// . / 3 2 S 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON. N. J. 
 
 Presented by 
 
 7 
 
 Sectio7i.A.\r:T..jLi ^ 
 
^y 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/bookofhabakkuk149klei 
 
\ 
 
COMMENTARY ^,g,,^ 
 
 ON THE 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURES: 
 
 CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND HOMILETICAL. 
 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS 
 
 BT 
 
 JOHK PETER ^LAISTGE, D. D., 
 
 OKDINABT PBOnSSOB OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITT OF BONN, 
 or oonnunoii wtth a kumbbb of khutsht kcropkax orvuraa 
 
 TRANSLATED, ENLARGED, AND EDITED 
 
 PHILIP SOHAFF, D. D., 
 
 PKOFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. NEW YORK, 
 la oomnccTioK with amerioajt scholars of various bvangklical denomuatioss. 
 
 WO*'*mE XIV. OV THE OLD TESTAMENT: CONTAINING THE MINOR PROPHETS 
 
 NEW YOKlv: 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 
 
 1891) 
 
THE 
 
 MINOR PROPHETS 
 
 EXEGETICALLY, THEOLOGICALLY. AND HOMILETICALLy 
 
 EXPOUNDED 
 
 PAUL KLEINERT, OTTO SCHMOLLER, 
 
 GEORGE R. BLISS, TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, CHARLES ELLIOTT, 
 
 JOHN FORSYTH, J. FREDERICK Mc CURDY, AND 
 
 JOSEPH PACKARD. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 CHAKLES SCEIBNER'8 SONS, 
 
 1699 
 
Iktend mccording to Act of Congress, in the vear 1874, ev 
 
 8CRIBNER, AkmSTRONQ, AND COMPANY, 
 
 IB the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washinotssb 
 
 Trow's 
 Printing and Bookbinding Company, 
 205-213 East \-2.th St., 
 NEW VORK. 
 
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR 
 
 The volume on the Minor Prophets is partly in advance of the German original, 
 which has not yet reached the three post-exilian Prophets. The commentaries on the nin< 
 earlier Prophets by Professors Kleinert and Schmoller appeared in separate number! 
 eome time ago ^ ; but for Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, Dr. Lange has not, to this date, 
 been able to secure a suitable co-laborer.^ With his cordial approval I deem it better to 
 complete the volume by original commentaries than indefinitely to postpone the publication. 
 They were prepared by sound and able scholars, in conformity with the plan of the whole 
 work. 
 
 The volume accordingly contains the following parts, each one being paged separately : — 
 
 1. A General Introduction to the Prophets, especially the Minor Prophets, by 
 Rev. Charles Elliott, D. D., Professor of Biblical Exegesis in Chicago, Illinois. The 
 general introductions of Kleinert and Schmoller are too brief and incomplete for our purpose, 
 and therefore I requested Dr. Elliott to prepare an independent essay on the subject. 
 
 2. Hosea. By B,ev. Dr. Otto Schmoller. Translated from the Grerman and en- 
 larged by James Frederick Mc Curdy, M. A., of Princeton. N. J. 
 
 3. Joel. By Otto Schmoller. Translated and enlarged by Rev. John Forsyth, 
 D. D., LL. D., Chaplain and Professor of Ethics and Law in the United States Military 
 Academy, West Point, N. Y. 
 
 4. Amos. By Otto Schmoller. Translated and enlarged by Rev. Talbot W 
 Chambers, D. D., Pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, New York. 
 
 5. Obadiah. By Rev. Paul Kleinert, Professor of Old Testament Theology in the 
 University of Berlin. Translated and enlarged by Rev. George R. Bliss, D. D., Professor 
 in the University of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. 
 
 6. Jonah. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of the University of Berlin. Translated and en- 
 larged by Rev. Charles Elliott, Professor of Biblical Exegesis in Chicago.' 
 
 7. MicAH. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of Berlin, and Prof. George R. Bliss, of Lewie- 
 burg. 
 
 8. Nahum. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of Berlin, and Prof. Chables Elliott, of 
 Chicago. 
 
 9. Habakeue. By Professors Kleinert and Elliott. 
 
 1 Obadjah, Jonah, Mieha, Nahum, Habakuk, Zephanjak. Wissenshaftlieh undfUr Htn Gebraueh der Kireht mugeUgt «om 
 Paot. KuEDfEBT, Pfarrer zu St. Gertraud und a. Professor an der Univtrsitdt zu Berlin. Bielefeld u. Leipzig, 1868. — DU 
 Propheten Hosea, Joel und Amos. TheologiteMiomUetisch bearbeitet von Orro SoBUOlLSR, Licent. der Theologie, Diaeomu 
 m Uraeh. Bielef. and Leipzig, 1872. 
 
 2 The eommentary of Rev. W. Pmbskl on tliese three Prophets (Die naehexiiisehen Propheten, Qotha, 1870) w» 
 crlginally prepared for Lange's Bible-work, but was rejected by Dr. Lange mainly on accoont of Pressel's views on cIm 
 ftnuineness and integrity of Zechariah. It was, however, independently published, and was made use ot, like othar 
 eommentaries, by the authors of the respective sections in this volume. 
 
 8 Dr. Elliott desires to render tiia acknowledgments to the Rev. Reuben Dederiok, of Chicago, and the Rev. Jaeok 
 liotke, of Faribault, Minnesota, for valuable assistance in translatinit some difficult passages In KleinofB 0<Hnin«ntuui 
 ID Jonah, Nabum, and Habakkuk. 
 
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDIT(»R. 
 
 10. Zephaniah. By Professors Klein ert and Elliott. 
 
 11. £[aggai. By James Frederick McCurdy, M. A., Princeton, N. J. 
 
 12. Zechariah By B«v. Talbot W. Chambers, D. D., New York. (See special 
 preface.) 
 
 13. Malachi. By Rev. Joseph Packard, D. D., Professor of Biblical Literature in 
 the Theological Semiimry at Alexandria, Virginia. 
 
 The contributors to this volume were directed carefully to consult the entire ancient and 
 modern literature on the Minor Prophets and to enrich it with the latest results of Grerman 
 and Anglo-American scholarship. 
 
 The remaining parts of the Old Testament are all under way, and will be published af 
 fast as the nature of the work will permit. 
 
 PHILIP SCHAFF. 
 
 DmoH THaoLoarcuj Sejchaii, Nirw Yosa. . -ir.utiry, 1874. 
 
THE 
 
 r'O'/ 7 "7 lOOQ 
 
 BOOK OF HABAKKUK. 
 
 EXPOUNDED 
 
 PAUL "^LEHsTEET, 
 
 FltTOm AT ST. QERTRAUD, AND PROFESSOR OP OLD TESTAMENT THBOLOOT » 
 UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 
 
 TRANSLATED AND ENLARGED 
 
 CHARLES ELLIOTT, D. D., 
 
 rBOTKaaoB or biblical litkbatuke in the peesbytebian thbolooical beminabt at CHIOAOO, IU 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 CHAKLES SCRIBXER'S SONS, 
 
tetond according to Act of C<v«fes8, in the year 1874) bf 
 
 ^CRiBNEK. Armstrong, and Compaht, 
 ■ tkft Kjidct ui thk LJbtarian of Congress, at Washingtoa. 
 
HABAKKUK. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 L Contents and Form. 
 
 Thk first part of this book, chaps, i. and ii., contains a dialogue between Grod and the 
 prophet, which, not only by its form, but also by the pure elevation of its style, is closely 
 connected with Micah vi. and vii. It takes from the empirical present only its starting- 
 point, in order to exhibit immediately the great course of coming events, according to its 
 nature, as an embodiment of the fundamental ideas of the kingdom of God. The dialogue 
 treats, in two gradations, of God's plan with Israel and with the heathen secular power, 
 which is here pointed out with clear precision as the Chaldaean, i. 6. Israel's sin must be 
 punished by a severe and powerful judgment, and the scourge is already raised, which will 
 fall upon the generation living at present (i. 1-11). But it is a revelation of the righteous- 
 ness of Jehovah, which is to be executed, and which will strike the destroyer as well as 
 every sinful being upon earth. At the last the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of 
 the glory of Jehovah and keep silence before Him. With this the prophet consoles be- 
 lievers (i. 12-ii. 20). As in Micah, so here also the dialogue falls into a hymn artistically 
 constructed after the manner of the Psalms (chap, iii.), which, according to the model of 
 the old sacred national songs, and in the form (which from these has become customary) of 
 a wonderfully glorious theophany, celebrates the judgment of God upon the heathen, and; 
 in connection with it, the salvation of Israel. 
 
 By the liturgical additions at the beginning and the end this hymn was appointed for pub- 
 lic performance in the temple ; as may be seen also from the recurrence of the Selah, which 
 is characteristic of liturgical hymns. 
 
 As concerns the form of the prophetical language of this book, " it is classical through- 
 out, full of rare and select words and turns, which are to some extent exclusively his own, 
 whilst his view and mode of presentation bear the seal of independent force and finished 
 beauty. Notwithstanding the violent rush (which is yet more regular than in Nahum) and 
 lofty soaring of the thoughts, his prophecy forms a finely organized and artistically rounded 
 whole." (Delitzsch.) But the lyric ring of the language throughout, in which he unites the 
 power of Isaiah and the tender feeling of Jeremiah, is peculiar to himself. 
 
