Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - Habakkuk 1:12 - 2:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
12 Art thou not from eternity,
Jehovah, my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
Jehovah! for judgment thou hast appointed it;
And O Rock! Thou hast founded it for chastisement.
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil;
Thou canst not look upon injustice.
Why lookest thou upon the treacherous?
Why art thou silent when the wicked destroys
Him that is more righteous than he?
14 And thou makest men like fishes of the sea,
Like reptiles that have no ruler.
15 All of them it lifts up with the hook;
It gathers them into its net,
And collects them into its fish-net;
Therefore it rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore it sacrifices to its net,
And burns incense to its fish-net;
Because by them its portion is rich,
And its food fat
17 Shall he, therefore, empty his net,
And spare not to slay the nations continually?
Hab_2:1 I will stand upon my watch-post,
And station myself upon the fortress;
And I will wait to see what He will say to [in] me,
And what I shall answer to my complaint.
2 And Jehovah answered me and said:
Write the vision and grave it on tablets,
That he may run, who reads it.
3 For still the vision is for the appointed time;
And it hastens to the end [fulfillment],
And does not deceive;
Though it delay, wait for it;
For it will surely come, and will not fail.
4 Behold the proud:
His soul is not right within him;
But the just by his faith shall live.
5 And moreover, wine is treacherous:
A haughty man, he rests not:
He who opens wide his soul like Sheol,
And is like death, and is not satisfied,
And gathers all nations to himself,
And collects all peoples to himself:
6 Will not all these take up a song aganst him?
And a song of derision, a riddle upon him;
And they will say:
Woe to him who increases what is not his own!
How long?
And who loads himself with pledges.
7 Will not thy biters rise up suddenly,
And those awake that shall shake thee violently?
And thou wilt become a prey to them.
8 Because thou hast plundered many nations,
All the remainder of the peoples shall plunder thee;
Because of the blood of men and the violence done to the earth;
To the city and all that dwell in it.
9 Woe to him, that procureth wicked gain for his house!
To set his nest on high,
To preserve himself from the hand of calamity.
10 Thou hast devised shame for thy house;
Cutting off many peoples, and sinning against thyself.
11 For the stone cries out from the wall.
And the spar out of the wood-work answers it.
12 Woe to him, who builds a city with blood,
And founds a town in wickedness.
13 Behold, is it not from Jehovah of hosts,
That the peoples toil for the fire,
And the nations weary themselves for vanity?
14 For the earth shall be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah,
As the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe to him that gives his neighbor to drink,
Pouring out thy wrath, and also making drunk,
In order to look upon their nakedness.
16 Thou art sated with shame instead of glory;
Drink thou also, and show thyself uncircumcised:
The cup of Jehovah’s right hand shall come round to thee,
And ignominy shall be upon thy glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee,
And the destruction of wild beasts which terrifies them:
Because of the blood of men, and the violence done to the earth,
To the city and all that dwell in it
18 What profits the graven image, that its maker has carved it?
The molten image and the teacher of falsehood,
That the maker of his image trusts in him to make dumb idols?
19 Woe to him that says to the wood, awake!
To the dumb stone, arise!
It teach! Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver;
And there is no breath in its inside.
20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple,
Let all the earth be silent before Him.
These are:—
(1) The Question of the prophet in the name of Israel. Is then the destroyer predicted (Hab_1:5-11), to have continual security? Hab_1:12 to Hab_2:1.
(2). The Answer of God by the prophet (Hab_2:2-20). Every one who is guilty and does not trust in the living God must be destroyed, consequently also the destroyer.
I. Hab_1:12 to Hab_2:1. The Question. As if the prophet had fallen into terror by the distressing answer and the terrifying description, which the Spirit of God drew by him of the destroyer, and had in the mean time failed to hear of the glorious prospect, which was already opening up in Hab_1:11, he turns, praying and expostulating, to God: Art thou not from eternity, Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? in order to receive himself the consoling confidence from the experimental faith, which puts this address in his mouth: we shall not die. “Jehovah, my God” is the vocative, and “my Holy One” is the predicate. The suffixes of the first person refer not to the prophet as an individual, but to the people whom he represents; for according to the usage of Scripture language Jehovah is not the Kadôsch [Holy One] of the prophet, but the Kadôsch of Israel; hence in the verb the change to the plural. Jehovah is implored as the Holy One, i. e., as He, who in a special manner, by special avowal of property [in them] and special revelation (Exo_19:4), adopted Israel from among all nations; and hence as He requires special purity from Israel, so also He will exercise special mercy toward him (Hos_11:9); and [He is implored] as He, who has life in Himself, so that whoever abides in Him, cannot be abandoned to death. (Hence ìàֹ ðָîåּú ). Compare the Johrb. f. deutsche Theologie [Journal of German Theology], 12. (1867), 1, p. 42 f. As such, God had shown himself from times of old (comp. Isa_58:14), and He is one Jehovah, one continuing always the same (Exo_3:14; Deu_32:40), hence also now He will not show himself otherwise. But at the same time there lies also in the designation Kadôsch the ethical reason that the Holy One of Israel cannot leave unpunished (Nah_2:3) him, who has done injury to his sanctuary Psa_114:2); and then the concluding thought is introduced by virtue of Hab_1:11, which is afterward further carried out in Hab_1:13. Rather, if Jehovah permits the destroyer at all to exercise violence upon Israel, the ground of it is a plan of Divine Wisdom and of a holy government of the world: Jehovah, for judgment hast thou appointed it, and thou Rock hast founded it for chastisement. The noun öåּø signifies figuratively the same thing as Jehovah in reality; the unchangeable God, who among all the perverse ways of men remains always the same (Deu_32:37; Psa_18:32, and above). The chastisement does not tend to the destruction, but to the salvation of those who are chastised (Psa_118:18). The vocatives Jehovah and Rock are continued by the vocative address Hab_1:13 : Thou art too pure in thine eyes to be able to look upon evil (for the constr. comp. Jdg_7:2; Deu_14:24) and thou canst not look, inactively, upon mischief (comp. on Hab_1:3); thou, who on account of ungodliness among us, bringest up the destroyer, why wilt thou look upon the plunderer? Thou wilt also not leave the sin unpunished, with which thou punishest sin. Boged is in prophecy a standing term for designating the violent Babylonian conqueror (Isa_21:2; Isa_24:16). The why is rhetorical: Thou canst certainly not do it. Why art thou silent—epexegetical to the apathetic looking on in c, for the purpose of designating it as an inactive, tranquil letting-alone (comp. Psa_50:21);—when the wicked—who does not even know thee, but has always been at a distance from thee (comp. Mic_2:4)—devours him, who is more righteous than he? Although there is much wickedness in Israel, yet, because the Holy One (Hab_1:12) dwells in the midst of them, they are still much more righteous (comp. the N. T. idea of the äßêáéïé and ἅãéïé ), than he, who purposes to extirpate the worship of Jehovah along with his people; comp. Isa_36:15 ff. Grotius: “Judœi magnis criminibus involuti erant, sed tamen in ea re multum a Chaldœis superabantur.”
