Habakkuk 1 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Habakkuk 1

1:1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

2   O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not hear?
  Or cry to you “Violence!”
    and you will not save?
3   Why do you make me see iniquity,
    and why do you idly look at wrong?
  Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
4   So the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never goes forth.
  For the wicked surround the righteous;
    so justice goes forth perverted.

The Lord’s Answer

5   “Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
  For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told.
6   For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
    that bitter and hasty nation,
  who march through the breadth of the earth,
    to seize dwellings not their own.
7   They are dreaded and fearsome;
    their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8   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.
9   They all come for violence,
    all their faces forward.
    They gather captives like sand.
10   At kings they scoff,
    and at rulers they laugh.
  They laugh at every fortress,
    for they pile up earth and take it.
11   Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
    guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12   Are you not from everlasting,
    O LORD my God, my Holy One?
    We shall not die.
  O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
13   You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
  why do you idly look at traitors
    and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
14   You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
15   He¹ brings all of them up with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
  he gathers them in his dragnet;
    so he rejoices and is glad.
16   Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
  for by them he lives in luxury,²
    and his food is rich.
17   Is he then to keep on emptying his net
    and mercilessly killing nations forever?

Footnotes

[1] 1:15 That is, the wicked foe
[2] 1:16 Hebrew his portion is fat

Commentary

v1-4: "Why Lord?" comes the prophet's question. The problem of injustice, when the wicked prosper, and the righteous suffer. There is destruction and violence, strife and conflict. The "law is paralysed," ie there is no restraint on the people.

We confess that our observation seems to contradict our understanding of God; we see an apparent tolerance of sins, the wicked enjoying freedom to sin, the righteous in sorrow. Yet we need to see how God sees, and Habakkuk himself learns this.

v5-8: God's work, for He is neither silent nor passive; He does speak and He does act. Watch what He is about to do.

God raises up the Chaldean army against Judah, and against many other nations. This army is described graphically; ruthless and impetuous, feared and dreaded, a law to themselves, promoting their own honour. Although they are God's instrument of judgment, that does not imply that He approves of all their methods, but it does indicate God's power to raise up such an army.

v9-10: The great power and success of the Babylonian army, gathering prisoners like sand, scoffing at other rulers, mocking fortifications erected against them.

v11: Babylon attributes his success to his own god, ignorant of the fact that their victories are due to the power of the true God. Babylon continues, apparently unstoppable, like the wind.

v12: As Habakkuk struggles with the circumstances he observes, and the apparent contradictions with the very character of God, he begins to see the distinction between God's people and Gentiles; "we will not die," is true of those who know and love God; in contrast, Babylon has been raised up to execute God's judgment upon nations.

v13: Habakkuk's understanding, that God is holy, "too pure to look on (tolerate) evil," and yet He has appointed the cruellest of nations to destroy other nations.

v14-15: Babylon's success, like a fisherman with a dragnet, gathering everything in its wake.

v16: Babylon imputes his numerous victories to his dragnet, his god; through such victories, he has gained great wealth.

v17: Unless God were to intervene, it seems, Babylon will continue her destructive career.