Habakkukchapter 2
20 verses · Habakkuk · 609 to 605 BC · The Twelve
Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—
Introduction
Habakkuk, The Twelve, Habakkuk Overview.
This chapter is the reply the prophet waited for after his second complaint. He wrote it down on God's order, so that a reader in any later age could hold the same promise he held. It was first heard by a small nation about to be swallowed by an empire, and it tells them how that empire will end. Listen for the one line the apostles built on, and then for the taunts the conquered peoples sing over their conqueror. Mark where the chapter lifts its eyes from Babylon to the whole earth. It teaches a believer how to wait.
Context
- Who
- People who needed to know what happens to the empire God is using
- What
- The LORD's answer to the prophet, a vision to be written down that promises the proud will fall and the righteous will live by faith, followed by five woes on the plunderer.
- Where
- Judah, with the prophet at his watch post, while the Chaldean empire gathered the nations to itself.
- When
- The book gives no date, and the most likely setting is 609 to 605 BC, before Babylon's armies reached Judah.
- Why
- To assure the prophet that God's justice is certain even when it is slow, and that the empire God used to judge Judah would itself be judged.
Historical context
Habakkuk climbs his tower and says he will watch to see what God will say to him. City watchmen stood on the wall or a tower to spot a runner, a signal fire, or dust on the horizon, and they were the first to know anything.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The answer starts with an instruction about writing: write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Public notices were painted or cut on boards and set up where people passed, big enough to read at speed. God tells him to publish it in that format.
Then the sentence that outran the book: "the just shall live by his faith." Paul quotes it in Romans and Galatians, Hebrews quotes it, and Martin Luther's reading of it lit the fuse of the Reformation. In its first setting it means the righteous person stays alive, keeps going, by steady trust, when the visible evidence has gone the other way.
The rest of the chapter is five woes aimed at Babylon, and each one is built out of the empire's own habits: piling up what is not yours, building a house by evil gain, building a town with blood, getting your neighbor drunk to shame him, and making an idol and telling a block of wood to wake up.
The line about building a city with blood has a hard edge in this period. Babylon's monuments were raised with conscripted labor and financed by tribute, and the stone will "cry out of the wall."
The chapter ends in silence: the LORD is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.
Significance
This answered the question of chapter 1 without softening it. Babylon really would come, and Babylon really would be judged; the invader was a tool, not a favorite.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The promise in the middle is what people actually lived on: the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. That was said to a small nation about to be swallowed, by a prophet who could see the army coming.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no reading in the site's synagogue table. Probed for this lane, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed 0 weekly portions and no Haftarah use for Habakkuk 2, and no festival reading for the book. The same probe printed 54 weekly portions and 6 festival readings in the table as a whole.
The corpus ties the chapter to the study of the Torah portions in a few places. Under the first verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma on Ki Tavo and Midrash Tanchuma Buber on Beha'alotcha. Under the seventeenth it carries Shemot Rabbah 8:2 and two passages of Midrash Tanchuma Buber on Vaera. Under the last verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma on Nasso.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
The watchtower of the first verse draws the chapter's best known note. Rashi says "Habakkuk dug a circular hole, stood within it," and would not move until he heard God's answer (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:1:1). The question he waited on was why God looks on the prosperity of a wicked man.
Rashi reads the vision of the third verse as looking past Habakkuk's own day. "A prophet shall yet arise at the end of the years," to whom the time of Babylon's fall and Israel's redemption would be shown (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:3:1). He joins the end to the seventy years of Jeremiah 29:10 (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:3:2).
The fourth verse is where the Jewish and the Christian readings part most sharply. Rashi's two notes in the corpus both gloss its first half, the proud soul. "The soul of the wicked man is always wroth and full of desire, longing to swallow and never satisfied" (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:4:1). His notes stop there, before the second half, the righteous and his faith. The New Testament builds on that second half. Paul cites it in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:37 and 10:38 cite the third and fourth verses together. The Talmud cites this verse at Makkot 24a:27, which the corpus carries by ref without its text.
