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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1 The burden, which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 How long, Jehovah, do I cry?
And thou hearest not?
I cry to thee, Violence,
And thou helpest not.
3 Why dost thou let me see wickedness?
And [why] dost thou look upon distress?
Oppression and violence are before me;
And there is strife, and contention exalts itself.
4 Therefore the law is slack;
Justice no more goes forth;
For the wicked compass about the righteous;
Therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5 Look among the nations and see!
And be ye amazed, be amazed;
For I am about to work a work in your days:
Ye will not believe it, though it were told.
6 For behold! I am about to raise up the Chaldæans,
That bitter and impetuous nation,
Which marches over the breadths of the earth,
To take possession of dwelling-places, that do not belong to it.
7 It is terrible and dreadful:
Its right and its eminence proceed from itself.
8 And swifter than leopards are its horses,
And speedier than the evening wolves:
Its horsemen spring proudly along,
And its horsemen come from afar:
They fly like an eagle hastening to devour.
9 It comes wholly for violence:
The host of their faces is forward;
And it collects captives like the sand.
10 And it scoffs at kings;
And princes are a laughter to it:
It laughs at every stronghold,
And heaps up earth and takes it.
11 Then its spirit revives,
And it passes on and contracts guilt:
This its strength is its god.
The “vision” of Isaiah (chap. 1. Hab_1:1) embraces threatenings, complaints, consolatory addresses, and symbolical actions. There is just as little ground to deny that the heading proceeds from the prophet himself, as there is in regard to the subscription (Hab_3:19), in which the prophet speaks of himself in the first person. Accordingly it is a general, and that of chap. 3 a special heading.
[Keil: “Hab_1:1 contains the heading, not only to chap 1 and 2, but the whole book, of which chap. 3. forms an integral part. On the special heading in chap. 3 Hab_1:1, see the commentary on the verse. The prophet calls his writing a massâ, or burden (see at Nah_1:1), because it nation and the imperial power.”—C. E.]
First Dialogue. Hab_1:2-11. In this conversation, as in the concluding passages of Micah, the function of the prophet is exhibited on two sides. He speaks, first, in the name of the true Israel, as an advocate of righteousness (comp. on Mic_7:1); then in the name of God. Hence the discourse takes the from of a dialogue, and is divided into two parts.
I. The Complaint. The prophet in the name of righteousness accuses the people of sin (Hab_1:2-4).
II. The Answer. God points to the scourge, by which this sin is to be punished (Hab_1:1-5).
Hab_1:2-4. The Complaint. Parallel with Micah 7, the prophet begins with the description of the wretched condition of the country, which urgently calls for judgment. That he is not yet speaking of the violent deeds of the Chaldæans (Rosenmüller, Ewald, Maurer), but of the condition of Judah itself is evident from the analogy of the language to the descriptions of other prophets, as well as from the fact that the calamity to be inflicted by the Chaldæans (Hab_1:5 ff.) is described as a future one, at present past all belief (comp. Hab_1:13). How long, properly until when, Jehovah,—thou covenant God, who hearest those that call [upon Thee] and art angry with the wicked,—do I cry, and thou hearest not;—cry to thee, violence,—and thou helpest not? Châmâs is not acc. modi, but objecti: a customary form of expression (comp. Jer_20:8, and Job_19:7). We have the same construction in our [the German] language. The tone is that of complaint, common also in the Psalms, with a gentle sound of reproach (Psa_22:2 ff; Psa_88:15 ff.), such as only the ideal congregation, which sees in actual sin an injury done to its vocation [ihrer Bestimmung, that for which a thing is designed—C. E.] can raise, but not the individual fellow-sinner and accomplice in guilt.
