en_tn_condensed/hab/02/13.md

Is it not from Yahweh of hosts that peoples labor for fire, and nations weary themselves in vain?

This negative rhetorical question emphasizes the positive answer that it anticipates. The two clauses share similar meanings that the work that people do will not last. The question can be translated as a statement. Alternate translation: "Yahweh is the one who has determined that the things that people work hard to build will be destroyed by fire and result in nothing." (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-rquestion and rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-parallelism)

peoples labor for fire

This means that the people labor to build things that will go into the fire before the people can use them. Alternate translation: "peoples labor to build things that the fire will burn up" (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-explicit)