From the fifth verse Rashi reads the woes as falling on the Babylonian kings. The man betrayed by wine is Belshazzar, "for he drank as much wine as a thousand," joined to Daniel 5:1 (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:5:1). At the fifteenth verse he gives two readings side by side. The first is of Nebuchadnezzar, from Tractate Shabbat 149b. The second is from Seder Olam, of Belshazzar and the vessels of the Temple. "On that night he [Belshazzar] was slain" (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:15:1).
The stone that cries from the wall is read plainly: "the stones that you stole shall cry from the wall" (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:11:1). At the seventeenth verse Rashi reads Lebanon as the Temple (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:17:1). The chapter ends with God "in His Holy Temple ready to exact retribution" (Rashi on Habakkuk 2:20:1).
The corpus carries three further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Habakkuk 2:2:1, 2:12:1 and 2:14:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 7 that it files under Talmud and 33 under Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased.
On verse 1 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 3:16, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 1:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tavo 4:1. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 7:19. On verse 3 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:45, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 24:17:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 12:42:11. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 119:24.
On verse 4 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Makkot 3:7, Ein Yaakov, Makkot 3:10 and Kohelet Rabbah 3:9:1. It also holds Makkot 24a:27. On verse 5 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:2, Bava Batra 98a:6 and Bava Batra 98a:7. It also holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 6:1. On verse 6 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 67:3 and Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta 2:5.
On verse 11 it holds Chagigah 16a:16, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Khagigah 2:32 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:44. It also holds Ein Yaakov, Khagigah 2:19. On verse 14 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 10:12 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 9:3. On verse 15 it holds Esther Rabbah 3:1, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 6:9 and Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 16:7. On verse 16 it holds Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 23:2, Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on The Four Kings 1:2 and Shabbat 149b:2.
On verse 17 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera 18:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera 8:1 and Shemot Rabbah 8:2. On verse 18 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 141:2. On verse 19 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 1:10, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 1:12 and Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 3:3:18. On verse 20 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Nasso 19:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot 10:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Nasso 11:1.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Habakkuk 2:1:1 to 2:20:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Habakkuk 2:2:1, 2:12:1 and 2:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/habakkuk/2.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Habakkuk 2: no weekly portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading; The Berean Standard Bible, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:37 to 10:38, the New Testament use of Habakkuk 2:3 to 2:4, read from the store.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Standing on the watchtower: the just shall live by faith
Habakkuk 2:1-2
I will stand at my guard post: Habakkuk takes a watchman's post, "I will stand at my guard post," to hear what God will say. The answer is an order to "Write down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets," so that a herald can run with it. Written on tablets, the vision outlasts the crisis.
Habakkuk 2:1
“33:2, 3; compare Ps 5:3; The "watch-post" is the withdrawal of the whole soul from earthly, and fixing it on heavenly, things. The accumulation of synonyms, "stand upon . . . watch . . . set me upon . . . tower . . . watch to see" implies persevering fixity of attention. what he will say unto me--in answer to my complaints (Hab 1:13).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Habakkuk 2:1
“We have seen in the first chapter Habakkuk 1:2-3 that the Prophet said in the name of all the faithful. It was indeed a hard struggle, when all things were in a perplexed state and no outlet appeared. The faithful might have thought that all things happened by chance, that there was no divine providence; and even the Prophet uttered complaints of this kind.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
God answers with an order to write. Matthew Henry explains that writing guards the vision from the mistakes of word of mouth and carries it to later ages. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the runner as a reader who takes it in at once, so plain is the writing.