Hab_1:3. Why (thus the prophet assigns a reason for his calling and crying) dost thou let me see iniquity, and lookest thou upon perverseness inactively? Sc., since at least thou, as the Holy One, will not look upon it in Israel, and since, according to thy Word (Num_23:21). thy congregation are to remain free from it? òîì and àåï convey interchangeable ideas (comp. Hupf. on Psa_7:15); and the neuter öîì , which in itself may signify also distress (Bäumlein, Keil), receives here by means of the parallel àåï the meaning of mischief. [ àָåֵï , R. àåּï , signifies (1) nothingness, vanity; (2) nothingness of words, i.e., falsehood, deceit; (3) nothingness as to worth, unworthiness, wickedness, iniquity. òָîָì from òָîַì , to labor, signifies, (1) labor, toil; (2) fruit of labor; (3) trouble, vexation, sorrow. Gesenius, Lex.—C. E.]
Oppression and violence are before my eyes; and strife arises, and contention exalts itself. Where the powers are unequal there is oppression: where they are equal, the strife of hearts and tongues results in fighting with hands. To this description of the leading characteristics of a social disorder the question, “Why does He permit it to happen?” is to be supplied in thought from a [first clause of the verse.—C. E.]. éִùָֹּà is intransitive, as in Nah_1:5; Psa_89:10.
Hab_1:4. Therefore, because thou dost not look into and restrain it, the law, “which was intended to be the soul and heart of the common political life” (Delitzsch), is slack. This is shown particularly (comp. Mic_3:1 ff.) in the chief pillar of the public life, the administration of justice: Yea a righteous sentence never comes forth. So it should be translated, if we understand ðöç according to the customary usage of the language; ìà ðöç , i. e., not to perpetuity, not forever, i. e. never (Isa_13:20, Delitzsch, Keil). But, as the adjunct îò÷ì , in the following part of the verse shows îùׁôè means also here, as it does frequently, not materially a righteous judgment, but formally a legal sentence in general (Hos_10:4). ìðöç must consequently be uttered with emphasis; and the clause, “the sentence goes forth” ìà ìðöç , should form an antithesis to the clause, “the sentence goes forth perverted to injustice.” To ðöç , therefore, the signification of truth, justice, is required to be given (comp. ìàîú Isa_42:3; Jer_5:3). And this signification is possible. For the usual meaning perpetuity, stability, is not primitive, but has its inner ground in the fact that internal solidity is necessary to continuance; and this is undoubtedly evident from Pro_21:28, though one may grant to Delitzsch, that the signification, forever (better to perpetuity), is not to be given up even in this passage. The connection of the meanings, and the transition from the concrete to the abstract are the same as in öִø÷ . Compare also 1 Sara. 15:29, where God, as He who cannot lie, is called ðöç éùׂøàì , and Lam_3:18. Schultens has verified this meaning from the Arabic, Animadvv., p. 515. Therefore [read]: The sentence [or judgment] does not go forth according to truth, so that it may have stability. Similarly, Hitzig, Bäumlein.
For the wicked man (to be understood collectively) surrounds [in a hostile sense—C. E.] the righteous man: to a whole circle of wicked men there is but one righteous, so that right bows under superior power (comp. Mic_7:3): therefore judgment goes forth perverted. [Keil: Mishpat is not merely a righteous verdict, however; in which case the meaning would be: There is no more any righteous verdict given, but a righteous state of things, objective right in the civil and political life.—C. E.]