The ìָîָּä is to be supplied in Hab_1:14 also from Hab_1:13 : and why makest thou, wilt thou make men like fishes of the sea. [So Henderson; but Keil does not supply ìָîָּä .—C. E.] These are not considered as elsewhere with reference to their great number, but to their defenselessness against the fisher’s net, to which the Chaldæan is compared. Hence the parallel clause: like the reptile—here the creeping things of the sea (as in Psa_104:25)—which has no ruler, no one who appears to care for, protect and defend them, who goes before collecting means for defense. Where there is no ruler there are helplessness and destruction (Mic_4:9). Instead of ìåֹ , indicating possession, áּåֹ stands in the short relative clause, because îùׁì is construed with this preposition; literally, no one rules over them.
Hab_1:15. All of them (comp. Hab_1:9) [suf. ä referring to the collective àָãָí , Hab_1:14—C. E.] he, the fisher, lifts up with his hook, from the deep in which they thought themselves safe. [Because the short vowel seghol is lengthened in the first syllable of äòìä into tsere, the corresponding hhateph-seghol must pass over into hhateph-pattach, which occurs after all vowels except seghol and kamets. Ges., sec. 63. Rem. 4.]. And he draws ( âּøø ) them into his net, and collects them in his fish-net. Therefore—to his net (Hab_1:16). That is to say, he sacrifices to his martial power, by which he brings the nations under his sway, and which is forsooth his god (Hab_1:11). The Sarmatians were accustomed to offer annually a sacrifice to a sabre set up as an insignia of Mars (Her., 4:59, 62; Clem. Al., Protrept. 64). Whether a similar custom existed among the Babylonians is not known; this passage is clear without the supposition of such a custom. For by them, net and fish-net, his portion is rich, his possessions and gain (Ecc_2:10), and his food is fat. It is the manner of men to render divine honor to that, by which they procure the means of living luxuriously; and idolatry is a perversion of the necessity of gratitude, which searches after the giver (Hos_2:10).
Hab_1:17. But, therefore, shall he empty his net, i. e., for the purpose of casting it out again for a new draught and always strangle nations without sparing? That, Thou, the only One, certainly canst not suffer, comp. Hab_1:13. In the last member the figurative language changes to literal; the infinitive with ì is not dependent upon çîì , but it stands instead of the finite verb. Compare on Mic_5:1, ìֹà éúîì , “unsparingly,” a frequent periphrase of the adverb by means of an adverbial clause (Isa_30:14; Job_6:10).
Like Mic_7:7 and Asaph, Psa_73:28, the prophet (Hab_2:1) flees from the picture of destruction, which involuntarily unrolls itself again before his eye, to the solitary height of observation where he hopes to learn the ways and direction of God. I will stand upon my watch-tower and station myself upon the fortress. The language is not literal, like that of Deu_22:3; but figurative (comp. Isa_21:8); since the prophet does not pretend, like the heathen Seer, to discover the Word of God from any celestial sign observed in solitude; but he receives it in the heart (Deu_30:14; Num_12:6). [Keil: “Standing upon the watch, and stationing himself upon the fortification, are not to be understood as something external, as Hitzig supposes, implying that the prophet went up to a lofty and steep place, or to an actual tower, that he might be far from the noise and bustle of men, and there turn his eyes toward heaven, and direct his collected mind towards God, to look out for a revelation. For nothing is known of any such custom as this, since the cases mentioned in Exo_33:21 and 1Ki_19:11, as extraordinary preparations for God to reveal Himself, are of a totally different kind from this; and the fact that Balaam the soothsayer went up to the top of a bare height to look out for a revelation from God (Num_23:3), furnishes no proof that the true prophets of Jehovah did the same, but is rather a heathenish feature, which shows that it was because Balaam did not rejoice in the possession of a firm prophetic word, that he looked out for revelations from God in significant phenomena of nature (see at Num_23:3-4). The words of our verse are to be taken figuratively, or internally, like the appointment of the watchman in Isa_21:6. The figure is taken from the custom of ascending high places for the purpose of looking into the distance (2Ki_9:17; 2Sa_18:24), and simply expresses the spiritual preparation of the prophet’s soul for hearing the Word of God, i. e., the collecting of his mind by quietly entering into himself, and meditating upon the word and testimonies of God.”—C. E.] Hence he continues: and I will await, literally look out for, what He will speak in me, “accurate observare, quœ nunc in spiritu mentis contingant,” Burck. Compare Hos_1:2. Oehler in Herzog, r.e., 17:637. And what answer I shall bring to my complaint. çִùéá as in 2Sa_24:13. In direct words the prophet occupies the position of a mediator founded on Mic_7:1 : he complains and answers himself; by virtue of his subjectivity, which connects him to the people, he represents them; and by virtue of the Spirit which comes upon him, and to which his Ego listens eagerly as something objective, he represents God. He calls his address, which has just been concluded, úּåëçú , a rejoinder, properly a speech for the purpose of conviction, or vindication, in a law suit (Job_13:6); with reference to the fact, that, against the threatening, which was in the first answer of God, it took the character of an objection, a deprecatio, an appeal to the mercy, holiness, and justice of God.
