In this chapter,
I. The prophet complains to God of the violence done by the abuse of
the sword of justice among his own people and the hardships thereby put
upon many good people, ver. 1-4 .
II. God by him foretels the punishment of that abuse of power by the
sword of war, and the desolations which the army of the Chaldeans
should make upon them, ver. 5-11 .
III. Then the prophet complains of that too, and is grieved that the
Chaldeans prevail so far
( ver. 12-17 ),
so that he scarcely knows which is more to be lamented, the sin or the
punishment of it, for in both many harmless good people are very great
sufferers. It is well that there is a day of judgment, and a future
state, before us, in which it shall be eternally well with all the
righteous, and with them only, and ill with all the wicked, and them
only; so the present seeming disorders of Providence shall be set to
rights, and there will remain no matter of complaint whatsoever.
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2 O L ORD , how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold
grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there
are that raise up strife and contention.
4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go
forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore
wrong judgment proceedeth.
We are told no more in the title of this book (which we have, v. 1 )
than that the penman was a prophet, a man divinely inspired and
commissioned, which is enough (if that be so, we need not ask
concerning his tribe or family, or the place of his birth), and that
the book itself is the burden which he saw; he was as
sure of the truth of it as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes
already accomplished. Here, in these verses, the prophet sadly laments
the iniquity of the times, as one sensibly touched with grief for the
lamentable decay of religion and righteousness. It is a very melancholy
complaint which he here makes to God,
1. That no man could call what he had his own; but, in defiance of the
most sacred laws of property and equity, he that had power on his side
had what he had a mind to, though he had no right on his side: The land
was full of violence, as the old world was, Gen. vi. 11 .
The prophet cries out of violence ( v. 2 ), iniquity and grievance, spoil and violence. In
families and among relations, in neighbour-hoods and among friends, in
commerce and in courts of law, every thing was carried with a high
hand, and no man made any scruple of doing wrong to his neighbour, so
that he could but make a good hand of it for himself. It does not
appear that the prophet himself had any great wrong done him (in losing
times it fared best with those that had nothing to lose), but it
grieved him to see other people wronged, and he could not but mingle
his tears with those of the oppressed. Note, Doing wrong to harmless
people, as it is an iniquity in itself, so it is a great grievance to
all that are concerned for God's Jerusalem, who sigh and cry for
abominations of this kind. He complains
( v. 4 )
that the wicked doth compass about the righteous. One honest
man, one honest cause, shall have enemies besetting it on every side;
many wicked men, in confederacy against it, run it down; nay, one
wicked man (for it is singular) with so many various arts of mischief
sets upon a righteous man, that he perfectly besets him.
2. That the kingdom was broken into parties and factions that were
continually biting and devouring one another. This is a lamentation to
all the sons of peace: There are that raise up strife and
contention ( v. 3 ),
that foment divisions, widen breaches, incense men against one another,
and sow discord among brethren, by doing the work of him that is the
accuser of the brethren. Strifes and contentions that have been laid
asleep, and begun to be forgotten, they awake, and industriously raise
up again, and blow up the sparks that were hidden under the embers.
And, if blessed are the peace-makers, cursed are such
peace-breakers, that make parties, and so make mischief that spreads
further, and lasts longer, than they can imagine. It is sad to see bad
men warming their hands at those flames which are devouring all that is
good in a nation, and stirring up the fire too.
3. That the torrent of violence and strife ran so strongly as to bid
defiance to the restraints and regulations of laws and the
administration of justice, v. 4 .
Because God did not appear against them, nobody else would; therefore the law is slacked, is silent; it breathes not; its
pulse beats not (so, it is said, the word signifies); it intermits, and judgment does not go forth as it should; no cognizance is
taken of those crimes, no justice done upon the criminals; nay, wrong judgment proceeds; if appeals be made to the courts of
equity, the righteous shall be condemned and the wicked justified, so
that the remedy proves the worst disease. The legislative power takes
no care to supply the deficiencies of the law for the obviating of
those growing threatening mischiefs; the executive power takes no care
to answer the good intentions of the laws that are made; the stream of
justice is dried up by violence, and has not its free course.
4. That all this was open and public, and impudently avowed; it was
barefaced. The prophet complains that this iniquity was shown him; he beheld it which way soever he turned his eyes, nor could he look
off it: Spoiling and violence are before me. Note, The abounding
of wickedness in a nation is a very great eye-sore to good people, and,
if they did not see it, they could not believe it to be so bad as it
is. Solomon often complains of the vexation of this kind which he saw under the sun; and the prophet would therefore gladly turn
hermit, that he might not see it, Jer. ix. 2 .
But then we must needs go out of the world, which there-fore we should long to do, that we may remove to that
world where holiness and love reign eternally, and no spoiling and
violence shall be before us.
5. That he complained of this to God, but could not obtain a redress of
those grievances: " Lord, " says he, " why dost thou show me
iniquity? Why hast thou cast my lot in a time and place when and
where it is to be seen, and why do I continue to sojourn in
Mesech and Kedar? I cry to thee of this violence; I cry
aloud; I have cried long; but thou wilt not hear, thou wilt not
save; thou dost not take vengeance on the oppressors, nor do
justice to the oppressed, as if thy arm were shortened or thy ear
heavy." When God seems to connive at the wickedness of the wicked, nay,
and to countenance it, by suffering them to prosper in their
wickedness, it shocks the faith of good men, and proves a sore
temptation to them to say, We have cleansed our hearts in vain ( Ps. lxxiii. 13 ),
and hardens those in their impiety who say, God has forsaken the
earth. We must not think it strange if wickedness be suffered to
prevail far and prosper long. God has reasons, and we are sure they are
good reasons, both for the reprieves of bad men and the rebukes of good
men; and therefore, though we plead with him, and humbly expostulate
concerning his judgments, yet we must say, "He is wise, and righteous,
and good, in all," and must believe the day will come, though it may be
long deferred, when the cry of sin will be heard against those that do
wrong and the cry of prayer for those that suffer it.
5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder
marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye
will not believe, though it be told you. 6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty
nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to
possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their
dignity shall proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more
fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread
themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall
fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the
sand.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be
a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they
shall heap dust, and take it.
11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and
offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
We have here an answer to the prophet's complaint, giving him assurance
that, though God bore long, he would not bear always with this
provoking people; for the day of vengeance was in his heart, and he
must tell them so, that they might by repentance and reformation turn
away the judgment they were threatened with.
I. The preamble to the sentence is very awful
( v. 5 ): Behold, you among the heathen, and regard. Since they will not
be brought to repentance by the long-suffering of God, he will take
another course with them. No resentments are so keen, so deep, as those
of abused patience. The Lord will inflict upon them,
1. A public punishment, which shall be beheld and regarded among the
heathen, which the neighbouring nations shall take notice of and stand
amazed at; see Deut. xxix. 24, 25 .
This will aggravate the desolations of Israel, that they will thereby
be made a spectacle to the world.
2. An amazing punishment, so strange and surprising, and so much out of
the common road of Providence, that it shall not be paralleled among
the heathen, shall be sorer and heavier than what God has usually
inflicted upon the nations that know him not; nay, it shall not be
credited even by those that had the prediction of it from God before it
comes, or the report of it from those that were eye-witnesses of it
when it comes: You will not believe it, though it be told you; it will be thought incredible that so many judgments should combine in
one, and every circumstance so strangely concur to enforce and
aggravate it, that so great and potent a nation should be so reduced
and broken, and that God should deal so severely with a people that had
been taken into the bond of the covenant and that he had done so much
for. The punishment of God's professing people cannot but be the
astonishment of all about them.
3. A speedy punishment: " I will work a work in your days, now
quickly; this generation shall not pass till the judgment threatened be
accomplished. The sins of former days shall be reckoned for in your
days; for now the measure of the iniquity is full," Mt. xxiii. 36 .
4. It shall be a punishment in which much of the hand of God shall
appear; it shall be a work of his own working, so that all who see it
shall say, This is the Lord's doing; and it will be found a
fearful thing to fall into his hands; woe to those whom he takes to
task!
