Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk 1:1-4

In this chapter, 1. The prophet complains to God of the violence done by the abuse of the sword of justice among his own people, and the hardships thereby put upon many good people, ver. 1—4. 2. God by him foretells the punishment of that abuse of power by the sword of war, and the desolations which the army of the Chaldeans should make upon them, ver. 5—11. 3. Then the prophet complains of that too, and is grieved that the Chaldeans prevail so far, ver. 12—17.

THE burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. 2. O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear I even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not have! 3. Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. 4. Therefore the law is § slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compais about the righteous: therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

This prophecy is called a burden, as it contains a heavy threatening of wrath for provoking iniquities.

1. The prophet bewails the miserable flake of the land, where violence raged, iniquity reigned with impunity, rapine and injustice appeared without a veil, and whilst families and neighbours were set at variance by those who raise up strife and contention, the kingdom was torn with intestine divisions, fomented by the wicked, who loved to fish in these troubled waters.

The law is slacked, hath lost all its vigour; and judgment doth never go forth against the offenders, who are emboldened to commit every crime by this neglect: but, though the guilty escape, the innocent are persecuted; for the wicked doth compais about the righteous, confederate to oppress the few faithful, and pervert justice; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth; the just are condemned, whilst the criminals are acquitted. And when wickedness is thus prevalent in a nation, ruin cannot be far off.

2. The prophet bewails his own unhappy fate, condemned to dwell in the fight of such abominations, which grieved his righteous soul, v. 3. and though an importunate advocate with God, no answer was given him. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear I even cry unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not have! notwithstanding all his prayers, no drop was put to the abounding ungodliness; and on this account he expeditates, lest it should seem as if the Lord had forsaken the earth, when wickedness thus prospered. Note, (1.) When we can do no more for sinners, it becomes us still to pray for them. (2.) Gracious souls, whilst they are in the world, must bear this burden, of seeing and hearing abominations that grieve their spirits: but yet a little while they shall be released, and go where the wicked cease from troubling. (3.) It hath been a trial to many a good man’s faith to behold prosperous iniquity; but we shall shortly see God justified in all his works and ways.

3. ¶ Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told you. 6. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.

Before Chief 6pt. I Or from them shall present the judgment of them and the captivity of them. Jur. v. 6. Zeph. cit. v. Jur. v. 13. 6. Hsh. The equaltion of the I can toward the act. 2. Dan. v. 4.

theirs. 7. They are terrible and dreadful: 2 their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. 8. Their horfea also are twifler than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far, 3 they shall fly as the eagle that haffeth to eat. 9. They shall come all for violence: 4 their faces shall fup up as the eaf-wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the land. 10. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold, for they shall heap dust and take it. 11. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, 2 imputing this his power unto his god.

Habakkuk 1:5-11

Though God bears long with the vessels of wrath fitted the destruction, he will not bear always.

1. He gives them notice of a terrible judgment ready to defend upon them. Behold ye among the brothers, and regard, for what fearful work God is doing among them; and liked’s turn would shortly come; and wonder marvellough, astonished at the desolations which are wrought in the earth: for I shall need a wret in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told ye, which was the destruction of the Jewish nation, with their cities, and the temple at Jerusalem, which the Chaldeans, under the divine direction, would accomplish; and this within the perfect age; so that many then alive should for what the people of the Jews in general, notwithstanding all the prophetic warnings, wasted as utterly incredible. The Apostle applies this to the despiters of Christ and his gospel, whose destruction, terrible and sure, approaches, notwithstanding their infernity and prolongation.

2. He describes the dreadful ravages the Chaldeans should make among them. Raised up at God’s call, and first to execute his vengeance, they shall come to seize by conquest the dwelling-places which are not theirs; and, among other victims to their ambition, Judea shall be subdued by them. They are described as a bitter and lofty nation, cruel and merciless in their dispositions, inveterate in their enemies, and rapid in executing their enterprises: they are terrible and dreadful; the same of their soldiers is spread, and their fierce look injects dismay into their enemies: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves; their will is their rule, imperious in their commands, and strangers to the laws of clemency, equity, and humanity. Their lawfully, hoffter than the leopards, and forever than evening wolves, shall charge, purise, and bear down all opposition, plundering and devouring the country, spreading themselves on every side, and haffting from their own distant land with such velocity as the eagle dareth on his prey, v. 8. They shall come all for violence, purely to ravage and spoil: their faces shall fup up as the eaf-wind, blasting all before them, leaving the land bare; or their faces shall look towards the eaf, designing to transfer their spoil and captives thither, which they collect innumerable as the food, v. 9. They shall scoff at the kings of Judah, with their nobles and confederates; deriding every stronghold, as unable to refill their victorious arms: for they shall heap dust and take it; so easily will their mounts be raised by their numerous pioneers. Then shall his mind change: the king of Babylon, grown hanghyt by fuccels, shall mediate new conquests; and he shall pass over all bounds of reason and equity, and shall offend by new acts of cruelty and injustice; imputing this his power unto his god, describing his fuccels to his idol deities. Though some understand the words in a different fente, as predicting Nebuchadnezzan’s punishment. His mind shall change from a man to a beast, and he shall pass over from the society of men to dwell in the deities, and he punished for his pride and wickedness, for making this his power his god, as if he were a divinity, and possessed omnipotence. Note, (1.) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of defiotic tyrants. (2.) Suceels often mindless fuel for pride, and many by prosperity have their minds changed for the worfe.