Hab_1:5-11. Jehovah’s Answer [to the preceding complaint—C. E]. The scourge is already prepared; and that a terrible one. Look around among the nations and see. øָàָç áְּ does not mean here, to look with delight, as it does in other places: the á , moreover, does not enter simply into construction with the object, but it is local. Already has the storm burst forth among the nations, which also will overtake the secure sinners of Israel. And be astonished! astonished! The emphasis of the benumbing astonishment is expressed by the verb repeated in two conjugations (comp. Zep_2:1; Ewald, sec. 313 c). The reason for both the summons to look round and for the stupefying consternation following it is indicated by the following ëé : for a work works, is carried into effect (comp. ῆäç ἐíåñãåῖôáé 2Th_2:7), in your days: ye would not believe it, if it were told to you, it so far exceeds everything that can be imagined and expected. In order to transfer the emphasis entirely to the dreadful word, the speaker keeps back the author, and makes ôòֵì apparently neuter: the impellent force is in the work itself (Eze_1:20). [Keil: The participle ôֹòֵì denotes that which is immediately at hand, and is used absolutely, without a pronoun: According to Hab_1:6, àִַðִé is the pronoun we have to supply. For it is not practicable to supply äåּà , or to take the participle in the sense of the third person, since God, when speaking to the people, cannot speak of himself in the third person, and even in that case éäåָåָֹä could not be omitted. Hitzig’s idea is still more untenable, namely, that pô‘al is the subject, and that põ‘él is used in an intransitive sense: the work produces its effect. We must assume, as Delitzsch does, that there is a proleptical ellipsis, i. e., one in which the word immediately following is omitted (as in Isa_48:11; Zec_9:17). The admissibility of this assumption is justified by the fact that there are other cases in which the participle is used and the pronoun omitted; and that not merely the pronoun of the third person (e. g., Isa_2:11; Jer_38:23), but that of the second person also (1Sa_2:24; 1Sa_6:3; and Psa_7:10).—C. E.]
Hab_1:6 first mentions the doer: For behold, I, the Lord, bring up [am about to raise up—C. E.] the Chaldæans. [See Lenormant and Chevallier, vol. 1 p. 472; also Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. 1 p. 58, and vol. 2 pp. 497, 505.—C. E.]. The expression áéîéëí , and still more the immediately following description of the enemies themselves; point to the fact that they had already appeared in history. But that they are to appear in the history of Israel and come to execute judgment upon Judah for his sins, is, as the expression ( äִðְðִé with the part.) shows, still in the future. And indeed the rapidity with which Babylon, which had just become independent, rose from being a city subject to Assyria to be the ruler of Asia, has something incredible. The nation, at whose head Nebuchadnezzar accomplished this sudden conquest, and whose great monarchy took the place of the Assyrian, is called in the Old Testament Casdim; and this designation stands, in the O. T., in the same reciprocal relation to Babylon, that Israel does to Jerusalem. The name Casdim, which, with the change of the second radical, has been preserved to this day in the name Kurds, and which appears in the Classics in the appellations Chalybes (II., ii. 856; comp. Strabo, xii. 545), Chaldi (Steph. Byz., s. v. ×áëäéá ) or Chaldæans (Ptolemæus, Strabo, Plinius, comp. Winer s. v. “Chaldäer,” Ewald, Hist. Isr., 1:333), Carduchi, or Gardyæi, belongs, according to the O. T. and the Classics to a tribe spread over the whole country between the Tigris and Pontus. Already in Jer_5:15 the same people are designated as a very ancient one; and as early as Gen_11:28 the country of Mesopotamia is called after them Ur [Ur of the Chaldees], so that it is more than doubtful whether Chesed (Gen_22:22), the nephew of Abraham, is to be considered their ancestor. If the conjecture of Ewald, Knobel, Dietrich, is correct that a reference to the name ëùׂã already exists in Arphaxad [ àøôëùׁã ] Gen_10:22) then this circumstance would doubtless refer the name to a time beyond that of Abraham. Oppert (Deutsch.