5. It shall be such a punishment as will typify the destruction to be
brought upon the despisers of Christ and his gospel, for to that these
words are applied Acts xiii. 41 , Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish. The ruin of
Jerusalem by the Chaldeans for their idolatry was a figure of their
ruin by the Romans for rejecting Christ and his gospel, and it is a
very marvellous thing, and almost incredible. Is there not a strange
punishment to the workers of iniquity?
II. The sentence itself is very dreadful and particular
( v. 6 ): Lo, I raise up the Chaldeans. There were those that raised up a
great deal of strife and contention among them, which was their sin;
and now God will raise up the Chaldeans against them, who shall strive
and contend with them, which shall be their punishment. Note, When
God's professing people quarrel among themselves, snarl at, and devour
one another, it is just with God to bring the common enemy upon them,
that shall make peace by making a universal devastation. The contending
parties in Jerusalem were inveterate one against another, when the
Romans came and took away their place and nation. The Chaldeans
shall be the instruments of the destruction threatened, and, though
themselves acting unrighteously, they shall execute the
righteousness of the Lord and punish the unrighteousness of Israel.
Now, here we have,
1. A description of the people that shall be raised up against Israel,
to be a scourge to them.
(1.) They are a bitter and hasty nation, cruel and fierce, and
what they do is done with violence and fury; they are precipitate in
their counsels, vehement in their passions, and push on with resolution
in their enterprises; they show no mercy and they spare no pains.
Miserable is the case of those that are given up into the hand of these
cruel ones.
(2.) They are strong, and therefore formidable, and such as there is no
standing before, and yet no fleeing from
( v. 7 ): They are terrible and dreadful, famed for the gallant troops
they bring into the field
( v. 8 ); their horses are swifter than leopards to charge and pursue, and more fierce than the evening wolves; and wolves are
observed to be the most ravenous towards the evening, after they have
been kept hungry all day, waiting for that darkness under the
protection of which all the beasts of the forest creep forth, Ps. civ. 20 .
Their squadrons of horse shall be very numerous: " Their horse-men
shall spread themselves a great way, for they shall come from
far, from all parts of their own country, and shall be dispersed
into all parts of the country they invade, to plunder it, and enrich
themselves with the spoil of it. And, in making speed to spoil, they
shall hasten to the prey (as those, Isa. viii. 1 , margin ), for they shall fly as the eagle towards the
earth when she hastens to eat and strikes at the prey she has an
eye upon."
(3.) Their own will is a law to them, and, in the fierceness of their
pursuits, they will not be governed by any laws of humanity, equity, or
honour: Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of
themselves, v. 7 .
Appetite and passion rule them, and not reason nor conscience. Their
principle is, Quicquid libet, licet -- My will is my law. And, Sic volo, sic jubeo; stat pro ratione voluntas--This is my
wish, this is my command; it shall be done because I choose it. What favour can be hoped for from such an enemy? Note, Those who have
been unjust and unmerciful, among whom the law is slacked, and
judgment doth not go forth, will justly be paid in their own coin
and fall into the hands of those who will deal unjustly and
unmercifully with them.
2. A prophecy of the terrible execution that shall be made by this
terrible nation: They shall march through the breadth of the
earth (so it may be read); for in a little time the Chaldean forces
subdued all the nations in those parts, so that they seemed to have
conquered the world; they overran Asia and part of Africa. Or, through
the breadth of the land of Israel, which was wholly laid waste
by them. It is here foretold,
(1.) That they shall seize all as their own that they can lay their
hands on. They shall come to possess the dwelling-places that are
not theirs, which they have no right to, but that which their sword
gives them.
(2.) That they shall push on the war with all possible vigour: They
shall all come for violence ( v. 9 ),
not to determine any disputed right by the sword, but, right or wrong,
to enrich themselves with the spoil. Their faces shall sup up as the
east wind; their very countenances shall be so fierce and frightful
that a look will serve to make them masters of all they have a mind to;
so that they shall swallow up all, as the east wind nips and
blasts the buds and flowers. Their faces shall look towards the
east (so some read it); they shall still have an eye to their own
country, which lay eastward from Judea, and all the spoil they seize
they shall remit thither.
(3.) That they shall take a vast number of prisoners, and send them
into Babylon: They shall gather the captivity as the sand for
multitude, and shall never know when they have enough, as long as there
are any more to be had.
(4.) That they shall make nothing of the opposition that is given to
them, v. 10 .
Do the distressed Jews depend upon their great men to make a stand, and
with their wisdom and courage to give check to the victorious arms of
the Chaldeans? Alas! they will make nothing of them. They shall
scoff (he shall, so it is in the original, meaning Nebuchadnezzar,
who being puffed up with his successes, shall scoff) at the
kings and commanders of the forces that think to make head against
him; and the princes shall be a scorn to them, so unequal a
match shall they appear to be. Do they depend upon their garrisons and
fortified towns? He shall deride every stronghold, for to him it
shall be weak, and he shall heap dust, and take it; a little
soil, thrown up for ramparts, shall serve to give him all the advantage
against them that he can desire; he shall make but a jest of them, and
a sport of taking them.
(5.) By all this he shall be puffed up with an intolerable pride, which
shall be his destruction
( v. 11 ): Then shall his mind change for the worse. The spirit both of the
people and of the king shall grow more haughty and insolent. Those
that will not be content with their own rights will not be content when
they have made themselves masters of other people's rights too; but as
the condition rises the mind rises too. This victorious king shall pass over all the bounds of reason, equity, and modesty, and
break through all their bonds, and thereby he shall offend, shall make God his enemy, and so prepare ruin for himself by imputing this his power to his god, whereas he had it from the
God of Israel. Bel and Nebo were the gods of the
Chaldeans, and to them they gave the glory of their successes; they
were hardened in their idolatry, and blasphemously argued that because
they had conquered Israel their gods were too strong for the God of
Israel. Note, It is a great offence (and the common offence of proud
people) to take that glory to ourselves, or to give it to gods of our
own making, which is due to the living and true God only. These closing
words of the sentence give a glimpse of comfort to the afflicted people
of God; it is to be hoped that they will change their minds, and grow
better, and ripen for deliverance; and they did so. However, their
enemies will change their minds, and grow worse, and ripen for
destruction, which will inevitably come in God's due time; for a
haughty spirit, lifted up against God, goes before a fall.
12 Art thou not from everlasting, O L ORD my God, mine Holy
One? we shall not die. O L ORD , thou hast ordained them for
judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for
correction.
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not
look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal
treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping
things, that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in
their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice
and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense
unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and
their meat plenteous.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare
continually to slay the nations?
The prophet, having received of the Lord that which he was to deliver
to the people, now turns to God, and again addresses himself to him for
the ease of his own mind under the burden which he saw. And still he is
full of complaints. If he look about him, he sees nothing but violence
done by Israel; if he look before him, he sees nothing but violence
done against Israel; and it is hard to say which is the more melancholy
sight. His thoughts of both he pours out before the Lord. It is our
duty to be affected both with the iniquities and with the calamities of
the church of God and of the times and places wherein we live; but we
must take heed lest we grow peevish in our resentments, and carry them
too far, so as to entertain any hard thoughts of God, or lose the
comfort of our communion with him. The world is bad, and always was so,
and will be so; it is out of our power to mend it; but we are sure that
God governs the world, and will bring glory to himself out of all, and
therefore we must resolve to make the best of it, must be ourselves
better, and long for the better world. The prospect of the prevalence
of the Chaldeans drives the prophet to his knees, and he takes the
liberty to plead with God concerning it. In his plea we may
observe,
I. The truths which he lays down, which he resolves to abide by, and
with which he endeavours to comfort himself and his friends, under the
growing threatening power of the Chaldeans; and they will furnish us
with pleasing considerations for our support in the like case.
1. However it be, yet God is the Lord our God, and our Holy
One. The victorious Chaldeans impute their power to their idols,
but we are taught to tell them that the God of Israel is the true
God, the living God, Jer. x. 10, 11 .
(1.) He is Jehovah, the fountain of all being, power, and
perfection. Our rock is not as theirs. (2.) "He is my God. " He speaks in the people's name; every
Israelite may say, "He is mine. Though we are thus sore broken,
and all this has come upon us, yet have we not forgotten the name of
our God, nor quitted our relation to him, yet have we not disowned
him, nor hath he disowned us, Ps. xliv. 17 .