 [Keil, Introduction to the Old Testament, vol. i. p. 414 : " The prophecy of Habakkuk ia 
 clothed in a dramatic form, man questioning and complaining, God answering with threat- 
 ening. It announces as nearest of all, the impending fearful judgment by the instrumen- 
 tality of the Chaldseans on the theocracy because of its prevailing moral corruption (chap, i.) ; 
 and next to this, in a fivefold woe, the downfall of this arrogant, violent, God-forgetting, and 
 Idolatrous offender (chap, ii.) ; and it concludes with the answer of the believing Church to 
 this twofold divine revelation, — that is to say, with a prophetico-lyric echo of the impres- 
 sions and feelings produced in the prophet's mind — (1) by these two divine relations when 
 pondered in the light of the Lord's great doings in times past [ch. iii.] (2)." 
 
 " (1) Comp. the admirable development of the contents of this prophecy, and of its organic 
 articulation as it forms an indivisible whole, in Delitzsch, Comm. There is now no more 
 need of reftiting the contrary opinions (proceeding from utter want of understanding) of 
 Ealinsky, p. 145 ff.; of Friedrich in Eichhorn, AUg. Biblioth., x. p. 420 ff.; of Horst, Visione» 
 
HABAKKUK. 
 
 Hob., pp. 31-32; of Rosenmiiller, of Maurer, and otters, that the book contains various dis- 
 courses of various dates. The same may be said of the assertion of Hamaker, p. 16 fF., that 
 the first discourse is only a fragment. 
 
 " (2) Hence it leans in manifold ways on the older songs and psalms, and reproduces 
 their thoughts (Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; Judg. v. 4, 5 ; Ps. Ixviii. 8, 9), but especially on Ps. Ixxvii, 
 16-21 ; couip. Delitzsch, Hah., p. 118 ff." — C. E.] 
 
 n. Date. 
 
 The unity of the book, which the exegesis will hereafter have to confirm, is shown by the 
 very statement of the contents. If we then inquire concerning the circumstances, under 
 which the prophecy arose, we must reject, at the outset, the arbitrary attempts at division 
 into parts by Rosen muller, and Maurer, according to whom a chronological intercalation, 
 namely, the invasion of the ChaUlzeans, should be made between chaps, i. and ii. Tha 
 dialogue is continued beyond the beginning of chap. ii. Also for the gradual chronological 
 progress, which Hitzig finds indicated in the book (that the enemy is approaching, chap. i. ; 
 tliat he is present, chap, iii.), there is neither a firm support, nor a psychological possibility 
 of conceiving it. The [command to] "Keep silence before Jehovah" (ii. 20), is evidently 
 an introduction to the liymn, in which the prophecy culminates. While the woes ii. 6 ff., 
 whirh do not exhibit the judgment itself, but its necessity, are still sounding over the earth, 
 the world is summoned to hsten to Him, whose coming the hymn announces. 
 
 One may accordingly, witiiout danger of error, assume a single point of time for the com- 
 position. But when is this to be sought? Finding that Habakkuk puts emphasis on that 
 which is unexpected and wonderful in the announcement, which he (i. 5) certainly utters 
 with great stress, many interpreters have been induced to maintain, that he must have proph- 
 esied at a time, when there was not even the most distant suspicion that any calamity was 
 to be apprehended from the Chaldfeans. Now in 2 Kings xxi. 10 fi". (comp. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 
 10), it is expressly stated, that under Manasseh (698-643), the successor of Hezekiah, the 
 prophets announce d the approach of a terrible calamity, at which the ears of the people 
 should tingle. Among these prophets accordingly Habakkuk may be numbered ; and this 
 may be the situation [of things] in which he wrote. This opinion of Wahl, Jahn, Haver- 
 nick, and others, Keil also declares the most probable. But should the incredible circum- 
 stance of the prophecy lie in the fact that it speaks of the Chaldaeans, then to refer its date 
 to the time of Manasseh would not be sufficiently in keeping with this vievr. Ah-eady under 
 Hezekiah, his predecessors (Micah iv. 10, and Isaiah xxxix. 23, 13) had foreseen the power 
 of the Chaldaeans. The incredibility lies rather in the preseiitlij impending approach of 
 the Chaldaeans : and the narrative (Jer. xxxvi, 9-32), proves that this, until immediately 
 before their first invasion of Palestine, in the time of Jehoiakim, was considered something 
 incredible and not to be announced. And in the calamity predicted by the prophets in the 
 time of Manasseh, the chronicler perceives already the expedition of Assarhaddon (2 Chron. 
 xxxiii. 11; compare ver. 10). (Compare, moreover, Introd. to Nahum, p. 4 f., and Movers, 
 ChroniL, p. 327 fF.) Moreover the energy of the proplietic words (i. 5) is a peculiarity of pro- 
 phetic diction, and affords no ground for supporting the historical date ; but rather the adjoined 
 clause, " in your days," which is to be read in the same verse, and which has hei-e a special 
 emphasis (comp. Ez. xii. 25) in the mouth of the prophet, proves, as Delitzsch acknowledges, 
 that this prophec}- must be placed considerably nearer the catastrophe of which it treats, 
 than the reign of Manasseh, which was separated from the invasion of the Chaldaeans by 
 more than a generation. It is besides hardly conceivable, how just in the time of Manasseh, 
 in which the worship of Jehovah was forced to give way to idolatry (2 Chron. xxxiii. 4 f.; 2 
 Kings xxi. 4 f.), Habakkuk should have composed the psalm, chap, iii., for the public ser- 
 vice : it [the psalm] rather presupposes that the ecclesiastical reforms of Josiah (641-610) 
 had already taken root in the popular life. Add to this, finally, that the Chaldaeans are not 
 merely mentioned, but their wild appearance and their vast success are described with an 
 exactness and fullness, from which it is evident that the powerful nation was, in the time of 
 the prophet, already on the way and had acquired for itself a terrible name. This last ar- 
 gument contravenes the opinion of Vitringa, Delitzsch, and others, who would like to place 
 iius prophecy at least in the age of Josiah. Further, the description of the public life, with 
 which Habakkuk (i. 2-4) introduces the announcement of the judgment, is opposed to this 
 •econd date. For should the prophccv fall in the time of Josiah, it would fall either before. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or after his reforms The former is impossible, since it presupposes, as observed above, the 
 reform of worship. But if it is placed after the reform, then the description of the ruined 
 condition of Israel, could not, as Delitzsch thinks, be so understood that the reforms intro- 
 duced a time ( f winnowing and consequently a strong contrast between the godless and the 
 rigliteous ; for Habakkuk says nothing of such a contrast, but he speaks of a perversion of 
 justice, which, in the nature of the case, does not come from below, but from above : his ad- 
 dress (i. 2 ff. ; as also in chap. ii. 9 ff. again) is directed against those in high authority, 
 1 inally the words, " in your days," if spoken in the time of Josiah, would be in direct con- 
 tradiction to the prophecy of the prophetess Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 18 ff.), according tc 
 which the calamity was not to fall upon Judah in the lifetime of Josiah. Nothing remains, 1 
 therefore, but to place this prophecy in the reign of Jehoiakim (GlO-.'iDQ). So De Wette,] 
 Ewald, Umbreit, Hitzig, Baumlein, Bleck. 
 
 Indeed all the circumstantial evidence is also in favor of this time. Babylon had sud- 
 denly risen as from nothing [r/em Nichts, the nothing, Kenoma — C. E.], in the time of 
 Jehoiakim, by the overthrow of Nineveh (comp. In trod, to Nahum iv.), to the summit of 
 power. It was a spectacle in wliich Nahum also perceived a stupendous act of God. Tak- 
 ing advantage of the complications in Mesopotamia, Necho King of Egypt had alreadv 
 previously set out, seized the kingdoms on the Mediterranean, and had deprived King Josiah 
 who manfully opposed him in the battle of Megiddo (vi. 10), of throne and life; had alsc 
 carried away Jehoahaz, his legitimate successor to the tlrrone, into Egypt, and put in his 
 place Jehoiakim, a weak and impious man, as King over Judah (2 Kinirs xxiii. 37-xxiv, 
 4). His expeditions advanced continually onward, whilst the Babylonian and Median 
 armies were held fast before Nineveh ; and already had he pushed forward to the Euphrates, 
 when Nineveh fell. Immediately Nebuchadnezzar marched against him with his Babylon- 
 ians exulting in victory, annihilated, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, b. c. 605, the Egyp- 
 tian power at Carchemish (Circesium) on the Euphrates (Jer. xlvi. 2; Jos., Ant., x. 6, 1) 
 and pursued the fugitives even to the borders of Egypt. That during this career of victory 
 Jehoiakim also, the creature of Necho, did not escape without trouble, is not merely prob- 
 able and to be inferred from the direction of the march, but by the numerous allusions ic 
 Jeremiah, as well as by 2 Kings xxiv. 1, and Dan. i. 2, certain. (That Daniel mentions the 
 third year of Jehoiakim instead of the fourth, has its ground probably in a different system 
 of calculation; comp. Niebuhr, Gesch. Ass. u. Babels S., 327 [_Hist. Ass. and Babylon, p, 
 327]). 
 