-morgenl. Zeitschr., German-Oriental Journal, 11:137) has proved, that the word Cas-dim is Tataric, and signifies, as well as Mesopotamia, two rivers; and (the correctness of the translation being presupposed) it is legitimately inferred from this fact that the name probably designates the aboriginal Tataric population between the Euphrates and Tigris. (It harmonizes well with this etymology, according to which Casdim is plural only in sound but not in original signification, that the name appears in the O. T. only as plur. tantum; that Casdim as an actual plural form would be abnormally formed; that the regular plural form ëַùְׂãִּééִí occurs only once in later Hebrew (Eze_23:14, Cthibh), and the reconstructed singular form ëùׂãé only in the Aramaic of Daniel. [The opinion] that the aboriginal population of that district was, in fact, not of a Semitic, but of a Tataric stock, appears, at present, to be subjected no longer to any opposition. (Comp. Brandis, art. “Assyria” in Pauly’s Realencyklopädie.) [On the early history of the Chaldæans and their Turanian origin, see Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. 1. pp. 247, 248, 245, 533.—C. E.] Certainly opposed to this view is the assumption of the great majority of exegetes that the primitive abode of the Casdim was the Armenian mountain land, where, according to Xenophon, a brave and freedomloving people of the Chaldæan stock dwelt, and where the Kurds still live, and that the Assyrians first settled them in the plain of Babylon, according to Hitzig in the year 625. This assumption, however, has, on closer examination, no broader foundation than a false, at the least a questionable interpretation of the obscure passage, Isa_23:13 : it is for that reason to be set aside. The present passage is the locus classicus for the characteristics of this warlike people, just as Isa_5:26 ff. is for the characteristics of the Assyrians. They are called the people, the bitter, i. e., ferocious (comp. Amarus, Cic. Att., 14, 21, and îø ðôùׁ , Jdg_18:25) and the impetuous, properly hurrying on (Isa_32:4), rushing on precipitately—the conformity of sound of the two adjectives has something terribly graphic—which marches along [Keil: ì is not used here to denote the direction, or the goal, but the space, as in Gen_13:17 (Hitzig, Delitzsch)—C. E.] the breadths of the earth, which passes through the land in its whole extent (Jdg_8:8; Rev_20:9): to take possession of dwelling places that are not its own (comp. Hab_2:6).
Hab_1:7. Carries out the idea of the “bitter;” and Hab_1:8, that of the “impetuous,” in Hab_1:6. It is terrible and fearful; from it—not from God (Psa_17:1)—proceed its right and eminence: in sovereign vain-glory it revived the old character of Babylon (Gen_11:4; comp. Isa_14:13), put its own statutes in the place of the jura divina, and consequently entered despotically into the place of the world-power, which is at strife with God. ùׂàú , an eminence, which rests upon inflated pride ( ðùׂà , Hos_13:1), in contrast with the ëִּáåø , which is bestowed by God. [Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. 3 pp. 10, 11.—C. E.]
Hab_1:8. And fleeter than leopards, whose swiftness in catching the prey is proverbial, are its horses (Jeremiah employs in the same comparison the figure of the eagle, Jer_4:13); yea they are swifter than evening wolves (Zep_3:3; comp. Psa_59:7; Psa_59:15). The battle is to them, what the seizing of the prey is to a ravenous beast,—a savage delight, to which they hasten with impatience (Job_39:20 f.). And its horsemen rush along (there is here also a graphic conformity of sound in the words); yea its horsemen eome from afar, they fly like the eagle, which hastens to devour. [Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. 3 pp. 10, 11.—C. E.] They come to fulfill the curse (Deu_28:49), to the words of which the prophet alludes.
This thought is further carried out in Hab_1:9. All its multitude—the suffix ä , contracted from Îָäåּ is archaic, as in Gen_49:11—comes for deeds of violence, for the object is to inflict judgment for violence (Hab_1:2). The eagerness (in this sense the ἁð . ëåã . îâîּä , occurs in the Rabbins, Kimchi on Psa_27:8) of their faces urges forward. ÷ָãִéîָä , also in Eze_11:1; Eze_45:7, for ÷ִøְîָä (Gen_25:6). And it gathers prisoners together like dust (comp. Gen_41:49; Hos_2:9).
Hab_1:10. Forms a fit sequel to the description of the autocratic power in Hab_1:7 : and it scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to it, for, 10 b, 11 a, it has the power to overcome every resistance: it laughs at every stronghold, and heaps up dust and takes it.
