יְכַסֶּ֔ךָּ (yə·ḵas·se·kā) in Habakkuk 2:17: Verb - Piel - Imperfect - third person masculine singular | second person masculine singular
יְכַסֶּ֔ךָּ (yə·ḵas·se·kā) in Habakkuk 2:17
Source Word
Habakkuk 2:17 places יְכַסֶּ֔ךָּ after your violence against Lebanon and tags it V-Piel-Imperf-3ms | 2ms.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form sharpens the oracle's reversal by making the violence itself the subject that will cover over the one who practiced it.
How To Communicate It
Teach the pronoun and subject together so judgment is not abstract: the addressed oppressor faces the return of the violence the verse explicitly names.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- The Piel form does not function as a simple intensity guarantee; the clause supplies the force overwhelm.
- Do not turn the announced reversal into impersonal karma or use it to blame sufferers.
- Keep the judgment tied to the violence and bloodshed named in Habakkuk's woe.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - third person masculine singular | second person masculine singular
Piel
Imperfect
Third
Masculine
Singular
Second person masculine singular
The third-person masculine singular verb agrees with the clause's singular subject, your violence against Lebanon, while the second-person suffix marks the violent addressee as the one overwhelmed. The imperfect presents the announced judgment without making aspect alone define its timing.
The form reverses the oppressor's violence onto him within the woe, before the verse names bloodshed against people, land, city, and inhabitants.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The verb takes your violence against Lebanon as its singular subject and the second-person addressee as its suffixed object.
The woe against the violent, bloodstained oppressor in Habakkuk 2:15-17.
It announces a fitting reversal: the violence attributed to the addressee will come upon and overwhelm him.
It does not teach impersonal karma, make every hardship proof of prior violence, or let the Piel stem establish the entire doctrine of judgment.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The verb's subject and suffix express the woe's central reversal: the offender's violence will overwhelm the offender.
Piel imperfect with second-person object suffix. announces that the subject violence will overwhelm the addressed offender. Attached to your violence against Lebanon as subject and the violent addressee as object. Governed by the causal For clause in Habakkuk 2:17. The woe context establishes retribution; morphology clarifies its participants.
Who or what overwhelms the person addressed in this judgment? The verse names his violence against Lebanon as the subject that will overwhelm him.
Interpretive: The covering lexeme, active Piel clause, and judgment setting together support will overwhelm you.
H3680 can mean cover in protective, concealing, forgiving, or destructive contexts; subject and setting decide this use. Imperfect form does not by itself provide a detailed schedule for the judgment. The second-person suffix addresses the offender in the oracle and is not a universal accusation against readers.
Piel always means very intense: Explain the stem with the lexical item and clause; do not replace contextual interpretation with an intensity formula. reversal proves impersonal karma: Habakkuk frames the reversal inside the Lord's judgment of a specifically named pattern of violence. suffering proves hidden violence: This oracle addresses a violent oppressor; it does not authorize blaming sufferers in unrelated circumstances.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
Habakkuk 2:17 places יְכַסֶּ֔ךָּ after your violence against Lebanon and tags it V-Piel-Imperf-3ms | 2ms.
כָּסָה can describe covering in many settings. Here the subject, object suffix, and judgment oracle support the force overwhelm rather than protective or forgiving covering.
The singular violence is grammatically aligned with the third-person verb, and the attached second-person ending points the action toward the offender addressed throughout the woe.
The oppressor who used intoxication, shame, violence, bloodshed, and destruction is told that disgrace and terror will answer his conduct.
The verse participates in Scripture's witness that God judges violent pride and cares about harm done to people, land, city, inhabitants, and animals; it is not an impersonal mechanism detached from the Lord's rule.
Ask who acts and who receives: the offender's own violence is the stated subject, and the offender is the suffixed object. Then read the whole list of harms that grounds the woe.
Do not use the Piel as an automatic intensity switch, the imperfect as a timetable, or the reversal as permission to diagnose every sufferer's hidden guilt.