We are an offending people; he is an offended God; yet he is ours, and
we will not entertain any hard thoughts of him, nor of his service, for
all this."
(3.) "He is my Holy One. " This intimates that the prophet loved
God as a holy God, loved him for the sake of his holiness. "He is mine because he is a Holy One; and therefore he
will be my sanctifier and my Saviour, because he is my Holy One. Men are unholy, but my God is holy. "
2. Our God is from everlasting. This he pleads with him: Art thou
not from everlasting, O Lord my God? It is matter of great and
continual comfort to God's people, under the troubles of this present
life, that their God is from everlasting. This intimates,
(1.) The eternity of his nature; if he is from everlasting, he will be
to everlasting, and we must have recourse to this first principle, when
things seen, which are temporal, are discouraging, that we have hope
and help sufficient in a god that is not seen, that is eternal. "Art
thou not from everlasting, and then wilt thou not make bare thy
everlasting arm, in pursuance of thy everlasting counsels, to make unto
thyself an everlasting name?"
(2.) The antiquity of his covenant: "Art thou not from of old, a
God in covenant with thy people" (so some understand it), "and hast
thou not done great things for them in the days of old, which we
have heard with our ears, and which our fathers have told us of; and
art thou not the same God still that thou ever wast? Thou art God,
and changest not. "
3. While the world stands God will have a church in it. Thou art from
everlasting, and then we shall not die. The Israel of God shall
not be extirpated, nor the name of Israel blotted out, though it may
sometimes seem to be very near it; like the apostles
( 2 Cor. vi. 9 ), chastened, and not killed; chastened sorely, but not delivered over
to death, Ps. cxviii. 18 .
See how the prophet infers the perpetuity of the church from the
eternity of God; for Christ has said, Because I live, and
therefore as long as I live, you shall live also, John xiv. 19 .
He is the rock on which the church is so firmly built that the gates
of hell shall not, cannot, prevail against it. We shall not
die.
4. Whatever the enemies of the church may do against her, it is
according to the counsel of God, and is designed and directed for wise
and holy ends: Thou hast ordained them; thou hast established
them. It was God that gave the Chaldeans their power, made them a
formidable people, and in his counsel determined what they should do,
nor had they any power against his Israel but what was given them
from above. He gave them their commission to take the spoil and
to take the prey, Isa. x. 6 .
Herein God appears a mighty God, that the power of mighty men is
derived from him, depends upon him, and is under his check; he says
concerning it, Hitherto shall it come, and no further. Those
whom God ordains shall do no more than what God has ordained, which is
a great comfort to God's suffering people. Men are God's hand, the rod
in his hand, Ps. xvii. 14 .
And he has ordained them for judgment, and for
correction. God's people need correction, and deserve it; they must
expect it; they shall have it; when wicked men are let loose against
them, it is not for their destruction, that they may be ruined, but for
their correction, that they may be reformed; they are not intended for
a sword, to cut them off, but for a rod, to drive out the foolishness
that is found in their hearts, though they mean not so, neither does
their heart think so, Isa. x. 7 .
Note, It is matter of great comfort to us, in reference to the troubles
and afflictions of the church, that, whatever mischief men design to
them, God designs to bring good out of them, and we are sure that his counsel shall stand.
5. Though the wickedness of the wicked may prosper for a while, yet God
is a holy God, and does not approve of that wickedness
( v. 13 ): Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. The prophet,
observing how very vicious and impious the Chaldeans were, and yet what
great success they had against God's Israel, found a temptation arising
from it to say that it was vain to serve God, and that it was
indifferent to him what men were. But he soon suppresses the thought,
by having recourse to his first principle, That God is not, that he
cannot be, the author or patron of sin; as he cannot do iniquity
himself, so he is of purer eyes than to behold it with any
allowance or approbation; no, it is that abominable thing which the
Lord hates. He sees all the sin that is committed in the world, and
it is an offence to him, it is odious in his eyes, and those that
commit it are thereby made obnoxious to his justice. There is in the
nature of God an antipathy to those dispositions and practices that are
contrary to his holy law; and, though an expedient is happily found out
for his being reconciled to sinners, yet he never will, nor can, be
reconciled to sin. And this principle we must resolve to abide by,
though the dispensations of his providence may for a time, and in some
instances, seem to be inconsistent with it. Note, God's connivance at
sin must never be interpreted into a giving countenance to it; for he is not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, Ps. v. 4, 5 .
The iniquity which, it is here said, God does not look upon, may be
meant especially of the mischief done to God's people by their
persecutors; though God sees cause to permit it, yet he does not
approve of it; so it agrees with that of Balaam
( Num. xxiii. 21 ), He has not be held iniquity against Jacob, nor seen, with
allowance, perverseness against Israel, which is very
comfortable to the people of God, in their afflictions by the rage of
men, that they cannot infer God's anger from it; though the instruments
of their trouble hate them, it does not therefore follow that God does;
nay, he loves them, and it is in love that he corrects them.
II. The grievances he complains of, and finds hard to reconcile with
these truths: "Since we are sure that thou art a holy God, why have
atheists temptation given them to question whether thou art so or no? Wherefore lookest thou upon the Chaldeans that deal
treacherously with thy people, and givest them success in their
attempts upon us? Why dost thou suffer thy sworn enemies, who blaspheme
thy name, to deal thus cruelly, thus perfidiously, with thy sworn
subjects, who desire to fear thy name? What shall we say to this?" This
was a temptation to Job
( ch. xxi. 7; xxiv. 1 ),
to David
( Ps. lxxiii. 2, 3 ),
to Jeremiah, ch. xii. 1, 2 .
1. That God permitted sin, and was patient with the sinners. He looked upon them; he saw all their wicked doings and designs,
and did not restrain nor punish them, but suffered them to speed in
their purposes, to go on and prosper, and to carry all before them.
Nay, his looking upon them intimates that he not only gave them no
check or rebuke, but that he gave them encouragement and assistance, as
if he smiled upon them and favoured them. He held his tongue when they went on in their wicked courses, said nothing against them,
gave no orders to stop them. These things thou hast done, and I kept
silence. 2. That his patience was abused, and, because sentence against
these evil works and workers was not executed speedily, therefore their hearts were the more fully set in them to do
evil. (1.) They were false and deceitful, and there was no credit to be given
them, nor any confidence to be put in them. They deal treacherously; under colour of peace and friendship, they
prosecute and execute the most mischievous designs, and make no
conscience of their word in any thing.
(2.) They hated and persecuted men because they were better than
themselves, as Cain hated Abel because his own works were evil and
his brother's righteous. The wicked devours the man that is more
righteous than he, for that very reason, because he shames him;
they have an ill will to the image of God, and therefore devour
good men, because they bear that image. Though many of the Jews were as
bad as the Chaldeans themselves, and worse, yet there were those among
them that were much more righteous, and yet were devoured by them.
(3.) They made no more of killing men that of catching fish. The
prophet complains that, Providence having delivered up the weaker to be
prey to the stronger, they were, in effect, made as the fishes of
the sea, v. 14 .
So they had been among themselves, preying upon one another as the
greater fishes do upon the less
( v. 3 ),
and they were made so to the common enemy. They were as the creeping
things, or swimming things (for the word is used for fish, Gen. i. 20 ), that have no ruler over them, either to restrain them from
devouring one another or to protect them from being devoured by their
enemies. They are given up to the Chaldeans as fish to the fishermen.
Those proud oppressors make no conscience of killing them, any more
than men do of pulling fish out of the water, so small account do they
make of human lives. They make no difficulty of killing them, but do it
with as much ease as men catch fish, that make no resistance, but are
unguarded and unarmed, and it is rather a pastime than any pains to
take them. They make no distinction among them, but all is fish that
comes to their net; and they reckon every thing their own that they can
lay their hands on. They have various ways of spoiling and destroying,
as men have of taking fish. Some they take up with the angle ( v. 15 ),
one by one; others they catch in shoals, and by wholesale, in
their net, and gather them in their drag, their enclosing
net. Such variety of methods have they to destroy those by whom they
hope to enrich themselves.
