THE PROPHET'S BURDEN. THE ANSWER OF JEHOVAH 1. Burden] RM 'oracle': see on Isaiah 13:1. 2, 3. HOW LONG?.. WHY?] Even a prophet (Habakkuk 1:1) can ask such questions. He never denies the existence of God, but he cannot understand His seeming failure to interpose in human affairs. In the end, howeve... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD YE AMONG THE HEATHEN] For this we ought to read, 'Behold, ye treacherous' (as in the quotation in Acts 13:41, 'ye despisers'). The despisers are those in Habakkuk 1:1 who trample upon moral and social law, thinking Jehovah will never intervene. IN YOUR DAYS] The profounder solution in Habakku... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHALDEANS] possibly written after the battle of Carchemish, in 605 b.c., with reference to Nebuchadrezzar and his army, so graphically described in Habakkuk 2:6. 7. The last clause means that the Chaldean recognises no master or judge: he is a law to himself.... [ Continue Reading ]
RM 'Their faces are set eagerly forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.'... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL HEAP DUST] i.e. they shall throw up an enlargement of earth, to take the fortress. 11. The correct translation should probably be: Then he sweeps by as a wind, and passes on and makes his might his God—an admirable climax to the description of the Chaldeans. 12-17. A new riddle.... [ Continue Reading ]
HABAKKUK'S faith is staggered by the conduct of the Chaldeans. He had welcomed them as ministers of the divine judgment, and 10!they had shown themselves to be cruel and haughty, working out not God's will, but their own. How was this consistent with the holiness of God? 13. The cry of a perplexed... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MAKEST] probably this should be 'and makes.' It is, as Habakkuk 1:15 show, the Chaldean who makes men like fish, sweeping them into his net.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SACRIFICES TO HIS NET] i.e. to his weapons of destruction, as to a god: for was not might his god? cp. Habakkuk 1:11. 17. This v. should probably read, 'Will he draw the sword for ever, slaying nations mercilessly evermore?'.... [ Continue Reading ]