3. ¶ 1. Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine holy One? we shall not die: O LORD, thou haft ordained them for judgment, and O mighty God, thou haft established them for correction. 13. Then art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can’t not look on iniquity: wherefore looked thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? 14. And maketh men as the fishes of the sea, as the § creeping things that have no ruler over them? 15. They take up all of them with the angle: they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16. Therefore: they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag: because by them their portion is fat, and their meat is plentious. 17. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Habakkuk 1:12-17

The judgments ready to come upon the people distressed the prophet, as their fins had done before; seeing the righteous, as well as the wicked, would be involved therein; he therefore flies to God in prayer, and capsulans with him on these afflictive dispensations, that he may obtain an answer to satisfy his own mind, and those who, like him, approved still their fidelity to God.

1. He professeth his own unshaken faith in God, under every circumstance of distress and difficulty. Art thou not from everlasting? thou art the same unchangeable Jehovah, whose covenant stands full, and is like his nature, everlasting; O Lord, my God, in whose favour he had an affured interest; mine holy One, whose dispensations, however dark to us, are perfectly righteous and true; who is holy essentially, and the author of all holiness to others, we shall not die; however threatening the judgments, the nation shall not utterly be extirpated, the covenant of the eternal God forbids it: and hence every believer must draw his confessions, and devise support to his faith when shaken by temptation. His life is bound up with that of the eternal God; Amuse, says Jesus, I live, ye shall live only, though the Chaldeans threatened high, they were but instruments in God’s hand: O Lord, thou haft ordained them for judgment, to punish the wicked, O mighty God, whose power can over-rule all the purposes of men; thou haft established them for correction, to chastest thy children for good, that they may not be delivered unto death; this being the gracious design of God in all the afflictions he sends upon his choirs, and which should be their comfort under them. Thou art of purer yes thou to behold evil, and can’t not look upon iniquity; not that God’s eye is not in every place, but he doth not approve of wickedness, it is his abhorrence; nor can he see the afflictions of his people, and the iniquity of their oppressors, with connivance of satisfaction; and to these principles he effected to adhere, however appearances might seem to contradict them. Note, (1.) Sound and well-established principles are the great support in time of trial. (2.) God’s permission of wickedness doth not imply his approbation, nor is the evil he suffers his people to undergo any mark of his displeasure; but unentarnable, because they are sons, he chasteth them with the rod of men.

2. He begs a solution of his difficulties under the present distressed scene before him, when piety was oppressed, and wickedness triumphant: wherefore behold thou upon them that deal treacherously, giving them fuccels in their perfidious designs, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? as the Chaldeans did the Jews, and God’s silence distressed the prophet and other good men, how to reconcile this with their general principles. And maketh men as the fishes of the sea, forming to shew no more care towards men in general, and his own people in particular, than over the fishes, where the weaker are a prey to the strong, and whoever will may take them in their net, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them, to protect and defend them. Thus helpless were they before their enemies, as if God had forsaken the earth, and left the good a prey to the wicked, and the weak a spoil to the strong; to be caught as easily as fish with the angle; and by a variety of means, by the one or drag, to be seized and destroyed without concern: yea, to be a sport and pastime to their murderers, as fishermen rejoice and are glad when their net is filled, v. 15. Therefore they sacrifice to their own net, and burn incense to their own drag, applaud themselves in their own contrivances, and the fuccels of them, because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plentious; they thus enlarged their wealth, and were enabled to live more luxuriously, and this was their happiness. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? Shall they go on successfully from nation to nation, murdering and plundering at their pleasure? Will a righteous God permit that he leaves the matter with the Lord, and in faith and hope is emboldened to expect his interposition. Note, (1.) Whatever difficulties occur in the divine providence, we must cast our care upon God, and wait patiently for his salvation. (2.) Ambitious princes make no more account of men than of fishes, and rejoice in battles gained at the expense of multitudes of lives, but God will reckon such conquerors as the most bloody murderers of mankind.