Hab_1:11. Then it turns a tempest [Ges.: then his spirit revives—C. E.] and passes on. To mark the little anxiety, which the haughty enemy bestows upon the capture, the approaches are called òôø , heaped up dust, instead of the usual ñֹìְìָä (2Sa_10:15, and above). The fem. suff. in éìëøäּ , receives from the mas. îáöø , fortress, the idea of a city [ òéø , which is fem.—C. E.] çìóּ nowhere means revirescit, not ever in Psa_90:5, but it signifies a speedy gliding away, turning away (Job_9:11; Psa_102:27), and unites, without violence, with òáø in expressing one idea. [See note 8 on Hab_1:11—C. E.] øåּç is placed between as an appositional comparison (comp. Isa_21:8 : and he cried, a lion, i. e., with a lion’s voice); there lies, indeed, in this apposition the threefold relative comparison of the revolving whirlwind, of rushing speed, and of demolishing power. A more descriptive expression of the astonishment at the invincible power of the Babylonian, who, immediately after the overthrow of Nineveh, marched against Necho, cannot be imagined. With a lofty elevation the prophet, 11 b, sets at naught this surging flood, and announces against the irresistible autocratic insolence of the enemy the unalterable decree of the Divine government [Governor] of the world, which, as in Micah and Nahum, concludes the description [of this haughty enemy—C. E.] with crushing effect: But he is guilty, and consequently incurs the Divine penalty, whose power is his God. That the accentuation incorrectly connects the verb àùׁí with the first half of the verse, which, according to the sense, should be included in one verse with 10 b, is plain; for the immediate coördination of the verbs éòáåø and àùׁí , though retained by the exegetes, is certainly excluded by the dissimilar conjunctions ( åְ , åַּ ). [ åַéַּֽòáֹø has vav conversive of the future; and àָùֵׁí has vav conversive of the preterite—C. E.] [Other translations: LXX.: Êáὶ äéåëåýóåôáé êáὶ ἐîéëÜóåôáé áὕôç ἡ ἰó÷ὺò ôῷ èåῷ ìïõ Vulg.: “Et pertransibit et corruet; hœc. est fortitude ejus dei sui.” Drusius: “Et transgredietur et delinquet, hanc vim suam Deo suo (tribuens).” J. H. Michaelis: “Et reum se faciet (dicens): hanc potentiam suam deberi Deo suo;” or: “Et turn luel (impius Judæus), cujus vis sua fuit pro Deo suo.” Hitzig, Maurer: “And he loads himself with guilt; he, whose power becomes his god.” Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, Keil: “He passes on farther and offends; this his power becomes (is) his god.” Bäumlein: “Since his power becomes his god].” ìִ stands in the predicate of the object [Prädicat der Abzielung, the predicate denoting the purpose, object, or aim—C. E.] as in Nah_1:7; Exo_6:7; æåּ rel. as in Isa_42:24 and other places. As appertaining to the thought, which, with special regard to Hab_1:7, briefly comprises the moral character of the conqueror with its immanent [inherent] destiny and makes both the basis of the following dialogue, comp. Hab_2:6-10; Job_12:6; Isa_10:13.
The heathen powers shoot up into ascendency, when in the kingdom of God, the truth is impeded by pride, injustice, and a spirit of contention. On these they live like fungi, and God permits them to spring up, in order to begin the judgment upon his house. The more certainly that individuals, following their own view of what is good and right, pursue the war of the flesh instead of the Gospel of peace, the more certainly is the scourge already in preparation. What the prophet says of one event is put down in writing, because it is uttered for all time (Act_13:41). The prudent man sees the evil and hides himself; but the silly man passes on and is punished. But even the most prudent man does not foresee it by his own prudence. God’s decisive acts, as well those which He does as those which He permits, are altogether Niphlaoth, wonderful deeds, and have ever on one side something incredible in them. That they will come, he who has learned to examine the signs of the times in the light of God’s Word, anticipates: how they are to be, God reserves to his own power. Enough, that we know that it is His power. To him, who knows this, there is, no strange work in the world.