(4.) They gloried in what they got, and pleased themselves with it,
though it was got dishonestly: Their portion is fat, and their meat
plenteous; they prosper in their oppression and fraud; they have a
great deal, and it is of the best; their land is good, and they have
abundance of it. And therefore,
[1.] They have great complacency in themselves, and are very pleasant;
they live merrily
( v. 15 ): Therefore they rejoice and are glad, because their wealth is
great, and their projects succeed for the increase of it, Job xxxi. 25 . Soul, take thy ease, Luke xii. 19 .
[2.] They have a great conceit of themselves, and are great admirers of
their own ingenuity and management: They sacrifice to their own net,
and burn incense to their own drag; they applaud themselves for
having got so much money, though ever so dishonestly. Note, There is a
proneness in us to take the glory of our outward prosperity to
ourselves, and to say, My might, and the power of my hands, have
gotten me this wealth, Deut. viii. 17 .
This is idolizing ourselves, sacrificing to the dragnet, because it is
our own, which is as absurd a piece of idolatry as sacrificing to
Neptune or Dagon. That which makes them adore their net thus is
because by it their portion is fat. Those that make a god of
their money will make a god of their drag-net, if they can but get
money by it.
III. The prophet, in the close, humbly expresses his hope that God will
not suffer these destroyers of mankind always to go on and prosper
thus, and expostulates with God concerning it
( v. 17 ):
" Shall they therefore empty their net? Shall they enrich
themselves, and fill their own vessels, with that which they have by
violence and oppression taken away from their neighbours? Shall they
empty their net of what they have caught, that they may cast it into
the sea again, to catch more? And wilt thou suffer them to proceed in
this wicked course? Shall they not spare continually to slay the
nations? Must the numbers and wealth of nations be sacrificed to
their net? As if it were a small thing to rob men of their estates,
shall they rob God of his glory? Is not God the king of nations, and
will he not assert their injured rights? Is he not jealous for his own
honour, and will he not maintain that?" The prophet lodges the matter
in God's hand, and leaves it with him, as the psalmist does. Ps. lxxiv. 22 , Arise, O God! Plead thy own cause.
INTRODUCTION TO HABAKKUK
This book is called, in the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions, "the Prophecy of Habakkuk". Of this prophet, Aben Ezra and Kimchi say, we know neither his age nor his family; which shows they paid no regard to a tradition of their nation, mentioned by some of their ancient writers {a}, that he was the son of the Shunammite, whom Elisha raised from the dead; and find the etymology of his name in the words of the prophet to her, "about this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son", 2Ki 4:16 where the root of his name is used; and they account for the doubling of the last radical in his name, because of the two embraces of him, one by his mother, and the other by the prophet. His name indeed signifies "an embrace" {b}; or, as some, "an embracer" {c}; and the last letter being doubled, it is with others interpreted "the best embracer" {d}; to which name his character and conduct agree; who, in the most tender manner, embraced the people of God, as parents their children, and comforted them with the assurance of their preservation, notwithstanding their captivity, and with the promise of the Messiah's coming; suggesting to them they should live by faith, to which he led them the way by his own example, Hab 1:12 Hab 2:3 but as this is placing him too early, to put him in the times of Elisha; so it is fixing him too late, to make him to be in the times of Daniel, and to feed him in the den of the lions, as Joseph ben Gorion {e}, and the author of the apocryphal book of Bel and the Dragon, say he did, which was after the Babylonish captivity was ended; whereas it is certain this prophet prophesied of it, and must have lived some time before it; for he speaks of the Chaldeans by name coming against the Jews, and carrying them captive, Hab 1:6. The learned Huetius {f}, and others, think there were two prophets of this name; one of the tribe of Simeon, who lived before the captivity; and another of the tribe of Levi, who lived after it. The Jewish chronologers {g} generally place this our prophet in the times of Manasseh; with which well enough agrees the description of the times the prophet lived in, given in Hab 1:2 though some think he lived in the latter times of Josiah {h}, or the beginning of Jehoiakim {i}; and it is probable he was a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah, with whom he agrees in many things, and prophesied of the same. However, there is no room to doubt of the authority of this book, being always received by the Jewish church, and agreeing with other parts of Scripture, and especially with the prophecies of Jeremiah; and may be further confirmed and established by the quotations out of it in the New Testament, as Hab 1:5 in Ac 13:41 and Hab 2:4 in Ro 1:17. The general design of the prophecy is to comfort the people of God under the afflictions that were coming upon them, and to encourage them to the exercise of faith and patience, in the hope and view of the coming of the Messiah. Pseudo Epiphanius {k} says that Habakkuk died two years before the people of the Jews returned from , and was honourably buried in his own native place, which he says was Bethsocher, in the tribe of Simeon. With whom Isidore {l} agrees, as to the time of his death; but the place of his birth, he says, was Bethacat; and of his death, Sabarta. Sozomen {m} reports, that, in the days of Theodosius, the grave of Habakkuk was found in Cele, formerly the city Ceila. So Eusebius says it was shown at Kela, eight miles from Eleutheropolis; though, in another place, he says it was to be seen at Gabbatha, twelve miles from the same place; which may be reconciled, by observing that it might be between them both, and be seen from each, since they were places near to each other {n}. But the Cippi Hebraici {o} say it was at a place called Jakuk in Galilee, not far from Sephetta, where was an academy of the Jews; and this seems to agree with what Sanderson, a countryman of ours, as quoted by Van Till {p}, observes; that in his journey from Damascus to Jerusalem, between Sephet and Chapherchittin, he found a village, in which, the Jews report, Habakkuk the prophet dwelt and died, the name of which is Jeakoke. But these things are not to be depended on.
{a} Zohar in Gen. fol. 6. 3. Vid. Shalshelet Hakabala, fol. 12. 2. {b} qwqbx "amplexus", Hillerus; "amplexatio", Hieronymus. {c} "Amplexans", ibid. {d} "Optimus amplexator", Tarnovius. {e} Hist. Heb. l. 1. c. 11. p. 35, 36. {f} Demonstr. Evangel. Prop. 4. p. 284, 301. {g} Seder Olam Rabba, p. 55. Seder Olam Zuta, p. 105. Tzemach David, fol. 15. 1. Juchasin, fol. 12. 2. {h} 's Scripture Chronology, p. 674. {i} Usher. Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3395. {k} De Prophet. Vit. & Interit. c. 18. {l} De Vit. & Mort. Sanct. c. 47. {m} Hist. Ecclesiast. l. 7. c. 29. {n} Vid. Reland. Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. p. 772. {o} P. 63. Ed. Hottinger. {p} Habakkuk Illustratus, p. 214.
INTRODUCTION TO HABAKKUK 1
In this chapter, after the inscription, in which are the title of the book, the name and character of the writer, Hab 1:1, there is a complaint made by the prophet of his cry not being heard, and of salvation being deferred, which was long expected, Hab 1:2 and of the wickedness of the times he lived in; of iniquity and trouble, rapine and oppression, in general; and particularly of corruption in courts of judicature, in which there were nothing but strife and contention, a dilatoriness in proceedings at law, and justice was stopped and suppressed, Hab 1:3 then follows an answer to this, showing that some sore judgment, amazing and incredible, would soon be executed for such sins, Hab 1:5 that the Chaldeans would be raised up and sent against the Jews, and spoil them, and carry them captive; who are described by the cruelty of their temper and disposition; by the swiftness and fierceness of their cavalry; and by their derision of kings, princes, and strong holds; and by their victories and success, which they should impute to their idols, Hab 1:6 and then the prophet, in the name of the church, expresses his faith that the people of God, and his interest, would be preserved, and not perish in this calamity; which is urged from the eternity, holiness, faithfulness, and power of God, and from his design in this affliction, which was correction, and not destruction, Hab 1:12 and the chapter is closed with an expostulation of the prophet with God, in consideration of his purity and holiness; how he could bear with such a wicked nation as the Chaldeans, and suffer them to devour men as fishes, in an arbitrary way, that have no ruler; catch them in their net, and insult them, and ascribe all to their own power and prudence, and think to go on continually in this way, Hab 1:13.