Habakkuk 2:2
“Write the vision - Carefully take down all that I shall say. Make it plain upon tables - Write it in a full plain, legible hand. That he may run that readeth it - That he who attentively peruses it may speed to save his life from the irruption of the Chaldeans, by which so many shall be cut off. The prophet does not mean that the words are to be made so plain, that a man running by may easily read them, and catch their meaning.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 2:2
“He must write it, that he might imprint it on his own mind, and make it more clear to himself, but especially that it might be notified to those in distant places and transmitted to those in future ages. What is handed down by tradition is easily mistaken and liable to corruption; but what is written is reduced to a certainty, and preserved safe and pure.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Habakkuk 2:2
“Upon tables - What was of publick concern, and therefore to be published, was anciently written or engraven upon tables, smooth stones, or wood, and then hung up in a publick place to be read. May run - That none may need to stop, but every one may plainly and clearly discern what is written.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Habakkuk 2:2
“GROTIUS, LUDOVICUS DE DIEU, and MAURER interpret it: "Run" is not literal running, but "that he who reads it may run through it," that is, read it at once without difficulty.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 2:3-4
For the vision awaits an appointed time: The vision "awaits an appointed time," and the command to "wait for it" puts the delay inside the promise. Verse 4's line "the righteous will live by faith" is quoted at Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. It sets the righteous man against the proud one.
Habakkuk 2:3
“Though the time appointed by God for the fulfilment be yet future, it should be enough for your faith that God hath spoken it (La 3:26). at the end it shall speak--MAURER translates, "it pants for the end." But the antithesis between, "it shall speak," and "not be silent," makes English Version the better rendering. So the Hebrew is translated in Pr 12:17.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Habakkuk 2:3
- Quoted inHebrews 10:37“For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.”
'He that shall come will come... the just shall live by faith'
the righteous will live by faith—: The verse sets two men side by side, the proud one whose soul is not upright and the righteous one who lives by faith. Paul quotes the second line three times, at Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. Matthew Henry reads it of justification by faith alone.
Habakkuk 2:4
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up - He that presumes on his safety without any special warrant from God, is a proud man; and whatever he may profess, or think of himself, his mind is not upright in him. But he that is just by faith shall live - he that believes what God hath said relative to the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem, shall make his escape from the place, and consequently shall save his life. The words in the New Testament are accommodated to the salvation which believers in Christ shall possess.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
4 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 2:4
"And if you will not believe, neither will you understand." Also the Lord in the Gospel: "For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins." Moreover, righteousness should subsist by faith. In it was life, as predicted in Habakkuk: "Now the just shall live by faith in me." Hence Abraham, the father of the nations, believed. In Genesis "Abraham believed in God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." In like manner Paul wrote to the Galatians: "Abraham 'believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 12:1.5patristic
Habakkuk 2:4
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him,.... This and the following clause describe two sorts of persons differently affected to the Messiah, and the promise of his coming. Here it points at such as were "incredulous", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; that disbelieved his coming, and mocked and scoffed at the promise of it; as well as those that did not believe in him when he came, though he had all the characteristics of the Messiah; and damnation was the certain consequence of their unbelief.”
Habakkuk 2:4
“This text is three times employed by the Apostle Paul as an argument. Read Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38—in each of these cases it runs, "The just shall live by faith." This is the old original text to which the Apostle referred when he said, "As it is written, The just shall live by faith." We are not wrong in making the Inspiration of the Old Testament to be as important as that of the New, for the truth of the Gospel must stand or fall with that of the Prophets of the old dispensation.”
Habakkuk 2:4
“The Hebrew accents induce BENGEL to translate, "he who is just by his faith shall live." Other manuscripts read the accents as English Version, which agrees better with Hebrew syntax.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Habakkuk 2:4
- Quoted inGalatians 3:11Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
'The just shall live by faith'
- Quoted inRomans 1:17For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
'The just shall live by faith', thesis of Romans ('as it is written')
Woe to the plunderer: the remnant will plunder you
Habakkuk 2:5-6
He enlarges his appetite like Sheol: The proud man's hunger has no end, since "like Death, he is never satisfied". The peoples he swallowed taunt the one "who amasses what is not his". It is the first of five woes that run to verse 19, sung by the nations over Babylon before it falls.
Habakkuk 2:5
“This general rule the prophet goes on to apply in words which belong in part to all oppressors and in the first instance to the Chaldaean, in part yet more fully to the end and to antichrist.”
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 2:5
“Drunkenness is itself a transgression, and is the cause of abundance of transgression. We read of those that err through wine, Isa. xxviii. Belshazzar (in whom particularly this prophecy had its accomplishment) was in the height of his transgression by wine when the hand-writing upon the wall signed the warrant for his immediate execution, pursuant to this sentence, Dan. v. 1 .”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The nations Babylon swallowed sing the five woes. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the greedy man's wealth as a burden of clay, heaped up and never enjoyed. Adam Clarke says the fall of the empire became a proverb among the peoples it had ruled.