The answer follows immediately in the Reply of Jehovah, Hab_2:2-20. It is introduced by a parenthesis, giving directions and information to the prophet, like the reply of Micah to the false predictions of the false prophets (Hab_3:1): and Jehovah answered me and said. After an Introitus, which has the purpose of indicating the importance and immutability of the decrees announced, and after a Divine acknowledgment that the destroyer is worthy of punishment, the reply runs into a five-fold woe, which announces judgment upon all ungodly, rapacious, idolatrous conduct, consequently a general judgment of the world, which involves also the destruction of the conqueror.
Hab_2:2 b, 3. Introitus. Write down the vision (comp. on Hab_1:1; Oba_1:1). çæåï is not merely that which is seen, but also that which is inwardly perceived: çæä relates to the eye of the soul. And make it plain ( áàø as in Deu_27:8) on tables, that he may make haste, who reads it, i. e., write it so plainly that every one passing by may be able to read it quickly and easily; ÷øà to read, with áּ as in Jer_36:13. From the fact that the tables are designated by the article as known, Calvin has already, in the Introduction to his commentary on Isaiah, drawn the conclusion that tables were put up in the temple (Luther, Ewald: in the market-place), on which the prophets noted down a summary of their prophecies, in order to make them known to the whole people. In this way he thinks the possibility of preserving so many prophecies from being falsified may be understood: the tablets, on which they were written, were taken down and piled up. Indeed this latter supposition has nothing incredible; this method of preservation, as the most recent excavations prove, was well known in the ancient East. In an excavation at Kouyunjik (Introd. to Nahum, p. 9) the workmen came upon a chamber full of tablets of terra cotta, with inscriptions in perfect preservation, piled in heaps from the floor to the ceiling. (Compare Zeitschrift der Deutsch-morgenländischen Gesellschaft [the Journal of the German Oriental Society] 5 p. 446; 10 pp. 728, 731; and on the contents of the tablets Brandis, art. “Assyria,” in Pauly’s Encyclopedia, 1 p. 1890). The tablet, of course, of which Isaiah speaks, Isa_8:1, is not a public one, but one disposable for the private use of the prophets (comp. Isa_5:16), and on that account it might appear doubtful whether such tablets were constantly fixed up; but at all events it follows in this passage that it was incumbent upon the prophet to fix them up. The article then points to the fact that the prophet had already laid them up for writing down the vision; since indeed he was not surprised by it, but he had looked out for it (Hab_2:1). The reason that several tablets are mentioned here, and not one, as in Isaiah, is found in the rich and various contents of the five-fold woe. But at all events the design of the command, as the connection with what follows shows, is twofold: first, that the word may be made known to all (comp. Isa_8:1); secondly, that it shall not be obliterated and changed, but fulfilled in strict accordance with the wording. (Comp. Job_19:24; Isa_30:8.)
The latter reason appears with special force in Hab_2:3 : for the vision is yet for the appointed time, still waits for a time of fulfillment, lying perhaps in a far distant future, but nevertheless a fixed (this is indicated by the article) time (comp. Dan_10:14); what this set time is, that which follows declares: and it strives to [reach] the end: the final time, withheld from human knowledge (Act_1:7), which God has appointed for the fulfillment of his promises and threatenings (comp. on Mic_4:1; Dan_8:19; Dan_8:17). The verb éôç , it puffs, pants to the end, is chosen with special emphasis: “true prophecy is animated, as it were, by an impulse to fulfill itself.” Hitzig. [The third imp. (Hiph.) éָôֵçַ is formed with tsere, like éָîֵø , Eze_18:14]. And it does not lie, like those predictions of the false prophets, which fixed the time of prosperity as near at hand (Mic_2:11). Therefore, if it tarry, wait for it (comp. Eze_8:17); for it will come (comp. áåà of the fulfillment of prophecy, 1Sa_9:6), and not fail ( àçø as in Jdg_5:28 : 2Sa_20:5). The use of this passage, Heb_10:37, where it seems to be combined with Isa_26:20, is grounded on the translation of the LXX., who point the preceding inf. abs. áּà as the part. áָּà , and understand by the ἐñ÷üìåíïæ , who will certainly come, the Messiah, the judge of the world. There is no objection to this Messianic reference, so far as the meaning is concerned, since all prophecy has its goal in Christ; but, if we accept that punctuation, the reference cannot lie in the words, since in case the definite individual, Messiah, is referred to, we must at least read äַáָּà .