 It is now certain that Habakkuk prophesied before this invasion of the Babylonians, for 
 as yet Jerusalem is in a state of secure and godless infatuation (i. 2 ff.). Just as certain is 
 it that his prophecy does not refer to that alone : it embraces the whole Chaldaean oppres- 
 sion, which found its consummation in the year 588. But if we inquire more specially for 
 the definite time of his prophecy within the years 610-605, then it, as also the scene de- 
 scribed Jer. xxxvi. 9 ff., must be placed in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and immediately 
 before the battle of Carchemish. Only from this situation, in which the distress is certainly 
 already approaching (comp. the fast, Jer. xxxvi. 9, which was at all events appointed upon 
 Necho's^ arrangement), a situation in which the decisive blow had not yet fallen, there be- 
 ing still good confidence in Jerusalem, can both the following circumstances be understood • 
 namely, that Habakkuk proclaims his message as something incredible — (it was indeed in- 
 credible that the power of the Egyptians regarded, since the battle of Megiddo, as invinci- 
 ble, should be overthrown by this people of yesterday) — and that Jehoiakim causes the 
 similar message of Jeremiah to be destroyed as treason — (had the battle of Carchemish 
 been fought, then the message of Jeremiah was not only no treason, but such as one might 
 expect) ; and also, that Habakkuk had sufficient reason to describe the Chaldaeans in the 
 manner in which he has done, i. G ff. Comjiare on i. II. That in the time between Josiah's 
 death and the fall of Necho such a state of things, as described in Hab. i. 2 ff. must have 
 existed in Jerusalem, is considering the character of Jehoiakim, the Vassal-prince, who was 
 reigning illegally [wider das RecJit, contrary to right], more than probable. And as the old 
 laconic rabbinical document (^Seder Olam rabba, c. 24) records the great deeds of Nebuchad 
 uezzar ; " in the first year he overthrew Nineveh, in the second, Jehoiakim ; " it thus affbrdu 
 a beautiful parallel to the consecutive prophecies of Nahum and Habakkuk. 
 
 Against the date just given, Delitzsch urges the coincidences between Habakkuk and th« 
 
 I [There is no intimation in Jer. xxivi. 9 that Necho had anything to do with the fast. See Lange's Com on J" 
 tixTi. 9 — C. E.l 
 
HABAKKUK. 
 
 prophecies of Zepbaniah and Jeremiah written in the time of Josiah. In relation to Zcph- 
 aniah, only the passage, ii. 20, comp. Zeph. i. 7, " keep silence befoie the Lord," comes intc 
 consideration. However the proof based upon conformity of sound is always two-edged; 
 therefore relatively without edge. If it must be conceded that Zepbaniah has very many 
 passages from older prophets, it does not at all follow from this, that be must be pressed 
 down to such a measure of dependence, that he has nothing original, and that wheresoever 
 he coincides with another prophet he is always the borrower. Or will Delitzsch on account 
 of Zeph. i. 18 (comp. Ezek. vii. 19), make Ezekiel also prophecy before Zepbaniah? And 
 if Delitzsch urges the more detailed form of the sentence [rfes Spruchs, sentence, judgment], 
 in Habakkuk as a proof of originality, then there is no ground to deviate, in Habakkuk, from 
 the common principle of criticism, that the briefer passage has for itself the prejudice in 
 favor of the higher antiquity. On the one hand, it is not in the fact that he would gen- 
 erally be absolutely original, which Delitzsch himself in regard to the passages ii. 1-13 ; iii. 
 18 (which might be easily multiplied) (comp. Micah iii. 10 ; Is. xi. 9 ; Micah vii. 7), must 
 grant ; and on the other hand, he is indeed also in regard to other prophets a borrower, 
 who enriches what he borrows; comp., e. g., ii. 15 ff. with Nab. iii. 11 ; ii. 1-4 with Is. xxviii. 
 16. If finally Delitzsch thinks that he can draw a proof for the higher antiquity of Habak- 
 kuk from the fact that in Zepbaniah a decline of the prophetic originality is manifested, still 
 this subjective observation even according to the opinion of Delitzsch does not proceed upon 
 a chronological ground — for he can, at the most, fix a difference of six years between their 
 prophecies — but upon an individual [ground]. Just as the coincidences with Zepbaniah, 
 so also those with Jeremiah are capable of a double turn. There is no reason whatever 
 why the leopards (Hab. i. 8), should be more original than the eagles (Jer. iv. 13), and why 
 the wolves of the desert (Jer. v. 6), should be later than the evening wolves (Hab. i. 8), which 
 besides referring to Ps. lix. are perhaps borrowed from Zeph. iii. 3. 
 
 But the argument, which, in the opinion of Delitzsch, is most conclusive, namely, that if 
 Habakkuk had predicted the Chaldsean catastrophe so long before it happened, a proof of the 
 inspiration of his prophecy is derived from this prophetic power, is not, on several grounds, 
 determinative. First, because it is an argument ex utilltate. Next, because it does not at 
 a11 need this : we have an argument belonging here in Is. xxxix., which even invalidates the 
 one offered by Delitzsch, since Habakkuk would take up again and continue Isaiah. Finally, 
 from the fact that prophets predicted future events long beforehand (to deny which in these 
 days is nothing new), a proof of inspiration is derived only for him who is entirely skeptical 
 in regard to the divination of the heathen and its verification, which is not seldom elevated 
 above all opposition. The proof of inspiration lies not merely in the gift of foretelling indi- 
 didual temporal events, but much deeper. (Comp. Diisterdieck, De Rei Propheticce, in V. T. 
 natura ethica, Gott., 1852). If Habakkuk had written only the single declaration ii. 4, it 
 would have afforded a stronger proof of his inspiration to him who believes, than if he had 
 foretold, in the time of Abraham, the fall of Babylon. But to him who is not open to con- 
 viction, even the proof from foretelling events, at such a distance, is of no value, as Delitzsch 
 himself might see from the contemptible treatment which his honest labor had to endure from 
 Hitzig. Comp. infra, p. 15. 
 
 [According to the contents of the prophecy, Habakkuk prophesied before the invasion of 
 Palestine by the Chaldaeans. 
 
 1. Vitringa, Delitzsch, Kiiper, and others refer his prophecy to the time of Josiah, between 
 650 and 627 before Christ: — 
 
 (a) According to chap. i. 5, about 20-30 years before the Chaldsean invasion (Delitzsch) ; 
 
 (b) According to chap. ii. 20, compared with Zeph. i. 7, shortly before Zepbaniah (Kiiper, 
 Caspari) ; 
 
 (c) According to chap. i. 8 compared with Jer. iv. 13 and v. 6, before the appearance of 
 Jeremiah, consequently before the 13th year of Josiah (Keil, Introd.). 
 
 2. According to some Rabbins, Witsius, Buddeus, Carpzov, Wahl, Kofod, Jahn, Havep* 
 nick, Keil (^Comm.), Habakkuk prophesied in the time of Manasseh. 
 
 3. According to Stickel, Jager, Knobel, Maurer, Ewald, De Wette, Kleinert, during th« 
 advance of Nebuchadnezzar, in the time of Jehoiakira. 
 
 4. According to Eichhorn, Bertheau, Justi, AVolf, and others, in the time of the deTasta* 
 liop of the land of Judah by the Chaldaeans, so that the prophecy of Habakkuk would be 
 3nly a vaticiniura ex eventu. Hertwig's TabeJlen. C. E.] 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 [lienormant and Cbevallier date the prophecy of Habakkuk in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, 
 when Necho, King of Egypt, was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish. Vol. i. p. 186, 
 — C. E.] 
 
 m. Author. 
 
 If Habakkuk, as we have shown, prophesied under Jehoiakim, then of course he could 
 have been still living, when Daniel was cast into the lions' den. Notwithstanding the apoc- 
 ryphal narrative of [Bel and the] Dragon, which (ver. 33 ff.) causes him to be carried by an 
 angel to Babylon, to the martyr, has, judging from its whole character, little probability, yet 
 it is so far interesting, as it shows how even the old Jewish tradition removes the ministry 
 of the prophet to the vei-y closest proximity to the Clialdaean catastrophe. Moreover, De- 
 litzsch also thinks that the superscription of this apocryphon in the LXX. (Cod. Chisianus) : 
 'EiK Trpo^T/retus 'A/x/3a/cou/x. uiou 'Irjcrov eK tt}? cfivXr]^ Aevt, can be turned to good account for 
 the purpose of determining the circumstances of the prophet's life. He combines it with the 
 rubric at the end of the psalm (chap. iii. 19) in which the prophet directs that the hymn, 
 when sung, be accompanied by his stringed instrument. From that circumstance Delitzsch 
 (and after him Keil) concludes that Habakkuk must have been officially authorized to par- 
 ticipate in the temple-music, and must accordingly have been a Levite. But this does not 
 follow from the notice iii. 19 ; we read that King Hezekiah also, who was no Levite, declared 
 that he would sing in the temple with his stringed instrument (Is. xxxviii. 20) ; consequently 
 this practice in public worship was not confined to the Levites. Thus the assumption is 
 based simply upon that direction [that the hymn should be accompanied in its performanc<j 
 by his stringed instrument], and is the more questionable, as it may possibly owe its origin 
 to some ancient, who led the way to the conclusion of Delitzsch : another tradition refers 
 Habakkuk to the tribe of Simeon. (Compare this and similar synagogal-Christian tradi- 
 tions in the careful critical collection of Delitzsch, De Habacuci Proph. vita et jEtate). 
 Whether the grave of Habakkuk, which continued to be pointed out in the days of Eusebius 
 and Hieitjnymus {Onom., ed. Parsow et Parthey, 128 ff.) between Keila ani Gabatha, was 
 the true one, cannot be affirmed with certainty. 
 