Ver. 1. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. This prophecy is called a "burden", or something took up and carried, being what the prophet received from the Lord, and went with to the people of the Jews, and was a heavy burdensome prophecy to them; declaring the calamities that should come upon them by the Chaldeans, who would invade their land, and carry them captive; and Habakkuk, that brought this account, is called a "prophet", to give the greater sanction to it; and it was what he had in vision from the Lord represented unto him, and therefore should be credited. Abarbinel inquires why Habakkuk should be called a prophet, when none of the lesser prophets are, excepting Haggai and Zechariah; and thinks the reason of it is, to give weight to his prophecy, since it might be suspected by some whether he was one; there being none of those phrases to be met with in this prophecy as in others, as "the word of the Lord came", &c. or "thus saith the Lord".
Habakkuk 1:2
Ver. 2. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!.... The prophet having long observed the sins and iniquities of the people among whom he lived, and being greatly distressed in his mind on account of them, had frequently and importunately cried unto the Lord to put a stop to the abounding of them, that the people might be brought to a sense of their sins, and reform from them; but nothing of this kind appearing, he concludes his prayers were not heard, and therefore expostulates with the Lord upon this head:
[even] cry unto thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save! either of violence done to himself in the discharge of his office, or of one man to another, of the rich to the poor; and yet, though he cried again and again to the Lord, to check this growing evil, and deliver the oppressed out of the hands of their oppressors, it was not done; which was matter of grief and trouble to him.
Habakkuk 1:3
Ver. 3. Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance?.... That is, wicked men, and such as give a great deal of trouble vexation, and grief to others, by their rapine and oppression; suggesting that he could not turn his eyes any where, but such persons presented themselves to his view; and that their wicked actions were performed by them openly and publicly, in the sight of all, without any shame or fear. So the Targum,
"why do I see oppressors, and behold those that do the labour of falsehood?''
For spoiling and violence [are] before me; in my sight and presence, though a prophet, and notwithstanding all my remonstrances, exhortations, and reproofs; such were the hardness, obstinacy, and impudence of this people; to such a height and pitch of iniquity were they arrived, as to regard not the prophets of the Lord. The Targum is,
"spoilers and robbers are before me:''
or, "against me" {q}, as in the text; these sins were committed against him, he was injuriously used himself; or they were done to others, contrary to his advice and persuasion:
and there are [that] raise up strife and contention; in the kingdom, in cities, in families; in one man, brother, friend, and neighbour, against another; which occasion lawsuits, and in them justice is not done, as follows. It may be rendered, and "there shall be [and] is [a man] of strife"; so Japhet: "and he shall raise up contention"; one man given to strife will and does use great contention in communities, civil and religious.
{q} ydgnl "contra me", Pagninus, Montanus; "e regione mei", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius.
Habakkuk 1:4
Ver. 4. Therefore the law is slacked,.... Is not put into execution against offenders: the civil magistrates, whose office it is to do justice according to law, are dilatory, and do not proceed with vigour and spirit against the transgressors of it, and in favour of honest and good men oppressed: or "it intermits" {r}, or is "intermitted"; it is like a man whose pulse beats low, and is scarce perceived, which is a sign that he is not in good health as the body politic is not, when the law, which is the soul of it, is not suffered to take place, and do its office. So the Targum,
"the law languishes;''
loses its force and vigour, and is ready to expire; which is a sad symptom of the bad estate of a commonwealth.
And judgment doth never go forth; at least not right, to the justifying of the righteous, acquitting the innocent, and giving the cause on the right side; condemning the wicked, and punishing offenders as their crime deserves: it never appears as it should do; it is either not done at all, or done badly and perversely:
for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; to hurt him or ensnare him, and by frauds and wicked artifices, and false witnesses, to carry a cause against him:
therefore wrong judgment proceedeth; the cause is given on the wrong side, against a good man, and for a wicked man; all these things the prophet saw with grief, and complained of to the Lord, from whom he has an answer in the following words:
{r} gwpt "intermittitur", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Burkius; gwp "est, animi deliquium pati", Tarnovius.
Habakkuk 1:5
Ver. 5. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard,.... This is the Lord's answer to the prophet's complaint, or what he directs him to say to the Jews, guilty of the crimes complained of, which should not go long unpunished; and who are called upon to look around them, and see what was doing among the nations; how the king of Babylon had overturned the Assyrian empire, and was going from place to place, subduing one nation after another, and their turn would be quickly: for these words are not addressed to the heathen, to stir them up to observe what was doing, or about to be done, to the Jews; but to the Jews themselves, to consider and regard the operations of the Lord, and the works of his providence among the nations of the earth. These words are differently rendered in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and which better agree with the quotation of them by the apostle, See Gill on "Ac 13:41":
and wonder marvellously; or "wonder, wonder" {s}; the word is repeated, to express the great admiration there would be found just reason for, on consideration of what was now doing in the world, and would be done, especially in Judea:
for [I] will work a work in your days, [which] ye will not believe, though it be told [you]; which was the destruction of the Jewish nation, city, and temple, by the Chaldeans, as is evident from the following words; and, though they were the instruments of it, it was the work of divine Providence; it was done according to the will of God, and by his direction, he giving success; and, being thus declared, was a certain thing, and might be depended on, nothing should hinder it; and it should be done speedily, in that generation, some then living should see it; though the thing was so amazing and incredible, that they would not believe it ever would be; partly because the Chaldeans were their good friends and allies, as they thought, as appears by Josiah's going out against the king of Egypt, when he was marching his army against the king of Babylon; and partly because they were the covenant people of God, and would never be abandoned and given up by him into the hands of another people; and therefore, when they were told of it by the prophets of the Lord, especially by Jeremiah, time after time; who expressly said the king of Babylon would come against them, and they would be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans; yet they would give no credit to it, till their ruin came upon them, as may be observed in various parts of his prophecy. The apostle quotes this passage in the place above mentioned, and applies it to the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, for their contemptuous rejection of the Messiah and his Gospel; which yet they would not believe to the last, though it was foretold by Christ and his apostles.
{s} whmt whmthw "et admiramini, admiramini", Vatablus, Drusius, Burkius.
Habakkuk 1:6
Ver. 6. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans,.... A people still of late mean and low, famous only for their soothsaying, divination, and judicial astrology; but now become a powerful and warlike people, rising up under the permission of Providence to universal monarchy, and who would quickly add Judea to the rest of their dominions:
[that] bitter and hasty nation; a cruel and merciless people in their temper and disposition: "bitter" against the people of God and true religion, and causing bitterness, calamities, and distress, wherever they came: "hasty" and precipitate in their determinations; swift and nimble in their motions; active and vigorous in the prosecution of their designs:
which shall march through the breadth of the land; or "breadths of the land" {t}; through the whole world, as they were attempting to do, having subdued Syria, all Asia, and great part of Africa, through which they boldly marched, bearing down all opposition that was in their way; or through the breadth of the land of Judea, taking all the fenced cities as they went along, and Jerusalem the metropolis of it; see Isa 8:7:
to possess the dwellingplaces [that are] not theirs; the cities of Judea, and houses in them, as well as the palaces and dwellingplaces in Jerusalem, which they had no right unto, but what they got by the sword; what were the legal possessions and inheritances of others from father to son for ages past, these the Chaldeans would dispossess them of; and not only take them, and the spoil and plunder of them, for the present, but retain them in their possession, as an inheritance to be transmitted to their posterity. This may have some respect to the length of the captivity of the Jews, and their land being in the hands of their enemies for the space of seventy years.
{t} Ura ybxrml "latitudines terrae", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Habakkuk 1:7
Ver. 7. They [are] terrible and dreadful,.... For the fierceness of their countenances; the number and valour of their troops; the splendour of their armour; the victories they had obtained, and the cruelty they had exercised; the fame of all which spread terror wherever they came:
their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves; they will not be directed and governed by any laws of God and man, but by their own; they will do according to their will and pleasure, and none will be able to gainsay and resist them; they will hear no reason or argument; their decrees and determinations they make of themselves shall be put into execution, and there will be no opposing their tyrannical measures; they will usurp a power, and take upon them an authority over others of themselves, which all must submit unto; no mercy and pity: no goodness and humanity, are to be expected from such lawless and imperious enemies.