Hab_2:4-6 a. The starting-point of the following announcement of the judgment is exhibited as an ethical one with special reference to the conqueror. Behold puffed up, his soul is not upright in him, consequently he must perish, which furnishes the antithesis to “live” in the second half of the verse. In harmony with Hab_1:7-11, the insolent defiance, exhibited in his pride, putting itself in the place of God, is pointed out as the pith of the sin of the foreigner.
[ òֻôְּìָä , 3 fem. Pual, denominative from the subst. òֹôֶì , mound, tumor, from which also a Hiphil, Num_14:44, is formed.] The uprightness, 4 b, forms a contrast to it which consequently is not here, as at other times, opposed to it like simplicity to cunning sophistry (Ecc_7:29), but like humble rectitude to lying ostentation.
All pride against God rests on self-deception; and the judgment has no other object with reference to this self-deception than to lay it open, whereby it is proved to be nothing, consequently its possessor falls to destruction. But the just will live, not by his pride, not at all by anything that is his own, but by the constancy of his faith resting upon God and his word. The use, which the Apostle Paul makes of these words (Rom_1:17; comp. Gal_3:11), is authorized, since there as here the antithesis, by which the idea broad in itself is distinctly sketched, is the haughty boast of his own power entangled in sin. [On the contrary the application of the first half of the verse Heb_10:38, is obscured by the use of the incorrect translation of the LXX., as it is not characterized as an argumentative citation by the free transposition of both halves of the verse, but as a free reproduction. Compare Bengel on the passage.] Isa_7:9 is also parallel to this passage in sense. The idea of faith, which, in this passage and generally in the O. T. lies at the foundation of the words àîåðä resp. äàîéï , is not yet the specific N. T. idea of the appropriation of the pardoning grace of God, which brings salvation, but the broader one, which we find in Hebrews 2 : laying firm hold upon ( äàîéï ), and standing firmly upon ( àîåðä ) the word and promise of God, the firm reliance of the soul upon the invisible, which cannot be depressed and misled by the antagonism of that which is seen: constantia, fiducia. [For the word í ̔ ðüóôáóéò , Heb_11:1 (Oetinger: substructure), is certainly not chosen without reference to the stem àîï . Compare the verb çëּä , Hab_2:3. Hitzig is certainly right in claiming for the substantive àîåּðä the signification of faithful disposition= öã÷ä ; in passages like Pro_12:17 and Eze_18:22, comp. 1Sa_26:23, it cannot be doubled. But this meaning, however, is to be explained from the etymon, and is not in itself the only authorized one; and one needs not go back to the Hiphil äàîéï (as H. seems to think), in order to discover as the primary meaning, of the word àîï , that of standing firm. As öã÷ is the adherence of God to his word and covenant and the adherence of man to the word and covenant of God, so àîִ ðä (compare the prevailing usage of the Psalms, especially Psa_89:25, comp. 29) is the standing fast on the part of God to his word (Hab_2:1; Hab_2:12), and the standing fast on the part of man to the word of God: any other constancy than that of a mind established on the word of God the N. T. does not know, at least not as a virtue. Comp. below Luther on the passage.
The general point of view, Hab_2:4, from which it is plain, what he says of the Babylonians, is particularized and enlarged in Hab_2:5, whilst the crimes of the Babylonian are placed under the light of experience, as it is expressed in a proverb. And moreover (the combination àî ëé stands here in its natural signification, indicated by both words themselves, not in the modified meaning, as in 1Ki_8:27; Gen_3:1), wine is treacherous. The Babylonians were notorious for their inclination to drink: compare Curtius, Hab_2:1 : “Babylonii maxime in vinum et quœ ebrietatem sequuntur effusi sunt;” and in general concerning their luxury, the characteristic fragment of Nicolaus Damascenus (Fragm. Hist. Grœo., ed. C. Müller, vol. 2 Paris, 1848. Fragm. 8–10, p. 357 ff.). [Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. 2 pp. 504, 507.—C. E.]. The brief formula has the stamp of the proverb, and áּâã is not used in the sense of violent plundering, as in Hab_1:13, but in that of perfidious treachery, as in Lam_1:2; Job_6:15 (here also intrans.). In drunkenness men arrogate to themselves high things, and afterward have not strength for them. Comp. also Pro_23:31 f. The other proverb reads: A boastful man, great-mouth, continues not. éäéø , only here and Pro_21:24, signifies, in the latter passage by virtue of the parallelism ( æֵã ) and according to the versions, tumidus, arrogans. The predicate is attracted by å , in order to give emphasis to the subject, as in Gen_22:24; Ew., see. 344 b. (Hupfeld on Psa_1:1 takes âáø éäéø as predicate to éָéִï ; this, however, is too artificial.