 For more certain data concerning the circumstances of his life, we are consequently di- 
 rected entirely to his book ; and this furnishes us with no information, apart from the char- 
 acteristic condition of the time, except his name and the notice that he was a prophet (i. 1 ; 
 iii. 1). The name Habakkuk is formed, according to an elsewhere occurring derivation, by 
 the reduplication of the third radical and an inserted shurck ("li"lDE7 y^'^'32, etc., Olsh., sec. 
 187 b from the root l^^Tl, to embrace. (Compare Luther, below.) The Masoretic punctua- 
 tion exhibits the phenomenon common to all languages, that proper names frequently de- 
 viate, in the manner of writing them, from the rule of the customary orthography. Accord- 
 ing to the analogy of the related forms it should be pointed ppZlC* Besides daghesh forte 
 euphonicum has not always been read in the p, but, e. g., by the LXX in the 3; hence the 
 rendering 'A/x/JaKoi'/x, in which it [p,'] is represented by //, a sound more euphonious to the 
 Greek. The final /x of this form is repeated from the close of the antepenult, because it wasi 
 dissonant to the Greek ear to begin and end a syllable with the same consonant. In the 
 same way, 2^3? ^275 ^^^ been rendered BeeA^e^ouA. (Hitzig). 
 
 IV. Place in the Organism of Scripture. 
 
 As Nahum is important in the succession of prophecy in that he concludes the Assyrian 
 series; so is Habakkuk in that he (with Jeremiah) begins the Babylonian (comp. Obadiah,p, 
 11). The description of the Chaldsean runs parallel with that of the Assyrian (Is. v.) On the 
 other hand, chap. 3 fits into the series of the Old Testament theophanies, which, resting upon 
 the first coming of Jehovah to give the law, describe his second coming to vindicate it, and 
 it forms a conclusion to this method [of describing his coming]. From the time of the exile 
 onward the coming of God to judgment is represented no more in the form of the theophany 
 but in that of the apocalypse. 
 
 But alongside of the external importance of the book there is an internal one. The 
 ground lines of the kingdom of God, as they come to light in the divine economy of the 
 world, are in few prophets so strongly r. arked as in Habakkuk. The character, in whict 
 
HABAKKUK. 
 
 .he world-power enters into the circle of God's nd ministration of his kingdom ati be- 
 :'omes an object of the judgment, is fully delineated in the three sentences, that are com 
 plementary to each other, namely, from him emanate his right and his majesty (i. 7) , 
 his soul is puffed up, it is not right in him (ii. 4) ; he is guilty, whose power is his god (i. 
 11). The sovereign insolence of self-glory, which in pure arrogance puts itself in the 
 place of God as judge upon earth, is the cause of the judgment : thereby all the temporal 
 manifestations of that which is opposed to God, from Gen. xi. until the time of the end are 
 judged. Again, the characteristics of the fate of the kingdom are given in the sentences : 
 the just shall live by his steadfast faith (ii. 4) ; I must wait calmly for the day of afflic- 
 tion (iii. 16) ; I will rejoice in God my salvation (iii. 18). The way of him, who stands 
 fast upon the Word of God, — a way marked by humility and fidelity — must lead to salva- 
 tion. It is the mutual relation of the stability of the divine word (ii. 3) and of the sta- 
 bility of him who perseveres in it, whereby the solidarity ^ between God and the subjects 
 of his kingdom, which is indicated by the name b^'P' £J^'^^^? 0- ^2), and whereby the im- 
 potence and self-destructive character of all attacks directed against this mutual covenant, 
 are characterized. But from the spiritual nature of these definitions \_Beiitimmungen, de- 
 fined objects] arises a spiritual limitation of the idea of Israel. It is no longer the Israel 
 according to the flesh, to whom the promise avails in its full extent : they [Israel according 
 to the flesh] are the object of the Divine judgment, as well as the Babylonians (i. 2 ff. ; 
 ii. 9 ff.) ; but it is the Israel according to the spirit, the jusi. jy faith, who are separated bj 
 the judgment out of the mass of external Israel (i. 12). With clear penetration Paul, when 
 it was his object to place in the light this difference in its New Testament fulfillment, 
 set his foot directly upon the Old Testament foundation of this prophet. One does 
 wrong to the epoch-forming significance of this prophet, if he restricts his book merely tc 
 the import of a book of consolation. With similar precision is the character also of thf 
 judgment of purification delineated : Thou, rock, hast appointed him, the enemy, for instruct- 
 ive chastisement (i. 12). And out of the old conception of the holiness of God, according 
 to which it (holiness) is his relation to the elect people (i. 12), the new conception, which 
 is ethical in its elements, struggles forth. Thou canst not look calmly upon evil (i. 13). 
 Ne.xt to Isaiah xl. ff. Habakkuk is the most powerful evangelist among the prophets. 
 
 Concerning the coincidences with earlier prophets compare ii. above. They are more 
 n amerous than in Nahum, however proportionally few. On the other hand, a rich acquaint- 
 ance with the Psalms is a characteristic of this prophet, as it is of Micah and Nahum, a 
 characteristic corresponding to the IvtIc character of the book. On this point compare the 
 Exegetical Exposition, chap. iii. 
 
 His place in the Canon is justified not only by the close relationship of the contents to 
 those of Nahum, but also by the inscription : just as the massaim are placed together in the 
 book of Isaiah, so also are they in the book of the Minor Prophets. Luther ^ : Habakkuk 
 has a right name for his office. For Habakkuk means an embracer, or one who takes an- 
 other in his arms and presses liim to his heart. This he does in his prophecy : he embracei 
 his people and takes them in his arms, i. e., he comforts them and holds them up, as one em- 
 braces a weeping child or person, to quiet him with the assurance, that, if God will, he will 
 be better. 
 
 5. Literature. 
 
 Separate Commentaries. Wolfg. Fabr. Capito, Enarrationes in Proph. Hab., Argent, 
 1526. J. D. Grynaeus, Hypomnemoneumata in Hab., Bas., 1582, 8vo. Ant. Agelli, Comm. in 
 P. H., Ant., 1597. S. v. Til, Phosphorux Prophet icus S. Mosis et Hahacuci Vaticinia, etc., 
 Lugd. Bat., 1700, 4to. Abarbanel, Comm. rabb.Hehr. et Lat., ed. St. Sprecher, Helmst., 1709. 
 J. G. Kalinsky, Hubacnci et Nahiimi Vaticinia illustr., Vratisl., 1748, 4to. A. Chrysander, 
 Genaue Uebersetzung und buchstdblicher Verstand dex P. Hab. [An Exact Translation and ijit- 
 eral Sense of the P. Hab.], Rint., 1752, 4to. C. F. Sfaudlin, Hosea, Nahum und Habakuk 
 nnsfjelegt [Hos., Nah., and Hab. explained], Stuttg., 1786. F. G. Wahl, Der Prophet Hab- 
 afruk uhersetzt und erkldrl [The Prophet Habakkuk translated and interpreted]. Ham., 1790 
 Birger Kofod, Chabacuci Vatic., Havn., 1792. G. C. Horst, Die Visionen Habakuks [The 
 
 1 [Solidarity : the mutu.il obliRation of all to each and of each to all. — C. E.] 
 
