Habakkuk 2:16

Thou art filled with shame for glory,.... This is said by the Lord to the man that gives his neighbour drink to intoxicate him, that he may draw him into uncleanness, and please himself with it; who,

Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.

Thou, O king of Babylon, art filled, shortly shalt be, and it is as sure as if already done, with shame for glory; as much filled with shame by the contempt they shall cast upon thee whom thou didst once vilify and contemn; thy shame shall be greater than ever was thy glory, as the Hebrew seems to import. Drink thou also: thy sin was that thou didst drink, and madest others drink to shameless excess too; now thy punishment shall be to drink of the cup of God’ s wrath, which will fill thee with astonishment and calamities. Let thy foreskin be uncovered; let thy shame be laid open before all; this retaliation is just and necessary. The cup; a Scripture phrase, expressing the just judgments and corrections of sinners. Of the Lord’ s right hand; it is said to be in his right hand here, and in his hand, . Shall be turned unto thee: they turned the cup of pleasure about, God will carry the cup of indignation about also, and make them drink deep of it, they shall not escape. Shameful spewing shall be upon thy glory; then shalt thou be as much loathed as a shameful drunkard is in his vomit.

Habakkuk 2:16 Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’ S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing [shall be] on thy glory.Ver. 16. Thou art filled with shame for glory] Or, more with shame than with glory. That is, thou shalt be filled shortly with ignominy for that glory wherein thou presently pridest thyself; thy drunkenness shall redound to thine utter disgrace, as it was to Darius, Alexander, Antoninus, Bonosus, Trajan (a good emperor otherwise, but a drunkard, and a sodomite, as Dio Cassius reporteth him). Yea, Cato, that most severe censurer of other men’ s manners, to whom it was sometime objected (how deservedly I know not), quod nocturnis potationibus induigeret, that by night he would drink soundly. This is a blur to him, if true, and confutes that eulogium given him by Paterculus, that he was omnibus humanis vitiis immunis, free from all vices, and as like virtue herself as might be, Homo virtuti simillimus, et rigidae innocentiae. In Scripture the drunkard’ s style begins in lawlessness, proceeds in unprofitableness, ends in misery; and all shut up in that denomination of his pedigree, A son of Belial. Drink thou also] Since thou art so able at it, since thou hast so well deserved that infamous epitaph of a certain drunkard, “ Heus, hic situs est Offellius Buratius Bibulus, Qui dum vixit, aut bibit aut minxit, abi praeceps. ” Drink another while of the cup of shame and sorrow; take thy part of all manner of miseries, Jeremiah 25:26 Obadiah 1:16. "Snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, shall one day be the portion of thy cup: For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness," Psalms 11:6-7. Yea, he loveth to retaliate, and will therefore make these drunkards drink also; and those that made others drunk that they might look on their nakedness, to lie with their foreskins uncovered to their perpetual reproach. Uncircumcision was a shameful spectacle indeed among that people. The cup of the Lord’ s right hand shall be turned to thee] Heb. Turned about, or shall turn itself, quia rerum omnium vicissitudo; thy turn is now come to take off the dregs of God’ s cup of calamity, Jeremiah 25:15, that hath eternity to the bottom. And shameful spewing shall be on thy glory] Kikalon, a compound word, the vomit of ignominy; a fit punishment for filthy drunkards, who break their heads, as swine do their bellies, over charge their stomachs, as dogs do their gorges, and then disgorge themselves in a Shameful sort; as Antonius did at Narbon amidst his guests at a feast; and as Eccius, Luther’ s great adversary, whom he merrily called Ieccius, from his casting; as Tiberius was nicknamed Biberius.

(6-20) The destruction of the Chaldæans has hitherto been only implied. It is now plainly foretold in a denunciatory song, put into the mouths of the invader’s victims. In this song there are five strophes, of three verses each, 6-8; 9-11; 12-14; 15-17; 18-20.

Verse 16. The cup of the Lord's right hand] Among the ancients, all drank out of the same cup; was passed from hand to hand, and each drank as much as he chose. The Chaldeans gave to the neighbouring nations the cup of idolatry and of deceitful alliance: and in return they received from the Lord the cup of his fury. So Grotius.

16. filled with shame for glory] with shame and not with glory, the construction as Hosea 6:6, “mercy and not sacrifices,” cf. Psalms 52:3. The term “art filled” or sated must have the meaning: “thou hast feasted thyself on shame,” i.e. on the shame of his victims, or more generally, on that which is shameful, rather than on what is decorous and honourable. Such a sense seems nowhere else expressed by the verb to be sated. The text may be uncertain. cup … turned unto thee] Lamentations 4:21; Jeremiah 25:15; Jeremiah 51:7; Isaiah 51:17. shameful spuing] Or, as R.V., foul shame. The word, like “thick clay” (Habakkuk 2:6), has been taken as two words: spuing of shame, with the sense of A.V. It is no doubt an intensive form of the word shame.

Thou art filled with shame for glory - Oppressors think to make themselves great by bringing others down, to fill themselves with riches, by spoiling others.

Woe upon cruelty toward other nations, Habakkuk 2:15-17.Habakkuk 2:15 presents a figurative description of the craftiness, cruelty, and cunning by the use of which the Chaldeans have reduced the nations to helplessness.