Habakkuk 2:6
Shall not all these take up a parable against him - His ambition, derangement, and the final destruction of his mighty empire by the Persians, shall form the foundation of many sententious sayings among the people. “He who towered so high, behold how low he is fallen!” “He made himself a god; behold, he herds with the beasts of the field!” “The disturber of the peace of the world is now a handful of dust!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 2:6
“The covetous man in heaping them together is only lading himself with a clay burden, as he dares not enjoy them, and is always anxious about them. LEE and FULLER translate the Hebrew as a reduplicated single noun, and not two words, "an accumulation of pledges" (De 24:10-13).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 2:7-8
Will not your creditors suddenly arise: The woe becomes a sentence, for "your creditors" will rise suddenly and "you will become their prey" in turn. The reason is measure for measure: the nations Babylon plundered "will plunder you" in return. The charge "your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land" returns at verse 17.
The plunderer is repaid in his own coin. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain that those left of the plundered peoples will be enough to take vengeance. The last clause returns word for word at verse 17, and Adam Clarke reads the land as Judea and the city as Jerusalem.
Woe to the house built by evil gain
Habakkuk 2:9-11
Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain: The second woe falls on the man "who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high". His scheme turns on him. The building itself then bears witness, "the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork."
Habakkuk 2:9
“Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house - (or, with accents, “that coveteth covetousness or unjust gain, an evil to his house.”) What man coveteth seems gain, but is evil “to his house” after him, destroying both himself and his whole family or race with him . “That he may set his nest on high,” as an eagle, to which he had likened the Chaldee (Hab 1:8. Compare Jer 20:16).”
forfeiting your life: The builder meant to secure his family and shamed it. Matthew Henry notes that those who wrong their neighbour do a far greater wrong to their own souls. Adam Clarke reads the last phrase plainly: the man's life is forfeit by his crimes.
Habakkuk 2:10
“Thou hast consulted shame to thy house, the cutting off many people, and sinning against thy soul - The wicked, whether out of passion or with his whole mind and deliberate choice and will, takes that counsel, which certainly brings shame to himself and his house, according to the law of God, whereby, according to Exo 20:5, He “visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him,” i. e., until by righteousness and restitution the curse is cut off.”
the stones will cry out from the wall: The house itself becomes a witness. Adam Clarke explains the picture from the way of building, courses of stone laid with a course of timber between, as 1 Kings 6:36 describes. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare Luke 19:40.
Habakkuk 2:11
“For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it - All things have a voice, in that they are . God’s works speak that, for which He made them Psa 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psa 65:13: “the valleys are clad with corn, they laugh, yea, they sing;” their very look speaks gladness. Cyril: “For the creation itself proclaims the glory of the Maker, in that it is admired as well made.”
Habakkuk 2:12-14
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed: The third woe falls on the one "who builds a city with bloodshed," and God's answer is that such labor "only feeds the fire". Against that fire stands the chapter's widest promise, that "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD".
Habakkuk 2:12
“Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood - At the expense of much slaughter. This is the answer of the beam to the stone. And these things will refer to the vast fortunes gained, and the buildings erected, by means of the slave-trade; where, to a considerate and humane mind, the walls appear as if composed of the bones of negroes, and cemented by their blood! But the towns or houses established by this iniquity soon come to ruin; and the fortunes made have, in most cases, become as chaff and dust before the whirlwind of God’s indignation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 2:12
“So Nebuchadnezzar did ( Dan. iv. 30 ): Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom? But it is built with the blood of his own subjects, whom he has oppressed, and the blood of his neighbours, whom he has unjustly invaded; it is established by iniquity, by the unrighteous laws that are made for the security of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the labor of the people only feeds the fire: The answer to a city built on bloodshed is a question. Albert Barnes explains the Hebrew as labour enough to satisfy the fire, so the end God appoints for the builders' work is burning. Adam Clarke points to the same sentence in Jeremiah 51:58, spoken of the walls of Babylon.