For however high the scourge may be raised, the destroyer [Zerbrecher, dasher in pieces] is also appointed to it, as soon as he intends that it shall be more than a scourge, that chastisement shall be converted into destruction, the work of God into his own work. All [assumption of] independence is apostasy from God, consequently separation from the source of life. The [assumption of] independence on the part of Adam ended in curse and misery. The same thing on the part of ancient Babel ended in destruction, dispersion, and confusion. And so it falls out with the new destroyer, the destiny of his own guilt overwhelms him, because his power is his god. And in his time he who has crushed will himself be crushed. Kings and princes and strong cities are an object of derision to him: he is the same before God. Only he who continues in a state of grace, receives from God in perpetuity what was not his: thus Israel received Canaan. If he renounce the grace, he must also surrender the gift. If this applies to Israel (Mic_2:10) how much more to the obstinate alien.
1. Incomprehensible in their delay, to the view of those who have no patience, and think that God ought to act as speedily as their anger prompts them (Hab_1:2-3).
2. Incomprehensible in their threatening to those upon whom they will fall, and who nevertheless continue to sin in security (Hab_1:4).
3. Incomprehensible to every human mind in their realization. For—
(a.) They are greater than any human thought would anticipate (Hab_1:5).
(b.) They take place in ways and by means of which no man would dream (Hab_1:6).
(c.) They are often brought about by men and events that, at first sight, have nothing in common with God.
4. Incomprehensible in their grandeur and universality to those by whom they are accomplished (Hab_1:11).
On Hab_1:2. God always hears, although we do not have an immediate sense of it. Therefore continue in prayer. It is also not always good to pray to Him to hasten his help. The future help, which He has prepared, is perhaps, for the moment, heavier to bear than the present burden, under which thou sighest.
Hab_1:3. He must certainly have his reasons, when He permits his saints to see misery and impious conduct. It touches his heart more than it does theirs. He suffers things to come to a crisis and the wicked thoughts of hearts to be revealed before He approaches [to judgment].
Hab_1:5. However long we have searched after the way of God, when He is suddenly revealed in his might and power, then the light is so dazzling that it is painful to us, and we are displeased that God has performed such powerful deeds in our days, and that we have not rather come to our rest in peace.
Hab_1:5. God has great power to destroy. Neither title-deed nor hereditary right protects against his power. He takes from whom He will and gives to whom He will. But He has still greater power and pleasure in building. The destruction is for a moment, the building for eternity. And in his destroying building is always included. With the stubble ploughed under, the field is manured for a new harvest; and the plough does not reap, but the ploughman.
Hab_1:7. Ye who despise the right, when you can have it, need not wonder when you are treated as if there were no right, and when you shall be dealt with according to your own principle: stat proratione voluntas.
Hab_1:10. When the judgments of God come, how quickly does everything on which men formerly placed their confidence and hope, fall to ruin! Then the earth, which was just now joyful, quakes.
Hab_1:11. When God permits you to succeed in everything that comes to hand, it is no reason for pride, but for humiliation. All success cleaves to him who is proud, not as a merit, but as guilt, and God will require [the punishment of] the guilt.
Luther: On Hab_1:2. As if he would say, I preach much, and it is of no avail; my word is despised; no one becomes better; they only become continually worse. Therefore I know not where to bring my complaint except to Thee; but Thou seemest as if Thou hearest me not, and dost not see them. But the prophet does not expostulate with God, as his words would sound and intimate to the ear; but he speaks thus in order that he may alarm the people and bring them to repentance, and show them how deservedly the wrath and burden will come upon them, because they turn not at preaching, threatening, and exhortation, nor even at prayer, directed against them.
Hab_1:3. This is written for our consolation and admonition that we should not wonder nor think it strange if few improve by our teaching. For generally preachers, especially if they have just newly come from the forge [seminary], indulge extravagant expectations [meinen sie, das solle sobald Hände und Fusse haben, und flugs alles geschehen und geändert werden, they think that everything should instantly have hands and feet, and that it should be immediately done and changed]. But that is a great mistake. Habakkuk rebukes the Jews, not on account of idolatry and other sins, but only on account of sins which were committed against their neighbors; there must, therefore, have been still at that time pious people, who maintained divine worship in its purity; but they were possessed with avarice and addicted to the practice of injustice and usury. So then no service, be it what it may, is pleasing to God, in which one does wrong to his neighbor.