 •i Luther's Commnuary on Habakkuk (Erfurt, 1526) affords the peculiar historical interest, in that it is (lireotec 
 •hrouf^hout in a polemic m.anner, against the nobility and the bishops, who barbarously made the most of their victory 
 >Ter the insurrectionary peasants. In the extracts given below this reference is of course left out. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Visions of Habakkuk], Gotha, 1798. K. W. Justi, Ber Prophet Habakuk iibersetzt und erh- 
 Idrt [The Prophet Habakkuk translated and interpreted], Lpz., 1821. A. A. WolfF, Det 
 Prophet Habakuk [The Prophet Habakkuk], Darmst., 1822. G. L. Baumlein, Comm. de 
 Habacuci Vaticinio, Maulbr., 1840, 4to. F. Delitzsch, Der Prophet Habakuk ausgelegt [The 
 Prophet Habakkuk interpreted], Lpz., 1843. Jo. Gumpach, Der Prophet Habakuk nach 
 dem genau revidirten Text erkldrt [The Prophet Habakkuk interpreted according to the ac- 
 curately revised text], Miinch., 1860. A. Schroder, on chap, ill., Diss, in Cant. Habacuci, 
 Gera., 1787. Ch. F. Schnurrer, Diss. phil. ad Carmen Hab. Hi., Tub., 1786, 4to. J. G. 
 Herder, Gebet Habakuks des Propheten, im Geist der hebr. Poesie [Praver of the Prophet 
 Habakkuk, in the spirit of Hebrew Poetry], WW., 1827, ii. 176 ff. K. G. Anton, Cap. Hi. 
 Hab. Versio, etc., GorUc, 1810, 4to. Stickel, Prolusio ad Cap. 3 Hab., Neustadt, 1827. L. 
 Hirzel, Ueberdie hist. DeutuugvonHab. Hi. 3-15 ; in Winer u. Engelhardt, Neues krit. Journal 
 [Concerning the Historical Interpretation of Hab. iii. 3-15; in Winer and Engelhardt, New 
 Critical Journal], 1827, vii., 4to. Sommer, Bibl. Abhandlungen [Biblical Dissertations], i, 
 1 ff. 
 
 Separate Treatises. J. G. Abicht, De Vaticinio Habac, Gedan, 1722. F. C. A. 
 Hanlein, Symb. Critt. ad interjyrelat. Hab., Erl., 1795. A. C. Ranitz, Introd. in Hab. Vat., 
 Lps., 1808. Valentin, Comm. in Hab. capp. prima Spec, Hal., 1834. F. Delitzsch, De Hab. 
 Proph. Vita atque JEtate, Lps., 1842, ed. 2 ; Ueber Abfassungszeit und Plan der Prophetie Haba- 
 kuks in Rud. u. Guer. Zeitschrift [Concerning the Date and Plan of the Prophecy of Habak- 
 kuk, in Rud. and Guer. Journal], 1842, i. Dav. Chytraeus, Lectiones in Proph. Hab., in his 
 works, torn. ii. [Helv. Garthii, Comm. in Proph. Hab., Vitebergse, 1605. G. A. Ruperti, 
 Explicatio, cap. i. et ii. Chab., in the Commentati. TheoL, ed. Velthusen, Kuinoel, and Ruperti, 
 iii. p. 405 ff. Moerner, Hymnus Hab. vers, ac nolis phil. et crit. illustr., Upsalae, : 791, 4to. 
 B. Ludwig, Translations and Expositions [of Hab.], Frankfort, 17 79. See Keil's Introd. tc 
 the O. T. — C. E.] 
 
HABAKKUK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 \^The Prophet commences by setting forth the Cause of the Chaldcean Invasion^ whiek 
 forms the Burden of his Prophecy. This Cause was the great Wickedness of 
 the Jeioish Nation at the Time he flourished (vers. 2—4). Jehovah is intro- 
 duced as summoning Attention to that Invasion (ver. 5). The Prophet describei 
 the Appearance, Character, and Operations of the Invaders (vers. 6-11).— 
 C. E.] 
 
 1 The burden, which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 
 
 2 How long, Jehovah, do I cry ? 
 And thou hearest not ? 
 
 I cry to thee, Violence, 
 And thou helpest not. 
 
 3 Why dost thou let me see wickedness ? 
 And [why] dost thou look upon distress ? 
 Oppression and violence are before me ; 
 
 And there is strife, and contention exalts itsel£ 
 
 4 Therefore the law is slack ; ^ 
 Justice no more ^ goes forth ; 
 
 For the wicked compass about the righteous ; 
 Therefore justice goes forth perverted. 
 
 5 Look among the nations and see ! ' 
 And be ye amazed,^ be amazed ; 
 
 For I am about to work ■* a work in your days . 
 Ye will not believe it, though it were told. 
 
 6 For behold ! ^ I am about to raise up the Chaldaeans, 
 That bitter and impetuous nation, 
 
 Which marches over the breadths of the earth, 
 
 To take possession of dwelling-places, that do not belong to it> 
 
 7 It is terrible and dreadful : 
 
 Its right and its eminence proceed from itsel£ 
 
 8 And swifter than leopards are its horses, 
 And speedier than the evening wolves : 
 Its horsemen spring ^ proudly along, 
 And its horsemen come from afar : 
 
 They fly like an eagle hastening to devour. 
 
HABAKKUK. 
 
 9 It comes wholly for violence : 
 
 The host '' of their faces is forward ; 
 And it collects captives like the sand. 
 
 10 And it scoffs at kings ; 
 
 And princes are a laughter to it : 
 It laughs at every stronghold, 
 And heaps up earth and takes it. 
 
 11 Then its spirit revives,® 
 
 And it passes on and contracts guilt : 
 This its strength is its god. 
 
 GRAMMATICAL AND TEXXDAL. 
 
 n Ver. 4. n~lin !!^Cn . The primary idea of 3!)S^ is that of stifbess, rigidity, t. e. fngid and cold, cold airf 
 
 ttiff being kindred terms. Compare the Greek irriywoi, to be stiff. Trop. to be torpid, slusgish, slack : fiiget lax. 
 
 \i Ver 4. ti'^tP^ n^3 ' S"'*"S /"I may be rendered : judgment goeth not forth according to truth. Ges. Bat 
 
 I ■ T : • - V T •••• : 
 
 n^3 V signifies also, to perpetiiitij, forever; and connecting it with S . it gives the meaning of not forever, or never. 
 
 Bee Keil. LXX. : Kal ov Sie^dyerai eU reko^ xpCfxa ; Vulgate : et non pervenit usque ad finem judicium ; Luther : und 
 
 knnn keine reclite Sache geunnnen ; Kleinert : iind nicht fallt nach Wahrheit der Rechtsspriich. 
 
 [3 Ver. 5. — ^ni2in ^nXSnm. Double form, used for intensity'. Compare Isaiah xxix. 9. The combination of 
 the kal with the hiphil of the same Verb serves to strengthen it, so as to express the highest degree of amazement. 
 
 [4 Ver. 5.— bub denotes that which is immediately at hand. Green's Heb. Gram., sec. 266, 2. Nordheimer, se©. 
 1034, 3 a. 
 
 [5 Ver. 6. — II:'^P!3 ''!3"3n"''3, ecce suscitatunis sum. '^2'2T1 before the participle refers to the future. 
 
 [6 Ver. 8. ^ti72-1 from ti?^^, signifying to be prnud, to s/ww ojf proudly ; hence of a horseman leaping proudly 
 
 kod fiercely. The sulgect uf thl< verb, Tti7"12, may be translated horses. See Ges., g. t. 
 
 [7 Ver. 9. ntt"*"!)"? Cn^'DS nS3^. I have toUowed Gesenius in the translation of these words. LXX.: ok- 
 
 9ftrrnniTai vrpocruirrois aviiiv e^evavrias ; \'ulgate : fades eoraiii cent us urcns ; Luther: rei,<:sen sie hindureh wie ein Ost- 
 wind ; Kleinert : die Gier ihrer Angesickter slrcbl nach vorwarls. 
 
 [8 Ver. 11. n-)"! Hvn TS, then his spirit revices. Ges. L.\X. : rare tiera^aKtl to irKeS/xa ; Vulgate: Tune mu- 
 
 tabitur spiritus ; Luther : Alsdann werden sic einen neuen Muth nehmen ; Keil : Then it passes along a wind ; Kleinert • 
 Jkmn wendet es sich, fin sfirmwind ; Henderson : it gaineth fresh spirit.— C. E.] 
 
 EXEGETICAL. 
 
 In the heading (comp. the Introd.) this proph- 
 ecy is designated as a ^W72, sentence : compare 
 on Nah. i. 1. If it should there, as in Is. xiii. ff., 
 on account of the subjoined genitive of relation, 
 sttill seem doubtful, whether the prophecy should 
 not be taken as a burden prepared against Nin- 
 eveh, Babylon, etc., so here, where this genitive is 
 wanting and the discourse has certainly in it that 
 which ]jortains to a burden, but still much more 
 of that which is consolatory, the neuter significa- 
 tion of the word is just as plain as in Jeremiah, 
 Zechariah, and in the appendix to the Proverbs. 
 
 The verb "^jrji which, according to its original 
 signification, " to see," would seem incapable of 
 being joined with Massa, can be used with it, be- 
 rause " to see," the most common expression for 
 the prophetic intuition and conception, is generally 
 emploved to denote prophetic activity [die prophet- 
 iiche Thdtigkeit, the exercise of the prophetic gift. 
 -C. E.] 
 
 The " vision " of Isaiah (cha]). i. ver. 1 ) em- 
 braces threatenings, complaints, consolatory ad- 
 dresses, and symbolical actions. There is just as 
 little ground to deny that the heading proceeds 
 from tne prophet himself, as there is in regard to 
 the subscription 'chap. iii. ver. 19), in which the 
 
 prophet speaks of himself in the first person. Ac- 
 cordingly it is a general, and that of chap. iii. a 
 special heading. 
 
