Habakkuk 1:10

(Verse 6 onwards) For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to take possession of dwelling places that are not theirs. They are feared and dreaded; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. They all come for violence; their faces forward; they gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh.

And they shall scoff at the kings,....

They shall scoff at the kings - No power shall be able to stand before them. It will be only as pastime to them to take the strongest places. They will have no need to build formidable ramparts: by sweeping the dust together they shall make mounts sufficient to pass over the walls and take the city.

And they - literally, “he,” the word stands emphatically, he, alone against all the kings of the earth Shall scoff at the kings - and all their might taking them away or setting them up at his pleasure and caprice, subduing them as though in sport And princes - literally, grave and majestic Shall be a scorn unto them - i. e. him. Compare Job 41:29. So Nebuchadnezzar bound Jehoiakim 2Ch 36:6; Dan 1:2 “in fetters to carry him to Babylon;” then, on his submission made him for three years a tributary king 2Ki 24:1, then on his rebellion sent bands of Chaldees and other tributaries against him 2Ki 24:2; and then, or when Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin, Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled, that he should “be buried with the burial of an ass, dragged and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem Jer 22:19, his dead body cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost” Jer 36:30. On the one hand, the expression “slept with his fathers” does not necessarily imply that Jehoiakim died a peaceful death, since it is used of Ahab 1Ki 22:40 and Amaziah 2Ki 14:20, 2Ki 14:22 (in the other, Jeremiah’s prophecy was equally fulfilled, if the insult to his corpse took place when Nebuchadnezzar took away Jehoiachin three months after his father’s death. See Daniel. Josephus attributes both the death and disgrace to Nebuchadnezzar: Ant. x. 6. 3), then Nebuchadnezzar took away Jehoiachin; then Zedekiah. He had also many kings captive with him in Babylon. For on his decease Evil-Merodach brought Jehoiachin out of his prison after 27 years of imprisonment, “and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon” 2Ki 25:27-28. Daniel says also to Nebuchadnezzar Dan 2:37-38; Dan 4:22, “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory. […]