Habakkuk 1:3

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;

O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! O Lord, how long shall I cry ... even cry out unto thee of violence ... Why dost thou show me iniquity?

Why dost thou show me? it is a most unpleasing sight, and that which troubles me and every good man, to see unjust and injurious men without control, and unpunished, to act their iniquity; and yet, O God, thou not only permittest it to be done, but to be done in sight, and to the grief of thy servants: thus God showeth it, and it is not without just cause, though the cause be hidden. Iniquity; men of iniquity and vanity, unrighteous toward men, and vain in their thoughts and practices of religion toward God. And cause me to behold: this explains the former. Grievance: so it is in regard of the effect it hath upon beholders, and such as suffer by this iniquity; it is grief and sorrow to them, it is a grievance they groan under. For spoiling, such as wasteth, and undoeth them that fall under it, and violence, perverting judgment, and turning it into wormwood; or else it is a Hebraism, spoiling and violence, that is, most violent robbing and spoiling each other. Are before me; every where I see it, to the breaking of mine heart. There are that raise up strife; or, and there is strife, that is, little else but strife among men, occasioned by these oppressive practices. And contention: so it will be a Hebraism, expressing endless contentions. It would bear, and judgment is taken away, which suits the next verse. Why dost thou show me? it is a most unpleasing sight, and that which troubles me and every good man, to see unjust and injurious men without control, and unpunished, to act their iniquity; and yet, O God, thou not only permittest it to be done, but to be done in sight, and to the grief of thy servants: thus God showeth it, and it is not without just cause, though the cause be hidden. And contention: so it will be a Hebraism, expressing endless contentions. It would bear, and judgment is taken away, which suits the next verse.

Habakkuk 1:3 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.Ver. 3. Why dost thou show me iniquity? &c.] These were Hazaels to Habakkuk’ s eyes, he could not see them with dry eyes, he could not but vex his righteous soul from day to day, as Lot did at Sodom, with their unlawful deeds, 2 Peter 2:8, privately committed (as here in their common commerce), and publicly, as in the next words, in courts and consistories; for all was out of order. And cause me to behold grievance] Molestation and mischief done to those that would live peaceably in the land, to the poor that are fallen into their nets, debts, bonds, and mortgages, Psalms 10:9. It is as if the prophet should say, Why dost thou not punish these enormous practices, but suffer evildoers to abuse thy longsufferance, to thy dishonour? Averroes, the philosopher, drew an argument from God’ s patience to deny his providence. But what saith Austin? Some wicked God punisheth here, lest his providence, and but some, lest his patience and promise of judgment, should be called in question. For spoiling and violence are before me] E regione mei vastatio et violentia, so that I cannot look beside them, I cannot but complain of them. Elijah and Jeremiah were more passionate, 1 Kings 19:4; 1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:14 Jeremiah 15:10; Jeremiah 20:14. And there are that raise up strife and contention] These are Satan’ s seeds men, and kindling coals. He is an unquiet spirit, and strives to make others so; loves to fish in troubled waters, doth all he can to set one man against another, that he may prey upon both; as the master of the pit suppeth upon the bodies of those cocks whom he hath set to kill one another. Be not mischief maker, seeds men of sedition.

(3) Why dost thou shew me iniquity? . . .—Better, Why dost thou show me distress and look upon grievance; oppression and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention exalts itself.” The question, “Why dost thou . . . look upon grievance?” is illustrated by Habakkuk 1:13, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.” Grievance, or “trouble wilfully caused.” Heb. âmâl, associated again with âven, a term of similar import, in Psalms 10:7; Psalms 55:11.

Verse 3. And cause me to behold grievance] עמל amal, labour, toil, distress, misery, &c., the common fruits of sin.

3. shew me iniquity] cause me to see iniquity. God by His interposition might have checked the iniquity; by His refraining the continuance of it is virtually due to Him. One thing pains the prophet—that he has to behold iniquity; and another perplexes him—that God, the Righteous One, brings him into such a trial, or leaves him in it. The Hebrew mind was the more profoundly agitated by the moral anomalies in the world, because it could not help ascribing them directly to God, Who was the immediate cause of all things. The feeling is often expressed in Job, e.g. Job 23:16-17. The term “iniquity” is used both of physical evil, “affliction” (Jeremiah 4:14; Job 5:6), and moral evil, “wickedness”; here of the latter, as generally, e.g. in the common phrase “workers of iniquity.” cause me to behold grievance] and dost look upon trouble. The term grievance or trouble (Habakkuk 1:13 R.V. perverseness), properly “labour,” toil, has also the double sense of misery, pain, sorrow, travail (Isaiah 53:11), or mischief, wrongdoing (Psalms 7:15; Psalms 94:20; Isaiah 59:4). The latter half of the verse “spoiling and violence” is in favour of understanding all the terms not so much of evils suffered as of evils inflicted. The prophet is perplexed because God looks on unconcerned when men perpetrate wrong. spoiling and violence are before me] The words again combined, Jeremiah 6:7; Jeremiah 20:8; Ezekiel 45:9; Amos 3:10. The term “spoiling” means violent mishandling when used of a person, destruction or devastation when said of a thing. Isaiah 13:6; Job 5:21-22; Hosea 7:13; Psalms 12:6. With “before me” comp. Jeremiah 6:7. there are that raise up strife] Rather as R.V.: and there is strife, and contention riseth up (for Heb. constr. cf. Psalms 89:9). This is the condition of things that has come about and prevails. The terms “strife” and “contention” certainly suggest animosities between members of the same community rather than injuries inflicted on a subject people by their conquerors. The conquerors of Israel did not mix among the inhabitants or interfere with individual persons, they merely demanded political subjection and tribute, and the latter they collected not from the people but from their rulers. Comp. the use of the two words in Jeremiah 15:10.

Why dost Thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold - , or rather, “Why beholdest Thou grievance?” God seemed to reverse what He had said by Balaam Numbers 23:21, “He hath not beheld iniquity in

2. How long shall I cry — Literally, have I cried. The Hebrew verb implies the idea “for help,” that is, to bring about a change in the terrible condition in which the prophet finds himself.