Hab_1:4. There are much worse villains than public thieves and rogues. For the latter act openly against the law, so that their wrong doing is palpable to and felt by every one; but the former pretend to be pious, and would have wrong considered right. There are therefore two kinds of villains: first, those who do wrong; secondly, those who set off and defend the same wrong under the name of right.
Hab_1:5. All this is said also for us, who have the name and semblance of Christians, who boast of our baptism, or of our spiritual profession and office, as giving us the advantage over heathen and Jews, and yet we are, like them, without faith and the spirit: so that we also must certainly perish at last by those whom we now despise and consider worse than ourselves, just as it happened to the Jews by the Chaldæans.
Hab_1:6. It will be to you also of no avail that Jerusalem is the city and dwelling of God, to which you now trust: it is in vain, the Babylonian people will take possession of it altogether, though it is not their own.
Hab_1:11. No human heart can refrain from pride and boasting, when it has success and good fortune. The Scriptures do not alone teach this; but also the heathen testify and acknowledge it from experience, as Virgil says: nescia mens hominum servare modum rebus sublata secundis. It is a common saying: a man can bear all things except prosperity.
Starke: Hab_1:2. Human weakness is the reason why we cannot reconcile ourselves to the wonderful government of God, and why we think that all evil might be easily remedied. But in this we forget that it is not according to wisdom to treat men, whom He has endowed with freedom of the will, with absolute omnipotence and as if they were machines.
Hab_1:3. The ungodly exert themselves to the utmost in sinning.
Hab_1:4. Even lawsuits are not unknown to God: He keeps also his record of them.
Hab_1:5. God himself brings the enemy into the land, and punishes thereby all injustice.
Hab_1:6. Those who sin in haste and are unwilling to be restrained are suddenly punished by God, and do not escape.
Hab_1:8. God punishes the avarice of his people, who accumulate riches by injustice, in turn by the avarice of the soldiers, who plunder the unjustly acquired wealth and appropriate it to themselves. God can employ even the beasts, which at other times are compelled to render great service to men, for their punishment.
Hab_1:10. Those who despise and laugh at pious teachers and their admonitions, justly deserve in their turn to be despised and laughed at.
Pfaff: Hab_1:2 ff. Servants of God and preachers of the Gospel have reason to sigh over the prostration of faith in every quarter. Who can reproach them for thus sighing? But woe to you ungodly, who extort such sighs from them?
Hab_1:5. Whence come war, bloodshed, and devastation? They come hence: justice is depressed and the law of God is violated.
Rieger: On 2 ff. O God, into what times hast thou brought us? What must we see and experience? Where is the answer of all the prayer that has already for a long time been offered up for Divine help? These are also footsteps of faith in which we are often forced to tread.
Schmieder: Hab_1:4. The law becomes frigid, which, however, in its nature is fire and flame, and which, in the judgment, consumes sin. But where the judge is good for nothing, the law is frigid and lifeless.
Burck: Hab_1:5 : Ye believe it not, if ye merely hear it, if ye are not furnished with conviction by sight. Much, if it is merely heard, does not work in the mind of man faith so much as doubt. It is a miracle worthy of God that men by the hearing of the Gospel attain to faith.
Schlier: Habakkuk understands very well what kind of a corrective such a people, insolent and eager for conquest, are; and, when all means are in vain, only such a fearful judgment by means of a foreign people can rouse once more a fallen nation. The Lord needs only to point him to the Chaldæans; thus he knows that this nation is the means in the hand of the Lord of setting bounds to the state of general distress.
Talm.: Hab_1:7. Four men deified themselves and thereby brought evil upon themselves: Pharaoh, Hiram, Nebuchadnezzar, and Joash: the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar was divestiture of humanity.
Burck: Hab_1:9. Those who commit deeds of violence on one another (Hab_1:2-3) deserve to experience them from others.