Habakkuk 1:8
Ver. 8. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards,.... Creatures remarkable for their swiftness: these are creatures born of the mating of a he panther and a lioness, and not of a lion and a she panther, as some have affirmed; and which adultery is highly resented by the lion; nor will he suffer it to go unrevenged, as Pliny {u} and Philostratus {w} observe: those thus begotten differ from common lions in this, that they have no manes: the panthers are the creatures here meant, which are very swift, as Bochart {x} from various authors has observed. Lucan {y} calls this creature "celerem pardum", t"he swift panther"; and Jerom says {z} nothing is swifter than the panther; and Aelianus {a} observes that the panther, by the swiftness of its running, will overtake most creatures, and particularly apes; and Eustathius {b} confirms the same, saying that it exceeds other creatures in swiftness, and as it were flies before the eyes of hunters; and Osorius {c} relates, that the king of Portugal once sent to the pope of Rome a panther tamed, which being had into the woods a hunting by a Persian hunter, with wonderful swiftness leaped upon the boars and deer, and killed them at once; and the Septuagint version here is, "their horses will leap above the panthers": or exceed them in leaping, for which these panthers are very famous too: an Arabic writer {d}, whom Bochart mentions, says it will leap above forty cubits at a leap. Pliny {e} reports, that the panthers in Africa will get up into thick trees, and hide themselves in the branches, and leap from thence on those that pass by; and because of the swiftness of this creature, with other qualities of it, the third beast or Grecian monarchy, especially in its first head Alexander the great, is represented by it, Da 7:6 he making such a swift and rapid progress in his conquests; and yet the Chaldean horses would exceed them in swiftness, and be very speedy in their march into the land of Judea; and therefore it was in vain for the Jews to please themselves with the thoughts that these people were a great way off, and so they secure from them, when they could and would be upon them presently, ere they were aware:
and are more fierce than ravening wolves; which creatures are naturally fierce, and especially when they are hungry, and particularly at evening; when, having had no food all the day, their appetites are very keen, and they go in quest of their prey; and, when they meet with it, fall upon it with greater eagerness and fierceness. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, than the wolves of Arabia; that there are wolves very frequent in Arabia, is observed by Diodorus Siculus {f}, and Strabo {g}; but that these are remarkable for their fierceness does not appear; rather those in colder climates are more fierce; so Pliny {h} says, they are little and sluggish in Africa and Egypt, but rough and fierce in cold climates. It is, in the original text, "more sharp" {i}; which some interpret of the sharpness of their sight. Aelianus says {k}, it is a most quick and sharp sighted creature; and can see in the night season, even though the moon shines not: the reason of which Pliny {l} gives is, because the eyes of wolves are shining, and dart light; hence Aelianus {m} observes, that that time of the night in which the wolf only by nature enjoys the light is called wolf light; and that Homer {n} calls a night which has some glimmering of light, or a sort of twilight, such as the wolves can see themselves walk by, amfiluch nux, which is that light that precedes the rising sun; and he also observes that the wolf is sacred to the sun, and to Apollo, which are the same; and there was an image of one at Delphos; and so Macrobias {o} says, that the inhabitants of Lycopolis, a city of Thebais in Egypt, alike worship Apollo and a wolf, and in both the sun, because this animal takes and consumes all things like the sun; and, because perceiving much by the quick sight of its eyes, overcomes the darkness of the night; and observes, that some think they have their name from light, though they would have it be from the morning light; because those creatures especially observe that time for seizing on cattle, after a nights hunger, when before day light they are turned out of the stables into pasture; but it is for the most part at evening, and in the night, that wolves prowl about for their prey {p}; and from whence they have the name of evening wolves, to which the Chaldean horses are here compared: and yet there seems to be an antipathy between these, if what some naturalists {q} say is true; as that if a horse by chance treads in the footsteps of a wolf, a numbness will immediately seize it, yea, even its belly will burst; (This sounds like a fable. Ed.) and that, if the hip bone of a wolf is thrown under horses drawing a chariot full speed, and they tread upon it, they will stop and stand stone still, immovable: whether respect is here had to the quick sight or sharp hunger of these creatures is not easy to say; though rather, since the comparison of them is with horses, it seems to respect the fierceness of them, for which the war horse is famous,
Job 39:24 and may be better understood of the sharpness of the appetite of evening wolves, when hunger bitten:
and their horsemen shall spread themselves; or be multiplied, as the Targum; they shall be many, and spread themselves all over the country, so that there will be no escaping; all will fall into their hands:
and their horsemen shall come from far; as Chaldea was reckoned from Judea, and especially in comparison of neighbouring nations, who used to be troublesome, as Moab, Edom, &c. see Jer 5:15:
they shall flee as the eagle [that] hasteth to eat; those horsemen shall be so speedy in their march, that they shall seem rather to fly than ride, and even to fly as swift as the eagle, the swiftest of birds, and which itself flies swiftest when hungry, and in sight of its prey; and the rather this bird is mentioned, because used by many nations, as the Persians, and others, for a military sign {r}.
{u} Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 16. {w} De Vita Apollonii, l. 2. c. 7. {x} Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 7. col. 788. {y} Pharsalia, l. 6. {z} Comment. in Hos. v. 14. fol. 10. L. {a} Hist. Animal. l. 8. c. 6. {b} In Hexaemeron. {c} De Rebus Portugall. l. 9. apud Frantz. Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 1. 8. p. 90. {d} Damir apud Bochart, ut supra. (Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 7. col. 788.) {e} Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 73. {f} Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 177. {g} Geograph. l. 16. p. 534. {h} Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 22. {i} wdxw "et acuti erunt", Montanus, Cocceius; "et acutiores", Pagninus, Calvin, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Grotius; so Ben Melech; "et acuti sunt", Burkius. {k} De Animal. l. 10. c. 26. {l} Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37. {m} Ut supra. (De Animal. l. 10. c. 26.) {n} Iliad. 7. prope finem. {o} Saturnal. l. 1. c. 17. {p} "Vesper ubi e pastu vitulos ad tecta reducit, Auditisque lupos acuunt balatibus agni." Virgil. Georgic. l. 4. "Ac veluti pleno lupus insidiatus ovili Nocte super media-----", Ibid. Aeneid. l. 8. {q} Aelian. de Animal. l. 1. c. 36. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 28. c. 20. {r} Vid. Lydium de Re Militari, l. 3. c. 7. p. 87.
Habakkuk 1:9
Ver. 9. They shall come all for violence,.... Or, "the whole of it" {s}; the whole army of the Chaldeans, everyone of them; this would be their sole view, not to do themselves justice, as might be pretended, or avenge any injuries or affronts done to them by the Jews; but purely for the sake of spoil and plunder:
their faces shall sup up [as] the east wind: their countenances will appear so stern and fierce, that their very looks will so frighten, as to cause men to sink and die through terror; just as herbs and plants shrivel up and wither away, when blasted by a nipping east wind. So the Targum,
"the reception or look of their faces is like to a vehement east wind.''
Some render it,
"the look or design of their faces is to the east {t};''
when the Chaldeans were on their march to Judea, their faces were to the west or south west; but then their desire and views were, that when they had got the spoil they came for, as in the preceding clause, to carry it to Babylon, which lay eastward or north east of Judea, and thither their faces looked:
and they shall gather the captivity as the sand; or gather up persons, both in Judea, and in other countries conquered by them, as innumerable as the sand of the sea, and carry them captive into their own land. Captivity is put for captives.
{s} hlk "illa teta", Junius & Tremellius; "sub. gens", Pagninus, Piscator; "totus exercitus", Vatablus; "populus", Calvin. {t} hmydq "ad orientem", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "orientem versus", Junius & Tremellius, De Dieu, Burkius; so Abarbinel.