 [Keil : " Ver. 1 contains the heading, not onlv 
 to chap. i. and ii., but to the whole book, of which 
 chap. iii. forms an integral part. On the special 
 heading in chap. iii. ver. 1, see the commentary on 
 the verse. The prophet calls his writing a massa, 
 or burden (see at Nahum i. 1), because it an- 
 nounce;^ heavy judgments u)ion the covenant na- 
 tion and the imperial power." — C. E.] 
 
 First Dialogue. Vers. 2-11. In this conversa- 
 tion, as in the concluding passages of Micah, the 
 function of the prophet is exhibited on two sides. 
 He speaks, first, in the name of the true Israel, as 
 an advocate of righteousness (comp. on Micah 
 vii. 1 ) ; then in the name of God. Hence the dis- 
 course takes the form of a dialogue, and is divided 
 into two parts. 
 
 I. The Complaint. The prophet in the name 
 of righteousness accuses the people of sin (vers. 
 2-4). 
 
 II. The Answer. Gud points to tne scourge, by 
 which this sin is to b*> punished (vers. 5-1 ). 
 
 Vers. 2-4. The Complaint. Parallel with Mi 
 cah vii., the prophet begins with the description of 
 the wretched condition of the country, which ur- 
 gently calls for judgment. That he is not yet 
 speaking of the violent deeds of the CbaldeeanB 
 (Rosenmiiller, Ewald, Maurer), bnt of the eoik- 
 
CHAPTER I. 1-11. 
 
 la 
 
 ditioii of Judah itself, is evident from the analogy 
 of the language to the descriptions of other proph- 
 ets, as well as from the fact that the calamity to be 
 inflicted by the Chaldaeans (ver. 5 ff.) is described 
 as a future one, at present past all belief (comp. 
 ver. 13). How long, properly until when, Jeho- 
 vah, — thou covenant God, who hearest those that 
 call [upon Thee] and art angry ^vith the wicked, — 
 do I cry, and thou hearest not ; — cry to thee, 
 violence, — and thou helpest not P Chdnids is 
 not ace. modi, but objecti : a customary form of 
 expression (comp. Jer. xx. 8, and Job xix. 7). We 
 have the same construction in our [the German] 
 language. The tone is that of complaint, common 
 also in the Psalms, with a gentle sound of reproach 
 (Ps. xxii. 2 ff. ; l.xxxviii. 15 ff,), such as only the 
 ideal congregation, which sees in actual sin an 
 injury done to its vocation [ihrer Bestimmung, tliat 
 for which a thing is designed ^ C. E.] can raise, 
 but not the individual fellow-sinner and accom- 
 plice in guilt. 
 
 Ver. 3. Why (thus the prophet assigns a rea- 
 son for his calling and crying) dost thou let me 
 see iniquity, and lookest thou upon perverse- 
 ness inactively ? Sc, since at least thou, as the 
 Holy One, will not look upon it in Israel, and 
 since, accoi-ding to thy Word (Num. xxiii. 21). 
 thy congregation are to remain free from it ? 
 bxsy anJ ps convey interchangeable ideas (comp. 
 
 Hupf. on Ps. vii. 1.5) ; and the neuter vZ227, which 
 in itself may signify also distress (Baumlein, Keil), 
 receives here by means of the parallel i^j.; the 
 
 meaning of mischief. H.l^> R. ]'1M, signifies ( 1 ) 
 nothingness, vanity: (2) nothingness of words, i.e., 
 falsehood, deceit ; (3) nothingness as to worth, ?<n- 
 
 worthiness, wickedness, iniquity. ^P^ from ^P^, 
 to labor, signifies, (I) labor, toil; (2) fruit of labor ; 
 '3) trouble, vexation, sorrow. Gesenius, Lex. — C. 
 E.l 
 
 Oppression and violence are before ray eyes ; 
 and strife arises, and contention exalts itself. 
 Where the powers are unequal there is oppression : 
 where they are equal, the strife of hearts and 
 tongues results in fighting with hands. To this 
 description of the leading characteristics of a social 
 disorder the question, " Why does He permit it to 
 happen ? " is to be supplied in thought from a [first 
 
 clause of the verse. — 0. E.]. S£&^_ is intransitive, 
 as in Nahum i. 5 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 10. 
 
 Ver. 4. Therefore, because thou dost not look 
 into and restrain it, the law, " which was intended 
 to be the soul and heart of the common political 
 life" (Delitzsch), is slack. This is shown partic- 
 ularly (comp. Micah iii. 1 ff.) in the chief pillar of 
 the public life, the administration of justice : Yea 
 a righteous sentence never comes forth. So it 
 
 should be translated, if we understand n*22 ac- 
 cording to the customary usage of the language : 
 n!JD S7, t. e., not to perpetuity, not forever, /. e. 
 never (Is. xiii. 20, Delitzsch, Keil). But, as the ad- 
 junct ^PVT2), in the following part of the verse 
 «hows L^-Ztt'D means also here, as it does frequent- 
 ly, not materially a righteous judgment, but for- 
 mally a legal sentence in general (Hos. x. 4). 
 
 n!Jj7 must consequently be uttered with em- 
 phasis ; and the clause, " the sentence goes forth " 
 n^37 Sv, should form an antithesis to the 
 clause, "the sentence goes forth perverted to injus- 
 
 tice." To n23, therefore, the signification of 
 truth, justice, is required to be given (comp. ni2Sb 
 Is. xlii. 3; Jer. v. 3). And this signification ig 
 possible. For the usual meaning perpetuity, sta 
 bility, is not primitive, but has its inner ground in 
 the fact that internal solidity is necessary to con- 
 tinuance ; and this is undoubtedly evident from 
 Prov. xxi. 28, though one may grant to Delitzsch, 
 that the signification, forever (better to perpetuitv), 
 is not to be given np even in this passage. Tha 
 connection of the meanings, and the transition from 
 the concrete to the abstract are the same as in l'7^!^, 
 Compare also 1 Sam. xv. 29, where God, as Ha 
 who cannot lie, is called bsitc^ n!J3, and Lam. 
 iii. 18. Schultens has verified this ineaning from 
 the Arabic, Animadvv., p. 515. Therefore [read] 
 The sentence [or judgment] does not go forth accord- 
 ing to truth, so that it may have stability. Simi- 
 larly, Hitzig, Baumlein. 
 
 For the wicked man (to be understood collec- 
 tively) surrounds [in a hostile sense — C. E.] the 
 righteous man : to a whole circle of wicked men 
 there is but one righteous, so that right bows un- 
 der superior power (comp. Micah vii. 3) : there- 
 fore judgment goes forth perverted. [Keil : 
 Mishpat is not merely a righteous verdict, how- 
 ever; in which case the meaning would be : There 
 is no more any righteous verdict given, but a 
 righteous state of things, objective right in the 
 civil and political life. — C. E.J 
 
 Vers. 5-11. Jehovah's Answer [to the preceding 
 complaint — C. E]. The scourge is already pre- 
 pared; and that a terrible one. Look around 
 
 among the nations and see. 3 "^^"J does not 
 mean here, to look with delight, as it does in other 
 places : the 3, moreover, does not enter simply 
 into construction with the object, but it is local. 
 Already has the storm burst forth among the na- 
 tions, which also will overtake the secure sinners 
 of Israel. And be astonished ! astonished ! 
 The emphasis of the benumbing astonishment is 
 expressed by the verb repeated in two conjugations 
 (comp. Zeph. ii. 1 ; Ewald, sec. 313 c). The reason 
 for both the summons to look round and for the 
 stupefying cousternaiion following it is indicated 
 by the following ''^ ' for a work works, is car- 
 ried into efl^ect (comp. ^5rj eVep^etTot, 2 Thess. ii. 
 7), in your days : ye would not believe it, if it 
 were told to you, it so far exceeds everything 
 that can be imagined and expected. In order to 
 transfer the emphasis entirely to the dreadful word, 
 
 the speaker keeps back the author, and makes 7^3 
 apparently neuter : the impellent force is in the 
 work itself (Ez. i. 20). [Keil : The participle ^V'^ 
 denotes that which is immediately at hand, and is 
 used absolutely, without a pronoun. According 
 
 to ver. 6, "'pM is the pronoun we have to supply 
 
 For it is not practicable to supply S^H, or to 
 take the participle in the sense of the third person 
 since God, when speaking to the people, cannot 
 speak of himself in the third person, and even in 
 
 that case "^^"^^ could not be omitted. Hitag's 
 idea is still more untenable, namely, that po'al ia 
 the subject, and that po'el is used in an intransi- 
 tive sense : the work produces its effect. We must 
 assume, as Delitzsch does, that there is a prolep- 
 tical ellipsis, i. e.. one in which the word immedi 
 ately following is omitted (as in Is. xlviiL 11 ; 
 
14 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 Zech. Ix. 17). The admissibility of this assump- 
 tion is justified by the fact that there are other 
 cases in which the participle is used and the pro- 
 noun omitted ; and that not merely the pronoun 
 of the third person (e. g-, Is. ii. 11 ; Jer. xxxviii. 
 23), but that of the second person also (1 Sam. ii. 
 24 ; vi. 3 ; and Ps. vii. 10). — C. E.] 
 
