inherently, eternally set apart,’ never as ‘the one who has been ritually purified.’ Coordinate with ‘holy_temple’ and baseline ‘sanctification’ via a single consolidated first-occurrence footnote per analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §2.1.
Anointed One Mashiach
Approved rendering: tus uas Vajtswv tsa los ua Vajntxwv (Mexiyas)
Transliteration: mashiach
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship (typological link to Justification-by-Faith doctrine family)
Rejected alternatives: pure transliteration alone (‘Mexiyas’ only, no periphrasis) — rejected, loses the immediate OT historical referent (Davidic king/nation), pure paraphrase alone (no parenthetical ‘Mexiyas’) — rejected, loses the typological bridge-word linking to Yexus Khetos
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:13). Requires an explicit typological teaching note connecting Habakkuk’s historical ‘anointed one’ (originally Israel’s king/nation) to Yexus Khetos (‘Christ’ = Greek translation of this very word) WITHOUT collapsing the OT referent into a bare christological reading. Both senses must be held together, parallel to the ‘shall_live_chayah’ two-stage teaching pattern.
Complaint Lawsuit Tokhachti
Approved rendering: kuv tej lus thov/tsis txaus siab uas kuv tau hais rau Yawmsaub
Transliteration: tokhachti
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
Rejected alternatives: softening into a mild question — rejected, loses the covenant-lawsuit genre’s legitimate raw force, leaving unglossed and blunt — rejected, risks sounding disrespectful against Hmong elder-deference norms (kev hwm laus)
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:1, framing 1:2-4). Hmong social custom generally discourages direct, sustained questioning of elders/ancestors/authority; requires a mandatory teaching note at first occurrence (1:2) establishing lament-as-covenant-lawsuit as a legitimate biblical form of faith, not rebellion.
Shall Live Chayah
Approved rendering: yuav muaj txoj sia
Transliteration: chayah
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Rejected alternatives: adding the baseline’s eternal-life qualifier (‘…nyob mus ib txhis’) directly onto this OT clause — rejected, would prematurely import the full NT sense into Habakkuk’s immediate historical referent (temporal survival of Babylonian judgment), leaving the temporal referent completely unconnected to the NT citations — rejected, would sever the canonical continuity Romans 1:17/Galatians 3:11/Hebrews 10:38 depend on
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:4b), core-passage term. Deliberately left WITHOUT the baseline’s ‘eternal_life’ suffix. Requires a mandatory two-stage teaching note holding BOTH senses together in proper canonical order: temporal preservation in Habakkuk’s own historical moment, fulfilled and expanded into eternal life through faith in Christ per the NT citations, without collapsing one into the other prematurely. Ranked #3 in analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §5.
Pestilence Plague Judgment Agents
Approved rendering: kab mob thiab kev puas tsuaj uas mus ua ntej Yawmsaub
Transliteration: dever / resheph
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
Rejected alternatives: leaving unqualified as autonomous forces — rejected, risks reading as independent malevolent spirits per Hmong illness-causation folk belief (spirits/curses sent by offended ancestors)
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:5). Poetic personification of divine judgment-agents marching before God in the theophany; must be explicitly taught as God’s own sovereign, commanded agents operating strictly under His authority, not autonomous demonic forces.
Low-Medium Risk Terms
Burden Oracle Massa
Approved rendering: tsab lus hnyav uas Yawmsaub qhia
Transliteration: massa
Doctrine: Structural (book heading; touches all four doctrines)
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:1). Structural heading term marking the entire book as an authoritative, weighty divine pronouncement rather than Habakkuk’s private opinion. Comprehension-level risk only.
Tablets Luchot
Approved rendering: phiaj txiag sau ntawv
Transliteration: luchot
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:2). Echoes the tablets of the Law given to Moses (Exodus 24:12, 31:18); may be strengthened with a footnote connecting to baseline ‘law_mosaic_divine’. Comprehension-level risk only.
End Qets
Approved rendering: thaum kawg / lub xaus
Transliteration: qets
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:3). Must be anchored to God’s determined certainty, not fatalistic inevitability, parallel to ‘appointed_time_moed’.
Teacher Of Lies Moreh Shaqer
Approved rendering: tus qhia lus dag
Transliteration: moreh shaqer
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:18). Minor contrast term to the true ‘vision_chazon’; low collision risk.
Iniquity Trouble Amal
Approved rendering: kev txhaum uas ua rau siab nyuaj
Transliteration: amal
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:3). Descriptive compound for the wearisome moral evil Habakkuk is forced to witness; no collision identified.
Plunder Extortion Shalal
Approved rendering: kev lws thiab kev nyiag
Transliteration: shalal / chemsah
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:8). Minor economic-injustice vocabulary condemned in the second woe; comprehension-level only.
Upright Not Upright Yashar
Approved rendering: tsis ncaj
Transliteration: yashar (lo yashrah)
Doctrine: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
NEW ENTRY (Hab 2:4a). Echoes the ‘ncaj’ root family shared with baseline ‘righteousness_of_god_righteous’ and new ‘justice_mishpat’; must NOT be confused with the forensic term despite the shared root — describes general moral straightness of character, not covenant/forensic standing. Part of the four-role root-family map required at the 2:1-4 core-passage lesson (see analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §2.3).
From Everlasting Miqedem
Approved rendering: txij thaum ub los
Transliteration: miqedem
Doctrine: Wrestling with God over Injustice
NEW ENTRY (Hab 1:12). Grounds Habakkuk’s confident appeal in God’s eternal, unchanging covenant identity; comprehension-level risk only.
Knowledge Of Glory Daat
Approved rendering: kev paub Yawmsaub lub yeeb koob
Transliteration: da’at
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty in Using Nations for Judgment
NEW ENTRY for ‘knowledge’ (Hab 2:14), reusing baseline ‘glory’ for the second half of the compound. Comprehension-level risk only; positive counterpoint to the woe-cycle’s violence.
Quietly Wait Day Of Trouble
Approved rendering: kuv yuav nyob twjywm tos hnub kev txom nyem
Transliteration: anuach le-yom tsarah
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:16). Calm, trust-filled waiting for coming hardship, not anxious dread; the psalm’s pivot from trembling fear to settled trust. Pairs with reused endurance/hope terms.
Day Of Trouble Yom Tsarah
Approved rendering: hnub kev txom nyem
Transliteration: yom tsarah
Doctrine: Trust and Rejoicing amid Hardship
NEW ENTRY (Hab 3:16). Comprehension-level; pairs with reused ‘endurance’ and ‘hope’ terms.