Habakkuk 1:10
Ver. 10. And they shall scoff at the kings,.... Or, "he shall" {u}, Nebuchadnezzar king of the Chaldeans, and the army with him; who would make a jest of kings and their armies that should oppose them, as being not at all a match for them; as the kings of Judah, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, they carried captive, and all others confederate with them, in whom they trusted, as the king of Egypt particularly; and which is observed to show the vanity of trusting in princes for safety; though it may also include all other kings the Chaldeans fought against, and the kingdoms they invaded and subdued:
and the princes shall be a scorn unto them; the nobles, counsellors, and ministers of state; or leaders and commanders of armies, and general officers, in whom great confidence is often put; but these the king of Babylon and his forces would mock and laugh at, as being nothing in their hands, and who would fall an easy prey to them:
they shall deride every strong hold; in Jerusalem, in the whole land of Judea, and in every other country they invade, or pass through, none being able to stand out against them:
for they shall heap dust, and take it; easily, as it were in sport, only by raising a dust heap, or a heap of dirt; by which is meant a mount raised up to give them a little rise, to throw in their darts or stones, or use their engines and battering rams to more advantage, and to scale the walls, and get possession. There are two other senses mentioned by Kimchi; as that they shall gather a great number of people as dust, and take it; or they shall gather dust to till up the trenches and ditches about the wall, that so they may come at it, and take it.
{u} awhw "et ipse", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Tarnovius, Grotius, Cocceius.
Habakkuk 1:11
Ver. 11. Then shall [his] mind change,.... The mind of the king of Babylon; not that, when he had taken Jerusalem, he altered his purpose, and laid aside his designs of attacking other nations, and returned to his own country; where he became guilty of gross idolatry, in setting up the golden image in the plain of Dura, which he required all his subjects to worship, and to which he ascribed all his victories; for, five years after this, Josephus {w} says, he led his army into Coelesyria, and conquered the Moabites and Ammonites, and entered Egypt, and slew the reigning king of it: but rather the disposition of his mind changed for the worse upon his success in subduing kings and princes, and their kingdoms; for though his mind was never good, but always proud, haughty, and ambitious, insolent, cruel, and tyrannical; yet, being flushed with his conquests, he grew more and more so:
and he shall pass over {x}, or "transgress", all bounds of modesty and sobriety, of humanity and goodness:
and offend, [imputing] this his power unto his god {y}; this particularly will be the sin he will be guilty of, he will ascribe all his achievements to his idol Bel; or rather to himself, to his own prowess and valour, his wisdom and skill in military affairs; for so it will bear to be rendered, making "this his own power to be his god"; and perhaps the golden image Nebuchadnezzar set up to be worshipped was for himself; see Da 4:30. The Targum is,
"therefore, because of the lifting up of his spirit, his kingdom was removed from him; and he committed an offence, in that he multiplied glory to his idol;''
and some interpret the whole of this of the miserable condition Nebuchadnezzar was brought into, being a prophecy of it: "then shall his mind change"; his heart from man's to a beast's, Da 4:16: "and he shall pass over"; from all society and conversation with men, and have his dwelling with beasts, Da 4:31: "and offend", or rather "be punished", and become desolate and miserable, for his pride, and idolatry, and other sins: "this his power" is "his god" {z}; spoken ironically; see what his power is now, being changed into a beast, which he reckoned his god, or gloried in as what he had from his god: but I rather think the whole is a continuation of his success, particularly in the land of Judea; and to be rendered, "then shall he pass through, as the wind, and shall pass over; and he shall bear the punishment of his sin, whose power is his god"; that is, the king of Babylon and his army, the Chaldeans, should pass through all nations and kingdoms that were between them and Judea, like a strong wind or whirlwind, to which they are compared, Jer 4:13 and carry all before them, none being able to resist and oppose them; and should pass over rivers that lay in their way, and the boundaries of Judea, and spread themselves over the whole country; and then that country, and the inhabitants of it, should be punished for their sins, particularly for their confidence in themselves; in their wealth and riches; in their fortresses and strong towers; in their own works of righteousness; all which they made idols of, and trusted not in their God, as they ought to have done.
{w} Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7. {x} rbey "transgredietur", Pagninus, Vatablus, Calvin, Drusius, Tarnovius. {y} whwlal wxwk wz "iste est, ejus robur fuit pro deo ejus", Gussetius. {z} "Tune immutatus est spiritu, et transiit et desolatus est, hoc robur ejus est dei ejus", De Dieu.
Habakkuk 1:12
Ver. 12. [Art] thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine holy One? .... The prophet, foreseeing these calamities coming upon his nation and people, observes some things for their comfort in this verse; and expostulates with God in the following verses Hab 1:13 about his providential dealings, in order to obtain an answer from him, which might remove the objections of his own mind, and those of other good men he personates, raised against them; being stumbled at this, that wicked men should be suffered to succeed and prosper, and the righteous should be afflicted and distressed by them: but for his own present consolation, and that of others, in a view of the worst that should befall them, he strongly asserts,
we shall not die; meaning not a corporeal death, for that all men die, good and bad; and this the Jews did die, and no doubt good men among them too, at the siege and taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army, either by famine, or pestilence, or sword: nor a death of affliction, which the people of God are subject to, as well as others; is often their case, and is for their good, and in love, and not wrath: but a spiritual death, which none that are quickened by the Spirit and grace of God ever die; though grace may be low, it is never lost; though saints may be in dead and lifeless frames, and need quickening afresh, yet they are not without the principle of spiritual life; grace in them is a well of living water, springing up to everlasting life; their spiritual life can never fail them, since it is secured in Christ: and much less shall they die the second, or an eternal death; they are ordained to eternal life; Christ is come, and given his flesh for it, that they might have it; it is in his hands for them; they are united to him, and have both the promise and pledge of it: and this may be argued, as by the prophet here, from the eternity of God, art "thou not from everlasting?" he is from everlasting to everlasting, the Ancient of days, that inhabits eternity, is, was, and is to come: therefore "we shall not die"; none of his people shall perish, because he loves them with an everlasting love; has made an everlasting choice of them; has set up Christ from everlasting as their surety and Saviour; entered into an everlasting covenant with them in Christ; is their everlasting Father, and will be their everlasting portion; is the unchangeable Jehovah, and therefore they shall not be consumed: this may be concluded from their covenant interest in God, "O Lord my God"; they are his peculiar people, given to Christ to be preserved by him, and covenant interest always continues; he that is their God is their God and guide unto death: and also from the holiness of God, "mine holy One"; who has sworn by his holiness to them, and is faithful to his covenant and promise; and is the sanctifier of them, that has sanctified or set them apart for himself; made Christ sanctification to them, and makes them holy by his Spirit and grace, and enables them to persevere in grace and holiness: moreover, this may be understood of the people of the Jews, as a church and nation; who, though they would be carried captive into Babylon, yet would still continue as such, and be returned again as such, and not die, sink, and perish; since the Messiah was to spring from them; and they might be assured of their preservation for that purpose, from the perfections of God, his covenant with them, and their relation to him: nor shall the church of Christ in any age die and perish, though in ever so low a state; a particular church may, but the interest and church of Christ in general, or his spiritual seed, never shall. This is one of the eighteen passages, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech observe, called "Tikkun-Sopherim", the correction of the scribes, of Ezra, and his company; it having been written, in some copies, "thou shall not die" {a}; asserting the immortality of God, or his eternity to come; and that, as he was from everlasting, so he should continue to everlasting; and to this sense the Targum paraphrases the words,
"thy Word remaineth for ever;''
and so the Syriac version follows the same reading:
O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment: that is, the Chaldeans; either to be judged and punished themselves for their sins, as all wicked Christless sinners are, even righteously foreordained to condemnation for their sins; or rather to be the instruments of punishing the wicked among the Jews; for this purpose were these people ordained in the counsels of God, and raised up in his providence, and constituted a kingdom, and made a powerful nation:
O mighty God; or "rock" {b}; the rock and refuge of his people:
thou hast established them for correction; or "founded" {c} them, and settled them as a monarchy, strong and mighty for this end, that they might be a rod in the hand of the Lord, not for destruction, but for correction and chastisement; and from hence it might be also comfortably concluded that they should not die and utterly perish.
{a} twmt al "non morieris", Vatablus, Drusius, Grotius. {b} rwu "O rupes", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Van Till; "O ", Drusius. {c} wtdoy "fundasti eum", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceius, Van Till; "constituisti", Vatablus.
