Habakkuk 2:10
“Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →By destroying many peoples, the conqueror has brought shame on his own house and sinned against his own life.
What Does Habakkuk 2:10 Mean?
The second woe drives home its irony. The conqueror schemed to secure and exalt his house, but in cutting off many peoples he has actually plotted shame for that very house. Worse, he has "sinned against his soul" — his violence rebounds upon his own life.
This is one of Scripture's profound truths about evil: it ultimately wounds the one who does it. The harm Babylon inflicted on others becomes harm to itself, its grasping for honor producing disgrace. Sin is never merely an offense against the victim; it is self-destruction, a forfeiting of one's own life and good. The verse quietly warns that whoever builds by cutting others down is undermining his own foundation. What we do to others, in the end, we do to ourselves before God.