[344] See above, pp. 126 ff. The title to the Greek version of _Bel and the Dragon_ bears that the latter was taken from the prophecy of Hambakoum, son of Jesus, of the tribe of Levi. Further details are offered in the _De Vitis Prophetarum_ of (Pseud-) Epiphanius, _Epiph. Opera_, ed. Paris, 1622, Vol. II., p. 147, according to which Habakkuk belonged to Βεθζοχηρ, which is probably Βεθζαχαριας of 1 Macc. vi. 32, the modern Beit-Zakaryeh, a little to the north of Hebron, and placed by this notice, as Nahum’s Elkosh is placed, in the tribe of Simeon. His grave was shown in the neighbouring Keilah. The notice further alleges that when Nebuchadrezzar came up to Jerusalem Habakkuk fled to Ostracine, where he travelled in the country of the Ishmaelites; but he returned after the fall of Jerusalem, and died in 538, two years before the return of the exiles. _Bel and the Dragon_ tells an extraordinary story of his miraculous carriage of food to Daniel in the lions’ den soon after Cyrus had taken Babylon. [345] See above, pp. 119 ff. [346] Heb. _saw_. [347] Text uncertain. Perhaps we should read, _Why make me look upon sorrow and trouble? why fill mine eyes with violence and wrong? Strife is come before me, and quarrel arises_. [348] _Never gets away_, to use a colloquial expression. [349] Here vv. 5-11 come in the original. [350] Ver. 12_b_: _We shall not die_ (many Jewish authorities read _Thou shalt not die_). _O Jehovah, for judgment hast Thou set him, and, O my Rock, for punishment hast Thou appointed him._ [351] Wellhausen: _on the robbery of robbers_. [352] LXX. _devoureth the righteous_. [353] Literally _Thou hast made men_. [354] Wellhausen: cf. Jer. xviii. 1, xix. 1. [355] So Giesebrecht (see above, p. 119, n. 318), reading העולם יריק חרבו for העל־כן יריק חרמו, _shall he therefore empty his net?_ [356] Wellhausen, reading יהרג for להרג: _should he therefore be emptying his net continually, and slaughtering the nations without pity?_ [357]‎ מצור. But Wellhausen takes it as from נצר and = _ward_ or _watch-tower_. So Nowack. [358] So Heb. and LXX.; but Syr. _he_: so Wellhausen, _what answer He returns to my plea_. [359] Bredenkamp (_Stud. u. Krit._, 1889, pp. 161 ff.) suggests that the writing on the tablets begins here and goes on to ver. 5_a_. Budde (_Z.A.T.W._, 1889, pp. 155 f.) takes the כי which opens it as simply equivalent to the Greek ὅτι, introducing, like our marks of quotation, the writing itself. [360]‎ וְיָפֵחַ: cf. Psalm xxvii. 12. Bredenkamp emends to וְיִפְרַח. [361] _Not be late_, or past its fixed time. [362] So literally the Heb. עֻפְּלָה, i.e. _arrogant_, _false_: cf. the colloquial expression _swollen-head_ = conceit, as opposed to level-headed. Bredenkamp, _Stud. u. Krit._, 1889, 121, reads הַנֶעֱלָף for הִנֵּה עֻפְּלָה. Wellhausen suggests הִנֵּה הֶעַוָל, _Lo, the sinner_, in contrast to צדיק of next clause. Nowack prefers this. [363] LXX. wrongly _my_. [364] LXX. πίδτις, _faith_, and so in N. T.