Habakkuk 2:13
"Shall not God have His turn, when cruel rapacious men have triumphed so long, though He seem now to be still?" [CALVIN]. people . . . labour in the . . . fire . . . weary themselves for . . . vanity--The Chaldeans labor at what is to be food for the fire, namely, their city and fortresses which shall be burnt.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 2:13
“The worst that can be said of the labourers in God's vineyards is that they have borne the burden and heat of the day ( Matt. xx. 12 ); but those that are eager in their worldly pursuits labour in the very fire, make themselves perfect slaves to their lusts. There is not a greater drudge in the world than he that is under the power of reigning covetousness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
as the waters cover the sea: Against the fire of verse 13 stands God's glory. Albert Barnes notes that Habakkuk takes up the words of Isaiah 11:9 and marks the fall of Babylon as one stage toward that end. Matthew Henry reads the fulfilment in the gospel, citing 2 Corinthians 4:6.
Habakkuk 2:14
“For the earth shall be filled - This is a singular and important verse. It may be first applied to Babylon. God’s power and providence shall be widely displayed in the destruction of this city and empire, in the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan 4:37, and in the captivity and restoration of his people. See Newcome, and see Isa 11:9. Secondly. It may be applied to the glorious days of the Messiah. The land of Judea should by his preaching, and that of his disciples, be filled with the knowledge of God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 2:14
“Such is the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ given by the gospel ( 2 Cor. iv. 6 ), and such was the knowledge of his glory by the miraculous ruin of Babylon.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Woe to the one who makes his neighbor drunk
Habakkuk 2:15-17
Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors: The fourth woe falls on the one who makes his neighbors drunk "in order to gaze at their nakedness". The sentence answers in kind: "You too must drink". Babylon stripped the cedars of Lebanon for its building, and verse 17 turns that "violence against Lebanon" back on it.
Habakkuk 2:15
“From cruelty the prophet goes on to denounce the woe on insolence. “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor” (to whom he owes love) drink (literally, that maketh him drink); that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also , that thou mayest look (gaze with devilish pleasure) on their nakedness.””
will come around to you: The man who made his neighbours drunk must now drink. Adam Clarke explains that the ancients passed one cup from hand to hand, so the cup of judgment comes around to Babylon in its turn. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare Jeremiah 25:15, where the nations drink the cup of wrath.
Habakkuk 2:16
“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 neighboring nations the cup of idolatry and of deceitful alliance: and in return they received from the Lord the cup of his fury. So Grotius.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 2:16
“Thou - O king of Babylon. Shall be turned - They turned the cup of pleasure about, God will carry the cup of indignation about also, and make them drink deep of it. Shameful spewing - Thou shalt be as much loathed as a shameful drunkard is in his vomit.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
your violence against Lebanon: Babylon stripped Lebanon, and that waste returns on it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as the hunter hunted, since he treated men as wild beasts. The refrain from verse 8 closes the woe, and here they read the land and the city as Judea and Jerusalem.
Habakkuk 2:17
“As thou didst hunt men as wild beasts, so shalt thou be hunted thyself as a wild beast, which thou resemblest in cruelty. because of men's blood--shed by thee; repeated from Hab 2:8. But here the "land" and "city" are used of Judea and Jerusalem: not of the earth and cities generally, as in Hab 2:8. the violence of the land, &c.--that is, inflicted on the land by thee.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Woe to the wood that says, awake: but the LORD is in his temple
Habakkuk 2:18-20
What use is an idol: The fifth woe turns to the tyrant's gods, "a teacher of lies", with "no breath in it". Against the silent stone the chapter sets the living God, "in His holy temple," and bids "all the earth be silent before Him". Chapter 3 answers that call to silence with a prayer.