That which follows forms together with Hab_2:6 a subjoined relative sentence, whilst the relative introduced before [its antecedent] is defined by the òìéø in the following verse; and the contents of this subjoined sentence is the direct application of Hab_2:4-5 a to the Chaldæan: He, who widens his desire like the insatiable (Pro_27:20) jaws of hell. ðֶôֶùׁ , as in Psa_17:9; compare for the figure Isa_5:14. Yea, he, who like death is not satisfied (construction as in the first member), but gathers together all peoples to himself (comp. Hab_1:15) and collects together all nations to himself; will not all these (comp. Nah_3:19) take up a proverb concerning him, yea a satirical speech, a riddle upon him? On ðùׂà compare Commentary on Nah_1:1. îùì , usually a figurative discourse, then a brief epigram, a proverb (Pro_1:1); here as in Isa_14:4, according to the connection, a scoffing, mocking song, in view of the certainty of the fate prepared for him. The same sense is given by the context to the word îìéöä , to which it [the sense] seems more nearly related by the root ìåö , to mock, and the derivatives ìֵõ and ìָöåֹï . Yet this is in fact no more than semblance, as the passage, Pro_1:6, proves, from which Habakkuk borrows the phraseology of this verse, and in which nothing of derision is to be found. We must rather go back to the Hiphil of the stem, which signifies interpretari: îìéö is an interpreter. (Delitzsch denies this signification of äֵìéõ [Hiph. pret.], however without proof; his explanation, brilliant oration, is entirely imaginary.) Therefore îְìִéöָä is not an explanatory saying, i. e., it is not an illustrative, luminous one (Keil), the contrary of which the passage Pro_1:6, and likewise the character of the proverb following, prove, but it is a saying which needs interpretation (as our riddle does not guess, but is intended to be guessed), an apothegm (so the LXX. on Pro_1:6 : óêïôåéíὸò ëüãïò : in this passage they construe îìéöä with what follows), accordingly it is synonymous with the following word çéøåú , áἰíßãìáôá , enigma—an extremely popular form of poetry in the East, and which is also among us a favorite form of popular political ridicule. Certainly to the mind of the prophet it is something different, a prophetic speech.
(Keil: “Mâshâl is a sententious poem, as in Mic_2:4 and Isa_14:4, not a derisive song, for this subordinate meaning could only be derived front the context, as in Isa_14:4 for example; and there is nothing to suggest it here. So, again Melîtsâh neither signifies a satirical song, nor an obscure enigmatical discourse, but, as Delitzsch has shown, from the first of the two primary meanings combined in the verb ìåּö , lucere and lascivire, a brilliant oration, oratio splendida, from which îֵìִéö is used to denote interpreter, so called, not from the obscurity of the speaking, but from his making the speech clear or intelligible. çִéãåֹú ìֹå is in apposition to îְìִéöָä and îָùָׁì , adding the more precise definition, that the sayings contain enigmas relating to him (the Chaldæan).”
Lucere does not seem to be one of the primary meanings of ìåּõ . Fürst gives umherspringen,—hüpfen (aus Muthwillen), dah. muthwillig, ausgelassen, unruhigen Geistes sein; übertr. verhöhnen,—spotten, achten unbeständig sein. Gesenius: balbutire, (1) barbare loqui; (2) illudere, irridere alicui. Thesaurus. See “Special Introduction to the Proverbs of Solomon,” sect. 11, note 2, in this Commentary.—C. E.]
Hab_2:6 b–20. The Fivefold Woe. Two views are possible concerning the contents of this discourse. One may view it either wholly as the song of the nations indicated Hab_2:6 a, consequently as entirely and specially directed against Babylon; or that only the first woe constitutes this song, but in the others the prophet retains the form once begun, in order to connect with them general thoughts of the judgment. If in favor of this latter view no farther argument can be urged than the one, that in the time of Habakkuk, Nebuchadnezzar had not yet committed all the sins, which are here laid to his charge, a consideration on which Hitzig certainly lays stress, one might perhaps be authorized in calling it, with Maurer and Keil, the most infelicitous of all. But not only the general contents of the following threatenings, which as much concern the sins of Judah, as those of the Chaldæans, are in favor of it; but also the circumstance that it appears worthy of God, after the impressive introduction, Hab_2:2-3, and the profound conclusion Hab_2:4 to command the prediction not of a mere amplified derisory song of the nations, but of a universal threatening against sin, in which of course and before all the sin of the Chaldæans is also to be included. Further, in favor of this view is the fact that precisely the first woe, Hab_2:6-8, has both the form of the brief; aphoristic, enigmatical song and a direct reference to Babylon, while in the second and third both are entirely wanting; and further that the immediate transition from such a poetical form in the beginning to a more extended prophetical address frequently occurs in other places in the prophets (Mic_2:4 ff.; Isa_23:16 ff; Isa_14:4 ff.).
Also the plural of ìçåú Hab_2:2, points rather to a plurality of objects of the prophecy than to a single one; and so also the concluding formula Hab_2:20 (all the world), points to the universality of the predicted judgment. Finally, we had in chap. 1 the same double reference of the prophecy; both to the intolerableness of the present sinful state of things (Hab_2:2 ff.), and to that of the future state of calamity; both are characterized by entirely parallel formulæ, comp. namely, Hab_2:3; Hab_2:13 : the five woes correspond to both complaints.