 Vei 6 first mentions the doer : For behold, 
 I, the Lord, bring up [am about to raise up — 
 C. E.J the Chaldseans. [See Lenormant and 
 Chevallier, vol. i. p. 472 ; also Rawlinson's An- 
 cient Monarchies, vol. i. p. 58, and vol. ii. pp. 497, 
 
 505. — C. E.]. The expression DD ^'^2, and still 
 more the immediately following description of the 
 enemies themselves, point to the fact that they had 
 already appeared in history. But that they are to 
 appear in the history of Israel and come to execute 
 'udgment upon Judah for his sins, is, as the ex- 
 pression C^pri with the part.) shows, still in the 
 
 future. And indeed the rapidity witli which Bab- 
 vlon, which had just become independent, rose 
 from being a city subject to Assyria to be the 
 ruler of Asia, has something incredil)le. The na- 
 tion, at whose head Nebuchadnezzar accomplished 
 this sudden conquest, and whose great monarchy 
 took the place of the Assyrian, is called in the 
 Old Testament Casdim ; and this designation 
 stands, in the O. T., in the same reciprocal rela- 
 tion to Babylon, that Israel does to Jerusalem. 
 The name Casdim, which, with the change of 
 the second radical, has been preserved to this day 
 in the name Kurds, and which appears in the 
 Classics in the appellations Chalybes (//., ii. 856 ; 
 comp. Strabo, xii. 545), Chaldi (Steph. Byz., s. v. 
 XaASia) or Chaldaeans (PtoleniiBus, Strabo, Plin- 
 ius, comp. Winer s. v. " Chaldaer," Ewald, Hist. 
 Isr., i. 333), Carduchi, or Gardyaei, belongs, ac- 
 cording to the O. T. and the Classics to a tribe 
 spread over the whole country between the Tigris 
 and Pontus. Already in Jer. v. 15 the same peo- 
 ple are designated as a very ancient one ; and as 
 carlv as Gen. xi. 28 the country of Mesopotamia 
 is called after them Ur [Ur of the Chaldees], so 
 that it is more than doubtful whether Chesed 
 (Gen. xxii. 22), the nephew of Abraham, is to 
 be considered their ancestor. If the conjecture of 
 Ewald, Knobel, Dietrich, is correct that a reference 
 
 to the name ^^?2 already exists in Arphaxad 
 [^t£'DD'^S] Gen. x 22), then this circumstance 
 would doubtless refer the name to a time beyond 
 that of Abraham. Oppert (Deutsch.-morqenl. 
 Zfiitschr., German-Oriental Journal, xi. 137) has 
 ])roved, that the word Casdim is Tataric, and 
 signifies, as well a.s Mesopotamia, two rivers ; and 
 (the correctness of the translation being presup- 
 ])osed) it is legitimately inferred from this fact 
 that the name probably designates the aboriginal 
 Tataric population between the Euphrates and 
 Tigris. (It harmonizes well with this etymology, 
 according to which Casdim is plural only in sound 
 btit not in original signification, that tlic name 
 appears in the O. T. only as plur. tantum ; that 
 Casdim as an actual plural form would be abnor- 
 mally formed ; that the regular plural form C'^^'^'^Ci'^ 
 
 occurs only once in later Hebrew (Ez. xxiii. 14, 
 Cthibh), and the reconstructed singular form 
 
 ^^t^"'!3 only in the Aramaic of Daniel. [The opin- 
 'on] that the aboriginal population of that district 
 •vas, in faet, not of a Semitic, but of a Tataric 
 itock, app«,'ars, at present, to be subjected no lon- 
 
 ger to any opposition. (Comp. Brandis, art. "As- 
 syria " in Pauly's RealencyklopO.die. ) [On the early 
 history of the Chaldajuns and their Turanian 
 origin, see Ilawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 247, 
 248, 245, 533. — C. E.] Certainly opposed to this 
 view is the assumption of the great majority of 
 exegetes that the primitive abode of the Casdim 
 was the Armenian mountain land, where, accord- 
 ing to Xeuophon, a brave and freedom loving peo- 
 ple of the Chaldaean stock dwelt, and where the 
 Kurds still live, and that the Assyrians first settled 
 them in the plain of Babylon, according to Hitzig 
 in the year tj25. This assumption, however, has, 
 on closer examinatioUi no broader foundation than 
 a false, at the least a questionable interpretation of 
 the obscure passage. Is. xxiii. 13 : it is for that 
 reason to be set aside. The present passage is the 
 locus classicus for the characteristics of this war- 
 like people, just as Is. v. 26 AT. is for the character- 
 istics of the As.syrians. They are called the peo- 
 ple, the bitter, i. e., ferocious (comp. Amarus, 
 
 Cic. Att., 14, 21, and C?53 ID, Judges xviii. 25) 
 and the impetuous, properly hurrying on (Is. 
 xxxii. 4), rushing on precipitately — the conform- 
 ity of sound of the two adjectives has something 
 terribly graphic — which marches along [Keil : 
 
 7 is not used here to denote the direction, or the 
 goal, but the space, as in Gen. xiii. 17 (Hitzig, 
 Delitzsch) — C. E.] the breadths of the earth, 
 which passes through the land in its whole extent 
 (Judges viii. 8 ; Rev. xx. 9) : to take possession 
 of dweUing places that are not its own (comp. 
 ii. 6). 
 
 Ver. 7. Carries out the idea of the "bitter;" 
 and ver. 8, that of the " impetuous," in ver. 6. It 
 is terrible and fearful ; from it — not from God 
 (Ps. xvii. 1) — proceed its right and eminence : 
 in sovereign vainglory it revived the old character 
 of Babylon (Gen. xi. 4 ; comp. Is. xiv. 13), put its 
 own statutes in the place of the jura divina, and 
 consequently entered despotically into the place 
 of the world-power, which is at strife with God. 
 nSti? an eminence, which rests upon inflated 
 pride (SJi^D, Hos. xiii. 1), in contrast with the 
 "n22 which is bestowed by God. [Rawlinson's 
 Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii. pp. 10, 11. — C. E.] 
 
 Ver. 8. And fleeter than leopards, whose 
 swiftness in catching the prey is proverbial, are 
 its horses (Jeremiah employs in the same com- 
 parison the figure of the eagle, iv. 13) ; yea they 
 are swifter than evening wolves (Zeph. iii. 3; 
 comp. Ps. lix. 7, 15). The battle is to them, what 
 the seizing of the prey is to a ravenous beast, — a 
 savage delight, to which they hasten with im- 
 patience (Job xxxix. 20 f.). And its horsemen 
 rush along (there is here also a graphic conform- 
 itv of sound in the words) ; yea its horsemen 
 come from afar, they fly like the eagle, which 
 hastens to devour. [Rawlinson's Ancient Mon- 
 archies, yo]. in. pp. 10, 11. — C. E.] They come 
 to fulfill the curse (Deut. xxviii. 49), to the words 
 of which the prophet alludes. 
 
 This thought is further carried out in ver. 9. 
 All its multitude — the suffix 71, contracted from 
 ^nT, is archaic, as in Gen. xlix. 11 — comes foi 
 deeds of violence, foi the object is to inflict judg 
 ment for violence (ver. 2). The eagerness (in 
 this sense the ott. \ey. HTSIlTS, occurs in the Ral> 
 bins, Kimchi on Ps. xxvii. 8) of their faces urgea 
 forward. rT1^^7;?. also in Kz xi. 1 ; nIv. 7, foi 
 
CHAPTER I. 1-11. 
 
 15 
 
 n^"Tp (Gen. xxv. 6). And it gathers prison- 
 ers togetha: like dust (comp. Gen. xli. 49 ; Hos. 
 ii. 9). 
 
 Ver. 10. Forms a fit sequel to the description of 
 the autocratic power in ver. 7 : and it scoffs at 
 kings, and princes are a derision to it, for, 10 b, 
 11 a, it has the power to overcome every resist- 
 ance : it laughs at every stronghold, and heaps 
 up dust and takes it. 
 