Habakkuk 2:18
“The powerlessness of the idols to save Babylon from its doom is a fitting introduction to the last stanza (Hab 2:19), which, as the former four, begins with "Woe." teacher of lies--its priests and prophets uttering lying oracles, as if from it. make dumb idols--Though men can "make" idols, they cannot make them speak.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 2:18
“What profiteth the graven image - This is against idolatry in general, and every species of it, as well as against those princes, priests, and people who practice it, and encourage others to do the same. See on Isa 44:9-10 (note); Isa 46:2 (note). Dumb idols? - אלילים אלמים elilim illemim, “dumb nothings.” This is exactly agreeable to St. Paul, 1Co 8:4, who says, “An idol is nothing in the world.” What signify the idols worshipped by the Chaldeans, Tyrians, and Egyptians? They have not been able to save their worshippers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Woe to him who says to wood: The last woe comes after its reason in verse 18. John Gill pictures the worshipper asking a carved image to wake and save him. Adam Clarke notes that the meanest animal breathes and lives, while the gold and silver cover a thing with no breath in it.
Habakkuk 2:19
“Or, "It (the idol itself) shall (that is, ought to) teach you that it is deaf, and therefore no God" [CALVIN]. Compare "they are their own witnesses" (Isa 44:9). Behold--The Hebrew is nominative, "There it is" [HENDERSON]. it is laid over with gold . . . no breath . . . in the midst--Outside it has some splendor, within none.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
let all the earth be silent before Him: The living God stands against the silent idol. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that He reigns in heaven and does not hide under gold and silver. Matthew Henry adds that Babylon laid waste His temple at Jerusalem, yet He keeps a temple above out of its reach.
Habakkuk 2:20
“The Lord is in his holy temple - Jehovah has his temple, the place where he is to be worshipped; but there there is no image. Oracles, however, are given forth; and every word of them is truth, and is fulfilled in its season. And this temple and its worship are holy; no abomination can be practiced there, and every thing in it leads to holiness of heart and life. Let all the earth keep silence before him - Let all be dumb. Let none of them dare to open their mouths in the presence of Jehovah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A vision the prophet is told to write down, followed by a taunt song of five woes sung by the nations over their conqueror, as the site's Habakkuk exposition, notes on 2:1 to 20 classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Five woes | The taunt runs in five stanzas, each opening with Woe to him who. The first is against the plunderer who lives on loans, the second against the house built by unjust gain, the third against the city built with bloodshed, the fourth against the man who makes his neighbours drunk, and the fifth against the maker of idols.the Berean Standard Bible text, counted in the store, Habakkuk 2:6 to 20, five verses opening with the words Woe to him who. | Habakkuk 2:6, Habakkuk 2:9, Habakkuk 2:12, Habakkuk 2:15, Habakkuk 2:19 |
| The charge said twice | The same line closes the first woe and the fourth, with one word changed: because of your bloodshed against man, and against men in the second, and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers. The repeat ties the plunder of nations to the stripping of Lebanon as one crime.Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Habakkuk 2:17, which notes the line is repeated from 2:8. | Habakkuk 2:8, Habakkuk 2:17 |
| Three lines that rise above the woes | Verse 4 sets the proud man beside the righteous man who lives by faith. Inside the third woe, verse 14 sets the empty labour of the nations beside the earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD. The chapter closes on the third such line at verse 20, the LORD in His holy temple and all the earth silent before Him.the Berean Standard Bible text, read in the store, Habakkuk 2:4, 2:14 and 2:20. | Habakkuk 2:4, Habakkuk 2:14, Habakkuk 2:20 |
How this chapter is built
3 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter opens with the prophet at his post and the LORD's order to write the vision on tablets, so the answer is meant to outlast the crisis. Verses 4 and 5 give the verdict in two men, the proud man who is never satisfied and the righteous man who lives by faith. Verses 6 to 20 are the taunt the plundered nations will sing, five woes each opening Woe to him who. The third woe breaks off at verse 14 for a promise that the earth will know the LORD's glory, which takes up Isaiah 11:9. The chapter ends at verse 20 by calling the whole earth to silence before the LORD in His temple.
Sources:
- The Berean text of Habakkuk 2 in the store.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on 2:14.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2:2.
Keep studying
Studies10
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary and John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets.
The form and classifications
the site's Habakkuk exposition, notes on 2:1 to 20, citing Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, and Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary, 1860.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1749; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.