Hab_2:6-8. First Woe. It is immediately connected by the åְéֹàîַå to the éùàå in Hab_2:6 a, and thereby expressly pointed out as the song raised by the oppressed over the fall of the conqueror. åéØ is used here, as in 2Ki_9:17; Isa_58:9; Ps. 58:12, in distinction from the aorist ý åַéּàֹîֶå ýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýý , as an annexed jussive form in a future sense and impersonal (comp. Mic_2:4); they shall say: Woe (comp. on Nah_3:1) to him who accumulates what is not his own. ý ìֹàÎִìåֹ as in Hab_1:6. By this accord of sounds the solution of the enigma, which lies in this designation of the Babylonian, is undoubtedly and fully suggested. However, there is in the accord itself, as Delitzsch remarks, a new enigma, to wit, the ambiguity: he accumulates not for himself (Ecc_2:25). In the following expression: For how long, the exclamation, how long already! as Hitzig thinks, is not intended; but the exclamation, how long still! The entire contents of the verse show that he does not suppose the catastrophe as having already taken place, but he predicts it in the midst of the oppression. Generally the formula òã îúé is employed only in the sense of complaint concerning a present evil. And who loads himself with a burden of pledges gained by usury (comp. Hab_1:11). òáèéè is also ambiguous: derived from the root òáè , it can signify either a mass of pledges (comp. ñâø ø , shower of rain, ëּîøéø , thick darkness): to wit, the laboriously acquired property of the nations, which he collects together, just as the unmerciful usurer heaps up pledges contrary to the law of Moses (Deu_24:10); and which he must for that reason deliver up; or it may be considered as a composite of òָá (thickness, comp. Hupf. on Psa_18:12) and èéè , thick mud. Compare Nah_3:6.
Hab_2:7. Will not those who bite thee rise up suddenly (a play upon words between ðùׁêְ , bite of a snake, and ðùֶׁêְ , interest: who recover usury from thee); and those who shake thee violently [allusion to the violent seizure of a debtor by his creditor—C. E.] wake up (from é÷õ )? And thou wilt become a booty to them, îùׁñåú , plur. rhet. Comp. on Mic_5:1.
Hab_2:8. For thou hast plundered a multitude of nations (comp. Mic_4:2), so all the remnant (Mic_5:2) of the nations will plunder thee: the remnant of the subdued, i. e. the not subdued, those lately come into existence, as e. g. the Persians (Isaiah 45). [Keil, after a labored exposition, concludes: “From all this we may see that there is no necessity to explain ‘all the remnant of the nations,’ as relating to the remainder of the nations that had not been subjugated, but that we may understand it as signifying the remnant of the nations plundered and subjugated by the Chaldæans (as is done by the LXX., Theodoret, Delitzsch, and others), which is the only explanation in harmony with the usage of the language. For in Jos_23:12, yether haggôyîm denotes the Canaanitish nations left after the war of extermination; and in Zec_14:2, yether hâ‘âm signifies the remnant of the nation left after the previous conquest of the city, and the carrying away of half its inhabitants.”—C. E.] For the blood of men ( îִï as in Oba_1:10) and violence in the earth, the city, and all that dwell in it. The same enumeration of everything destructible, as Hab 1:11 ff. 14; hence not to be restricted to Jerusalem and Israel, though specially intended, but to be understood generally, like Jer. 56:8 [Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. 2, p. 506.—C. E.]
Hab_2:9-11. Second Woe. If the Chaldæan (Hab_2:6-8), according to the connection, was the only possible object, this threatening of judgment certainly reaches farther: Woe to him, who accumulates wicked gain for his house, who sets his nest on high (the inf. with ì continues the construction of the imperfect, as is frequently the case), [the infin. with ì is used to explain more precisely the idea expressed by the finite verb. Nordheimer’s Heb. Gram., sec 1026, 2.—C. E.] to save himself from the hand of evil. The judgment of God, proceeding from his holiness, has its source in a necessity universally moral, and, on this account, falls upon all sinners; and the description of those characterized here does not fit so well, according to the language of prophecy, the Chaldæans, who inhabited a low country,—the parallel (Isa_14:12 ff.) produced by Delitzsch, conveys the idea of heaven-defying pride, whilst here the prophet speaks of concealing treasures,—as it does the Edomites, who stored up their plunder in the clefts of the rocks (Oba_1:3; Jer_49:7 f.). And it applies just as well to the rich in Jerusalem (comp. Isa_22:16 ff.), and especially to King Jehoiakim, whose conduct is described in language (Jer_22:13 ff) uttered nearly at the same time with that of our prophet, and in exactly similar modes of expression. [Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. 2 p. 504.—C. E.]
Hab_2:10 also applies to the same person: Thou hast consulted shame, instead of riches, for thy house, the house of David, which was called to a position of honor before God. And what is the shame? The ends of many nations, i. e., the collective multitude of peoples (comp. 1Ki_12:31) which shall come up like a storm to take vengeance upon the sins of Israel, just as the remnant of the nations are at a future time, to take vengeance upon the sins of the Babylonian. And thou involvest thy soul in guilt (Pro_20:2).
[“The ends of many nations,” by which Kleinert renders ÷ְöåֹúÎòַîּéí øַáִּéí , gives no intelligible meaning. ÷öåֹú is not the plural of ÷ָöֶä , but the infinitive of ÷ָöָä , to cut off, destroy. The proper rendering, therefore, is cutting off many nations.—C. E.]
Hab_2:11. For the stone cries out of the wall, built in sin, to accuse thee (Gen_4:10), and the spar out of the wood-work answers it,—agrees with it in its charge against thee: when the judgment draws near they are the accusing witnesses. Immediately joined to this is—
The Third Woe, Hab_2:12-13. Woe to him who builds the fortress in blood, and founds the city in wickedness. Since the prophet has not denounced punishment upon Nebuchadnezzar for building, but for destroying cities (Hab_1:11 f), we must here also, especially on comparing Mic_3:10 and Jer_22:13, understand the reference to be to the buildings of Jehoiakim. Behold, does it not come to pass (2Ch_25:26) from Jehovah of hosts, that the tribes weary themselves,—either come up on compulsory service for the king, or driven to Jerusalem by the calamity of war to work upon the fortifications (2Ch_32:4 f.; compare also Mic_1:2)—for the fire, and the nations exhaust themselves for vanity? All human wisdom and toil have no success, where Jehovah does not assist in building (Psa_127:1); this applies to Israel (Isa_57:10; Isa_49:4; comp. Isa_40:28; Isa_40:30; Isa_65:23), as it does to Babylon (Jer_51:58). And this vanity must be made manifest: the works of men must crumble into the dust from which they arose (comp. Mic_5:10; Mic_7:13).
