Habakkuk1
New Living Translation
1This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.
2How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save.
3Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.
4The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.
5The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.
6I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.
7They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.
8Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9“On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them!
11They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”
12O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins.
13But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?
14Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader?
15Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?
16Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. “These nets are the gods who have made us rich!” they will claim.
17Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Habakkuk 1.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The wickedness of the land. The fearful vengeance to be executed. (1–11). These judgments to be inflicted by a nation more wicked than themselves. (12–17).
vv1-11
The servants of the Lord are deeply afflicted by seeing ungodliness and violence prevail; especially among those who profess the truth. No man scrupled doing wrong to his neighbour. We should long to remove to the world where holiness and love reign for ever, and no violence shall be before us. God has good reasons for his long-suffering towards bad men, and the rebukes of good men. The day will come when the cry of sin will be heard against those that do wrong, and the cry of prayer for those that suffer wrong. They were to notice what was going forward among the heathen by the Chaldeans, and to consider themselves a nation to be scourged by them. But most men presume on continued prosperity, or that calamities will not come in their days. They are a bitter and hasty nation, fierce, cruel, and bearing down all before them. They shall overcome all that oppose them. But it is a great offence, and the common offence of proud people, to take glory to themselves. The closing words give a glimpse of comfort.
vv12-17
However matters may be, yet God is the Lord our God, our Holy One. We are an offending people, he is an offended God, yet we will not entertain hard thoughts of him, or of his service. It is great comfort that, whatever mischief men design, the Lord designs good, and we are sure that his counsel shall stand. Though wickedness may prosper a while, yet God is holy, and does not approve the wickedness. As he cannot do iniquity himself, so he is of purer eyes than to behold it with any approval. By this principle we must abide, though the dispensations of his providence may for a time, in some cases, seem to us not to agree with it. The prophet complains that God's patience was abused; and because sentence against these evil works and workers was not executed speedily, their hearts were the more fully set in them to do evil. Some they take up as with the angle, one by one; others they catch in shoals, as in their net, and gather them in their drag, their enclosing net. They admire their own cleverness and contrivance: there is great proneness in us to take the glory of outward prosperity to ourselves. This is idolizing ourselves, sacrificing to the drag-net because it is our own. God will soon end successful and splendid robberies. Death and judgment shall make men cease to prey on others, and they shall be preyed on themselves. Let us remember, whatever advantages we possess, we must give all the glory to God.
Key Words
מַשָּׂא: a burden; specifically, tribute, or (abstractly) porterage; figuratively, an utterance, chiefly adoom, especially singing; mental, desire
חֲבַקּוּק: Chabakkuk, the prophet
נָבִיא: a prophet or (generally) inspired man
חָזָה: to gaze at; mentally to perceive, contemplate (with pleasure); specifically, to have avision of
אָן: where?; hence, whither?, when?; also hither and thither
עַד: as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)
שָׁוַע: properly, to be free; but used only causatively and reflexively, to halloo (for help, i.e. freedom from some trouble)
אֵיתָנִים: Ethanim, the name of a month
שָׁמַע: to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.)
זָעַק: to shriek (from anguish or danger); by analogy, (as a herald) to announce or convene publicly
Cross References
Habakkuk 1Paul explicitly quotes this verse in Antioch of Pisidia to warn Jewish unbelievers of coming judgment.
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Parallels God doing a marvelous, unbelievable work of judgment among His own people.
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Establishes the prophetic term 'burden' (massa) as a heavy, threatening divine message.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Echoes the desperate cry of 'violence' and feeling unheard by God during affliction.
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Parallels Habakkuk's agonizing expostulation with God concerning the prosperity and impunity of the wicked.
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Mosaic covenant curse predicting a swift, fierce, and foreign nation coming to destroy Israel.
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Verbal echo comparing voracious, unchecked oppressors to 'evening wolves' devouring prey.
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Verbal link describing judgment executing enemies under the metaphor of 'evening wolves'.
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Illuminates the idiom of a horse eagerly 'swallowing the ground' in swiftness and rage.
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Parallels God ordaining a wicked pagan empire as an instrument for correcting His people.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Internal chapter link echoing the central dilemma of a holy God tolerating treacherous workers.
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Historical fulfillment of God sending the Chaldeans against Judah according to His word.
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Verbal parallel to the devastating, dry, and violent east wind of judgment.
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Illustrates the Babylonian king's pride in attributing his power to his own divinity before falling.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The subsequent chapter's woes directly address the Chaldeans' violent gathering of nations like sand.
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