Augustine: Hab_1:11. What art thou, O man, who puffest thyself up? Be contented to be filled. He who is filled is rich; he who puffs himself up is empty.
Footnotes:
[Hab_1:4.— úָּôåּâ úåֹøָä . The primary idea of úָּôåּâ is that of stiffness, rigidity, i. e., frigid and cold, cold and stiff being kindred terms. Compare the Greek ðçã · íõù , to be stiff. Trop. to be torpid, sluggish, slack: friget lax.
[Hab_1:4.— åְìֹàÎéֵöֵà ìָðֶöַç îּùְׁôָè may be rendered: judgment goeth not forth according to truth. Ges. But ìָðֵöַç signifies also, to perpetuity, forever and connecting it with ìֹà it gives the meaning of not forever, or never. See Keil. LXX.: Êáὶ ïὐ äéåîÜãåôáé åἰò ôÝëïò êñßìá , Vulgate: et non pervenit usque ad finem judicium: Luther.: und kann keine rechte Sache gewinnen: Kleinert: und nicht fallt much Wahrheit der Rechtsspruch.
[Hab_1:5.— åְäִúַּîְּäåּ úְּîָäåּ . Double form, used for intensity. Compare Isa_29:9. The combination of the kal with the hiphil of the same verb serves to strengthen it, so as to express the highest degree of amazement.
[Hab_1:5.— ôֹּöֵì denotes that which is immediately at hand. Green’s Heb Gram., sec. 266, 2. Nordheimer, sec- 1034, 3 a.
[Hab_1:6.— ëּéÎäּðְðִé îֵ÷ִéí , ecce suscitaturus sum. äִðְðִé before the participle refers to the future.
[Hab_1:8.— åּôָùåּ from ôåּù , signifying to be proud, to show off proudly; hence of a horseman leaping proudly and fiercely. The subject of this verb, ôָøָּùָéå , may be translated horses. See Ges., s. v.
[Hab_1:9.— îִâַîַּú ôְּðֵéäֶí ÷ָåּéîָä . I have followed Gesenius in the translation of these words. LXX.: ἀíèåóôçêüôáò ðñïóþðïéò áὐôῶí ἐîåíáíôßáò ; Vulgate: facies eorum ventus urcns; Luther: reissen sie hindurch wie ein Ostwind; Kleinert: die Gier ihrer Angesichter strebt nach vorwarts.
[Hab_1:11.— àæ çìó øåּç , then his spirit revives. Ges. LXX.: ôὸôå ìåôáâáëåῖ ôü ðíåῦìá ; Vulgate: Tunc mutabitur spiritus: Luther: Alsdann werden sic einen neuen Muth nehmen; Keil: Then it passes along a wind; Kleinert: Dann wendet es sich, ein sturm wind; Henderson: it gaineth fresh spirit.—C. E.]
Compare the letter of the French theosophist, St. Martin, concerning the Revolution, in Varnhagen, Memoirs, 4:534 ff.: “I remind you of what I have written in the beginning of this letter, that the political commotions, in the storms of which we live, appear to me to be in the eye of God only the ways by which He is preparing us, as we think, for greater happiness. For the astonishing course of development of our grand revolution and the brilliant phenomena which mark it at every step, must show to every one, not devoid of understanding, or honesty, in its march of fire, the accomplishment of an express decree of Providence. We can even say that the work, on its part is already done, though not yet entirely on ours. Its hand, like that of a skillful surgeon, has removed the extraneous matter, and we feel all the inevitable effects of a painful operation and the pressure of the bandage of the wounds; but we must bear these pains with patience and courage, since there is none of them which does not conduce to our recovery.” See page Hab 453: “When I consider the French Revolution from its origin onward, and at the moment when it broke out, I find nothing better to compare it to than to a picture on a reduced scale, of the last judgment, where the trumpets sound abroad the fearful notes, which a higher voice gives to them, where all the powers of heaven and earth are shaken; and where in one and the same moment the righteous and the wicked receive their reward.”