For (Hab_2:14) the earth shall be full, but of the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the bed of the sea. So God himself has promised by Isaiah (Isa_11:9; comp. Hab_2:3). This glory is the resplendent majesty of the Ruler of the world coming to judgment against all ungodliness, and for the accomplishment of salvation (Num_14:21; Psalms 97.; Zec_2:12). This knowledge comprehends, at the same time, the acknowledgment of Jehovah and the confession of sin. îìà is not construed as usual with the acc. of the subst., but with ì and the infinitive. To analyze the last clause into a noun with a following relative clause is unnecessary: ëּ can also be used (which Ewald and Keil deny) as a particle of comparison before whole sentences (Hupfeld, Psalms , 2 p. 327 A. 99). éí does not mean here the sea itself, but the bed, or bottom of the sea, as in 1Ki_7:26. With the general thought which Hab_2:13 f. adds to the special turns [of thought] there is a return to the punishment of heathen wrong-doers. Upon them falls exclusively—
The, Fourth Woe, Hab_2:15-18, which also directly introduces again some enigmatical sounds of the first. Woe to thee [so Kleinert and Luther: the LXX., Vulgate, A. V., Keil, and Henderson, use the third person, woe to him—C. E.) that givest thy neighbor to drink—whilst thou pourest out ( ñôç , as in Job_14:19; synonymous with ùׁôêְ , Jer_10:25,) thy wrath [or thy leathern bottle, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Hitzig (Gen_21:14); perhaps as the whole address directs us back to Hab_2:6 ff., there is again here also an intentional ambiguity] and also makest him (thy neighbor) drunk (inf. abs. Proverbs 5 fin., Ges., sec. 131, 4 a.) in order to see their shame; to make it wholly subservient to his voluptuous desire (Nah_3:5). [In place of the third person in the first member, the address changes, in the second member, to the second person; in the fourth member the singular is changed into the plural. Both the middle clauses are adverbial to the îùׁ÷ä of the first member]. The figure is taken from common life, and is clear of itself; it is the more appropriate, as the Chaldæan is described (Hab_2:5) as a drunkard. The leathern bottle, from which the Chaldæan pours out his compacts (comp. Isaiah 39), is, as it turns out in the end, a bottle of wrath; and the disposition in which it is passed is that of wild desire and barbarous lust of power. Therefore the same comes upon him.
Hab_2:16, So thou shalt be satisfied, as thou desirest, but with shame instead of glory. Drink thou also (comp. Nah_3:11) and uncover thyself [Heb.: show thyself uncircumcised—C. E.]: from Jehovah’s right hand the cup, also a cup of wrath (comp. Oba_1:16) will come in its turn to thee, and shameful vomit upon thy glory. [Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. 2. p. 504.—C. E.] ÷ִé÷ָìåֹï , according to the Pilpel derivation from ÷ìì instead of ÷ִìְ÷ָìåֹï , signifies the most extreme contempt; but it can, at the same time, be considered as a composite word from ÷éà ÷ìåֹï , vomit of shame, or shameful vomit (comp. Isa_28:8) referring to the figurative description of the drinking revel.
Hab_2:17. For the outrage at Lebanon, whose cedar forests the conquerors wickedly spoiled, in order to adorn with them their magnificent edifices in Babylon (Isa_14:7 ff.; comp. Ausland, 1866, p. 944), shall cover thee, shall weigh upon thee like a crushing roof, and the dispersion of the animals, which it, the outrage, frightened away! The wild beasts of Lebanon, which fled before the destroyer. ( éִçִéúַï , instead of éִäִúֵּï compensation for the sharpening by lengthening the vowel, Ges., 20, 3 c. Rem., and pausal change of the ֵ into ַ , Ges., sec. 29, 4, c. Rem.). [See Green’s Heb. Gram., sec. 112, 5 c.; 141, 3.—C. E.] And as Lebanon with its cedars (Jer_22:6; Jer_22:23), appears to be a representative of the Holy Land and its glory, so here also a general meaning is given to the outrage upon inanimate nature by the repetition of the refrain from the first woe, Hab_2:8 : On account of the blood of men, the outrage upon the land, the city and all its inhabitants. However, the obvious reference to Israel and Jerusalem, in this passage, is made, by the connection, more distinctly prominent than in Hab_2:8, above.