Habakkuk 1:13
Ver. 13. [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity,.... The Lord with his eyes of omniscience beholds all things good and evil, and all men good and bad, with all their actions; but then he does not look upon the sins of men with pleasure and approbation; since they are contrary to his nature, repugnant to his will, and breaches of his righteous law: and though sin in general may be included here, yet there seems to be a particular respect had to the "evil" or injury done by the Chaldeans to the Jews, in invading their land, spoiling their substance, and slaying their persons; and to the "iniquity", labour, or grievance, by which may be meant the oppression and violence the same people exercised upon the inhabitants of Judea; which, though permitted by the Lord, could not be well pleasing in his sight. The Targum interprets it of persons, workers of evil, and workers of the labour of falsehood; see Ps 5:4:
wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously; the Chaldeans, who dealt treacherously with God, by worshipping idols; and with the Jews, pretending to be their good friends and allies, when they meditated their ruin and destruction; and yet the Lord in his providence seemed to look favourably on these perfidious persons, since they succeeded in all their enterprises: this was stumbling to the prophet, and all good men; and they knew not how, or at least found great difficulty, to reconcile this to the purity and holiness of God, and to his justice and faithfulness; see Jer 12:1:
and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth [the man that is] more righteous than he? the comparison does not lie so much personally between Nebuchadnezzar and Zedekiah the last king of the Jews, whose eyes the king of Babylon put out, and whom he used in a cruel manner; who was, no doubt, comparatively speaking, a more righteous person than the Chaldean monarch was; being not the worst of the kings of Judea, and whose name has the signification of righteousness in it: but rather between the Chaldeans and the Jews; who, though there were many wicked persons among them, yet there were some truly righteous, who fell in the common calamity; and, as to the bulk of them, were a more righteous people, at the worst, than their enemies were, who devoured them, destroyed many with the sword, plundered them of their substance, and carried them captive; and the Lord was silent all this while, said nothing in his providence against them, put no stop to their proceedings; and by his silence seemed to approve of, at least to connive at, what they did; and this the prophet in the name of good men reasons with the Lord about.
Habakkuk 1:14
Ver. 14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea,.... That is, sufferest them to be used as the fishes of the sea, which are easily taken in the net, and are common to everyone; whosoever will may take them up, and kill them, and use them for their food; and which also among themselves are often hardly used, the lesser being devoured by the greater; and in like manner the prophet suggests, that the people of the Jews, who were men made after the image of God, and made for society and usefulness, and moreover were God's covenant people; and it might have been expected, that a more special providence would have attended them, more than other men, and especially than what attended the fishes of the sea; yet it looked as if there were no more care taken of them than of these:
as the creeping things [that have] no ruler over them; not the creeping things of the earth, but of the water, the lesser sort of fishes that move in the water; or those that more properly creep, as crabs, prawns, and shrimps; see Ps 104:25 who have none to protect and defend them, and restrain others from taking and hurting them: this may seem contrary to what Aristotle {d} and Pliny {e} say of some fishes, that they go in company, and have a leader or governor; but, as Bochart {f} observes, it is one thing to be a leader of the way, a guide and director, which way to steer their course in swimming; and another thing to be as the general of an army, to protect and defend, or under whose directions they might defend themselves; such an one the prophet denies they had: and so, the prophet complains, this was the case of the Jews; they were exposed to the cruelty of their enemies, as if there was no God that governed in the world, and no providence to direct and order things for the preservation of men, and to keep good men from being hurt by evil men; or those that were weak and feeble from being oppressed by the powerful and mighty; this he reasons with the Lord about, and was desirous of an answer to it.
{d} Hist. Animal. l. 8. c. 13. {e} Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 15. {f} Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 1. c. 6. col. 39.
Habakkuk 1:15
Ver. 15. They take up all of them with the angle,.... The prophet continues the metaphor of fishing, and observes the different ways of taking fish; which is to be applied to the case he is speaking of: as fishermen take all they can with their angles, so "they" or "he", for it is in the singular number, Nebuchadnezzar and his army, take up all out of the sea of the world; are ambitious of getting all kingdoms and nations of the world under their power and dominion; particularly all Judea, and all the inhabitants of it, good and bad, without any distinction; for all were fish which came to their net: this may design the artful and alluring methods they first made use of to get the people into their hands, by making covenants with them, and drawing them into making of presents, and paying of tribute:
they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; with the angle the fisherman catches fish one by one, but with the net great numbers; and what he misses by throwing the net, he gets by using the drag; all which may be expressive of the ways and methods used by the king of Babylon and his army, both in the times of Jeconiah, and of Zedekiah; under the former he used the net, and carried off large numbers, and with them the royal family and great substance, but left many behind; under the latter he came and swept away all, drained the land of its riches and its inhabitants:
therefore they rejoice and are glad; as fishermen do when they have good sport; so these people rejoiced in their own success, and in the calamities of their neighbours.
Habakkuk 1:16
Ver. 16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag,.... Either to their idols, to fortune and the stars, as Aben Ezra; imagining they gave them success, and prospered them in the arts and methods they used: or to their arms, as the Targum; nor was it unusual with the Heathens to worship their spears, sacrifice to them, and swear by them {g}. So Justin says {h}, originally the ancients worshipped spears for gods, in memory of whose religion spears are still added to the images of the gods. Lucian {i} asserts that the Scythians sacrificed to a scimitar; and Arnobius {k} says the same; and Ammianus Marcellinus {l} reports, that the Quadi worship their swords or daggers instead of gods; and that it was usual to swear by the spear is evident from others {m}. Or else the sense is, they sacrificed to their own valour and courage, skill and conduct.
Because by them their portion [is] fat, and their meat plenteous: that is, by their angle, net, and drag; or by those things signified by them, the arts and methods they used to subdue nations, conquer kingdoms, and bring them into subjection to them; they enlarged their dominions, increased their riches and revenues, and had plenty of everything that was desirable for food and raiment, for pleasure and profit; or to gratify the most unbounded ambition, having everything that heart could wish for and desire: the allusion is to making sumptuous feasts, and rich banquets, on occasion of victories obtained.
{g} Vid. Doughtaei Analect. Sacra, p. 494, 495. {h} E Trogo, l. 43. c. 3, 4. {i} In Jupiter Tragoedus. {k} Adv. Gentes, l. 6. p. 232. {l} Hist. l. 17. {m} omnusi d'ouicmhn, Aeschylus.
Habakkuk 1:17
Ver. 17. Shall they therefore empty their net,.... Or "thus", after this manner, so Noldius; as fishermen do, when they have had a good cast, and a large draught, spread the net, and take out the fishes, in order to throw it again, and catch more; and so it is asked, should these Chaldeans, when they have conquered one nation, and so filled their net or themselves with the spoil, carry it to Babylon, and there lay it up, and then proceed to fight against another kingdom and nation, and plunder it in like manner?
and not spare continually to slay the nations? the inhabitants of them one after another, and subdue them under them, and make themselves master of all their treasure, until they are arrived to universal monarchy by such cruel and unmerciful methods. The Targum is,
"shall he send his armies continually to consume nations, and that without mercy?''
This the prophet proposes in the name of the whole body of the Lord's people, and leaves it with him to have an answer to it, which is given in the following chapter Hab 2:1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
The servants of the Lord are deeply afflicted by
seeing ungodliness and violence prevail; especially among those
who profess the truth. No man scrupled doing wrong to his
neighbour. We should long to remove to the world where holiness
and love reign for ever, and no violence shall be before us. God has
good reasons for his long-suffering towards bad men, and the
rebukes of good men. The day will come when the cry of sin will be
heard against those that do wrong, and the cry of prayer for those
that suffer wrong. They were to notice what was going forward
among the heathen by the Chaldeans, and to consider themselves
a nation to be scourged by them. But most men presume on
continued prosperity, or that calamities will not come in their days.
They are a bitter and hasty nation, fierce, cruel, and bearing down
all before them. They shall overcome all that oppose them. But it is
a great offence, and the common offence of proud people, to take
glory to themselves. The closing words give a glimpse of
comfort.
The servants of the Lord are deeply afflicted by
seeing ungodliness and violence prevail; especially among those
who profess the truth. No man scrupled doing wrong to his
neighbour.
But it is
a great offence, and the common offence of proud people, to take
glory to themselves. The closing words give a glimpse of
comfort.
Sources: Matthew Henry; Gill's Exposition; Matthew Henry Concise
Commentary
Commentary