Hab_2:18, according to the thought, is preliminary to the following woe; just as we saw above that Hab_2:11 was preliminary to the third woe, and Hab_2:13 to the fourth. What profiteth the graven image, that its maker carves it? îä is used sensu negativo, as in Ecc_1:3; and since it requires a negative answer, the secondary clause introduced into the rhetorical question by ëé is also answered thereby in the negative: quid, cur? It profits nothing (Jer_2:11), consequently it is folly to carve it. Parallel to this is the following clause: what profiteth the molten image and the teacher of lies, i.e., either the false prophet, who enjoins men to trust in idols, and encourages the manufacture of them (Isa_9:14 [sa_9:15?]), or rather, according to the éåøä in the following verse, the idol itself, which points out false ways in opposition to God, the true teacher (Job_36:22; Ps. 15:12; Delitzsch, Hitzig), That the carver of his image trusts in him to make dumb idols? (Psa_135:16 f.; 1Co_12:2.) The negative answer to this rhetorical question is given by—
The Fifth Woe, which is immediately subjoined, Hab_2:19-20 : Woe to him, who says to the block, wake up! as the pious man can pray to the true God (Psa_35:12 [Psa_35:23]); arise ! to the dumb stone. Can it teach? To teach is used here, as in the former verse and generally, to signify that active guidance and advice, which belong to the Deity in contradistinction to men, and which form the basis of practical piety. Concerning the form of the indignant question, compare [Com.] on Mic_2:6. Behold it is enchased with gold and silver (Acc.) and there is nothing of soul, neither breath, nor feeling, nor understanding, in it. (Com. Psa_135:17). However fine it is, it does not even have life (comp. Jer_10:14): how can it teach! Compare the amplification of the same thought, Isa_44:9 ff.
The whole threatening address concludes with the prophetical formula: Jehovah is in the temple of his holiness, i.e. according to Psa_11:4, compare Psa_20:7 [Psa_20:6], heaven, from which, as the situation now stands and as the woes about to pass over the earth are anticipated, we are to expect his judgment, i.e. the confirmation that He will give to show that He is the Holy One (comp. Psa_18:7 ff.; Isa_5:16). Therefore,—compare the entirely similar connection of thought Zep_1:7; Zec_2:13 [Heb. Bib. Hab_2:17]:—Let all the world be silent before Him.
[Keil: Hab_2:18-20. Fifth and last strophe. This concluding strophe does not commence, like the preceding ones, with hôi, but with the thought which prepares the way for the woe, and is attached to what goes before to strengthen the threat, all hope of help being cut off from the Chaldæan. Like all the rest of the heathen, the Chaldæan also trusted in the power of his gods. This confidence the prophet overthrows in Hab_2:18 : “What use is it?” equivalent to “The idol is of no use” (cf. Jer_2:11; Isa_44:9-10). The force of this question still continues in massçkhah: “Of what use is the molten image?” Pesel is an image carved out of wood or stone; massçkâh an image cast in metal.—C. E.]
Sin and death belong together; sin is the ethical, death the physical expression of separation from God. Therefore the people of God cannot die, because He is their Holy One; because by virtue of their belonging to the Holy One they drink from the fountain of life. Therefore to Israel God’s judgments are a means of purification, while they are destruction to others. And if God, who is a Rock, has such a hatred against sin, that he does not suffer it in his people [heiligen Eigenthum, sacred property] chosen of old (comp. Com. on Micah, p. 00), and brings upon it the scourge of his judgment, how much less will He suffer it in him who is a stranger to his heart, and whom He employs only as an instrument of his judgment. From the consideration that God judges Israel follows the certainty that He will judge the heathen also, consequently the certainty that Israel will be saved.
The sin of the world-power is two-fold; first, it deals with the property of God as if it were its own; secondly, it does not honor God for the success granted to it, but its own power. This must cease.
The countenance of faith is directed forward into the future. Thence it derives its answer for consolation and hope. (Of course it would not have this direction if it had not the promise of God behind it (Gen_49:18); God is, however, always the author: He is of old the Holy One of his people.). When Israel forgat the promise, they began to look back to the flesh pots of Egypt. The whole religion of the O. T. is a religion of the future. Heathendom exercised its intellectual energy upon the origins of things for the purpose of forming and developing their theogonies: the Holy Spirit directs the mind of Israel to prophecy: no ancient people has so little about the primitive time as we find in the O. T.; even modern heathendom knows [professes to know| much more about it. The exact time is not specified in prophecy, at least in regard to the intermediate steps (Hab_1:5); but the certainty is specified, and the exact time is fixed in the purpose of God. God can no more lie than He can look upon iniquity. The certainty of prophecy, and consequently of our confidence, rests upon the holiness of God. How different is the resignation of the O. T. from fatalism. The former comes from life, the latter from death. Resignation places the holiness of God in the centre: fatalism destroys it.
God’s way is the right way. He hates all crooked lines,—the side-lines of sophistry, the curve-lines of boasting, the downward sunk lines of dark, concealment. Sin is deviation from the straight way. The straight way is the way of life.
The piety of the Old Testament begins with faith (Gen_15:4 [6]). The stage of the law enters, which gives the uppermost place to faith in action, the obedience of faith, and which, with the apparent extension of the principle of faith, involves in fact a narrowing of it. In prophecy the original principle, in its universality, enters again gradually into its right position. The book of Job may be mentioned as a proof of this. The obedience of the law has for its correlative the doctrine of retribution. On this Job is put to shame. Against it he has no sufficient answer. But because his heart, in every trial, maintained its faith in God, he is nevertheless justified. The book of Job is the exposition of Hab_2:4. Faith is the direct way to the heart of God. He who interposes himself (his own works, his own merits, his own law, his own thoughts) perverts the way. Apostasy from faith is the beginning of sin. Iu the heart of God is imperishable life, because there is imperishable holiness. Therefore the faith of Israel is the correlative of the Holy One of Israel; and faith is the way to life, as sin is the way to death.
The characteristic mark of the kingdom of God is free-will. The world-power raffs men together; they are invited into the kingdom of God; they rise and say: Come, let us go. The coge intrare is contrary to the Scripture. (The prohibe of the enemies of missions is just as truly so. Isa_49:6.) He