 Ver. 11. Then it turns a tempest [Ges. : then 
 his spirit revives — C. E.] and passes on. To 
 mark the little anxiety, which the haughty enemy 
 bestows upon the capture, the approaches are 
 
 called "1237, heaped up dust, instead of the usual 
 
 TT^iO (2 Sam. x. 15, and above). The fem. 
 
 suff. in msb^, receives fi-om the mas. ")!Jm3, 
 
 fortress, the idea of a city [")^37, which is fem. — 
 
 C E.] F|7n nowhere means revirescit, not even 
 in Ps. xc. 5, but it signifies a speedy gliding away, 
 turning away (Job ix. 11 ; Ps. cii. 27), and unites, 
 
 without violence, with "1327 in expressing one 
 
 idea. [See note 8 on ver. 11 — C. E.] n-T1 i* 
 placed between as an appositional comparison 
 (comp. Is. xxi. 8 : and he cried, a lion, i. e., with 
 a lion's voice) ; there lies, indeed, in this apposi- 
 tion the threefold relative comparison of the re- 
 volving whirlwind, of rushing speed, and of demol- 
 ishing power. A moi'e descriptive expression of 
 the astonishment at the invincible power of the 
 Babylonian, who, immediately after the overthrow 
 of Nineveh, marched against Necho, cannot be 
 imagined. With a lofty elevation the prophet, 
 11 b, sets at naught this surging flood, and an- 
 nounces against the irresistible autocratic inso- 
 lence of the enemy the unalterable decree of the 
 Divine government [Governor] of the world, 
 which, as in Micah and Nahum, concludes the 
 description [of this haughty enemy — C. E.] with 
 crushing effect : But he is guilty, and conse- 
 quently incurs the Divine penalty, whose power 
 is his God. That the accentuation incorrectly 
 
 connects the verb DiL'S with the first half of the 
 verse, which, according to the sense, should be in- 
 cluded in one verse with 10 b, is plain; for the 
 
 immediate coordination of the verbs "11327^ and 
 
 CtTM, though retained by the exegetes, is certainly 
 
 excluded by the dissimilar conjunctions (D) ?)•• 
 
 L^n^?!*!!. has vav conversive of the future ; and 
 
 Cti^S") has vao conversive of the preterite — C. E.] 
 [Other translations : LXX. : Kal SieKeva-erui kuI 
 eiiXdaerai avTi\ rt Iffx^s t&J Bew fxov. Vulg. : " Et 
 pertransibit et corrwt ; licec est fortitudo ejus dei 
 sui." Drusius : " Et (ransgredietur et delinquet, 
 hanc vim suam Deo sua (tribuens)." J. H. Mich- 
 aelis : " Et ream se faciet [dicens): hanc potentiam 
 siiam deberi Deo sua;" or: " Et tuni luet {impius 
 Judceus), cujus vis sua fuit pro Deo suo." Hitzig, 
 Maurer : " And he loads himself with guilt ; he, 
 whose power becomes his god." Gesenius, Ewald, 
 Delitzsch, Keil : " He passes on farther and of- 
 fends ; this his power becomes (is) his god." 
 Baumlein : " Since his power becomes his god]." 
 
 "? stand;? in the predicate of the object [Pradicat 
 4er Abzielung, the predicate denoting the purpose, 
 jbject, or ^.'ra — C. E.] as in Nah. i. 7 ; Ex. vi. 7 ; 
 
 ^? rel. as in Is. xlii. 24 and other places. As ap- 
 pertaining to the thought, which, with special re- 
 gard to ver. 7, briefly comprises the moral charac- 
 ter of the conqueror with its immanent [inherent] 
 destiny and makes both the basis of the following 
 dialogue, comp. chap. ii. 6-10 ; Job xii. 6 ; Is. x. 
 13. 
 
 DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 
 
 The inspiration of the prophets is rooted in the 
 sacred soil of the heart, and presupposes the con- 
 test of faith and prayer with God, in which the 
 struggling and praying soul experiences God's 
 answer and blessing : a contest of faith and prayer 
 like that of the patriarch, which stands at the be- 
 ginning of the entire history of the holy people, 
 who had the Spirit of God (Gen. xxxii. 24 ff. ; 
 comp. Hos. xii. .5 f. ; Is. Ixiii. 11). By this i-oot of 
 sanctification prophecy, among the people of Is- 
 rael, is distinguished from all heathen divination, 
 and not by the gift of the vision of future things. 
 " Prophecy, as it speaks of future things, is almost 
 one of the least important gifts, and comes some- 
 times even from the Devil." Luther on Rom. xii. 
 7 (comp. Ex. 7). It has in the 0. T. its peculiar 
 significance, which is to be understood fi-om the 
 light of the history of the kingdom ; but separated 
 from the heart of God it would be nothing. Comp. 
 1 Pet. i. 11 ; 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
 The heathen powers shoot up into ascendency, 
 when in the kingdom of God, the truth is impeded 
 by pride, injustice, and a spirit of contention. On 
 these they live like fungi, and God permits them 
 to spring up, in order to begin the judgment upon 
 his house. The more certainly that individuals, 
 following their own view of what is good and right, 
 pursue the war of the flesh instead of the Gos- 
 pel of peace, the more certainly is the scourge al- 
 ready in preparation. What the prophet says of 
 one event is put down in writing, because it is ut- 
 tered for all time (Acts xiii. 41). The prudent 
 man sees the evil and hides himself; but the silly 
 man passes on and is punished. But even the 
 most prudent man does not foresee it by his own 
 prudence. God's decisive acts, as well those which 
 He does as those which He permits, are altogether 
 Niphlaoth, wonderful deeds, and have ever on one 
 .side something incredible in them. That they 
 will come, he who has learned to examine the 
 signs of the times in the light of God's Word, an- 
 ticipates : how they are to be, God reserves to his 
 own power. Enough, that we know that it is His 
 power. To him, who knows this, there is no 
 strange work in the world.^ 
 
 1 Compare the letter of the French theosophist, St. Mar- 
 tin, concerning the Kevolution, iu Varnhagen, Memoirs, iv 
 534 ff. : "I remind you of wliat I have written in the begin- 
 ning of this letter, that the political commotions, in tha 
 storms of which we live, appear to me to be in the eye ol 
 God only the ways by which He is preparing us, as we 
 think, for greater happiness. For the astonishing course 
 of development of our grand revolution and the brilliant 
 phenomena which mark it at every step, must show f'- 
 every one, not devoid of understanding, or honest}', in it« 
 march of fire, the accomplishment of an e.xpress decree oi 
 Providence. We can even say that the work, on its part is 
 already done, though not yet entirely on ours. Its hand, 
 like tliat of a skillful surgeon, has removed the extraneoue 
 matter, and we feel all the inevitable effects of a painful 
 operation and the pressure of the bandage of the wounds 
 but we must bear these pains with patience and courage 
 since there is none of them which does aot conduce to on 
 
Lt) 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 For ho\veA"er high the scourge may be raised, 
 the destroyer [Zerbmclier, dasher in pieces] is also 
 a|)pointed to it, as soon as he intends that it shall 
 l)L' more than a scourge, that chastisement shall be 
 converted into tk'struction, the work of God into 
 his own work. All [assumption of] independence 
 is apostasy from God, consequently separation 
 from the source of life. The [assumption of] in- 
 depenileiice on the part of Adam ended in curse 
 and misery. The same thing on the part of an- 
 cient Babel ended in destruction, dispersion, and 
 confusion. And so it falls out with the new de- 
 stroyer, the destiny of his own guilt overwhelms 
 him, because his power is his god. And in his 
 time he who has crushed will himself be crushed. 
 Kings and princes and strong cities are an object 
 of derision to him : he is the same before God. 
 Only he who continues in a state of grace, receives 
 from God in perpetuity what was not his : thus 
 Israel received Canaan. If he renounce the grace, 
 he must also surrender the gift. If this applies to 
 Israel (Micah ii. 10) how much more to the obsti- 
 nate alien. 
 
 HOMILETICAL. 
 
 How utterly incomprehensible are the judgments of 
 God: 
 
 1. Incomprehensible in their delay, to the view 
 Df those who have no patience, and think that God 
 aught to act as speedily as their anger prompts 
 them (vers. 2-3). 
 
 2. Incomprehensible in their threatening to 
 those upon whom they will fall, and who never- 
 theless continue to sin in security (ver. 4). 
 
 .3. Incomprehensible to every human mind in 
 their realization. For — 
 
 (a.) They are greater than any human thought 
 would anticipate (ver. 5). 
 
 (h.) They take place in ways and by means of 
 which no man would dream (ver. 6). 
 
 (c.) They are often brought about by men and 
 events that, at first sight, have nothing in common 
 with God. 
 
 4. Incomprehensible in their grandeur and uni- 
 versality to those by whom thev are accomplished 
 (ver. 11), 
 
 On vei. 2 God always hears, although we do 
 not have an immediate sense of it. Therefore con- 
 tinue in prayer. It is also not always good to 
 pray to Him to hasten his help. The future help, 
 which He has prepared, is perhaps, for the mo- 
 ment, heavier to bear than the present burden, un- 
 ler which thou highest. — Ver. 3. He must cer- 
 ainly have his reasons, when He permits his saints 
 to see misery and impious conduct. It touches his 
 heart moi"e than it docs theirs. He suffers things 
 •o come to a crisis and the wicked thoughts of 
 hearts to be revealed before He approaches [to 
 judgment]. — Ver. 5. However long we have 
 searched after the way of God, when He is sud- 
 denly revealed in his might and power, then the 
 light is so dazzling that it is painful to us, and we 
 are displeased that God has performed such power- 
 ful deeds in our days, and that we have not rather 
 
 peuovery." See page 453 : " When I consider the French 
 Revolution from its origin onward, and at tlie moment when 
 U broke out, I find nothing better to compare it to than to a 
 picture on a reduced scale, of the last judgment, where the 
 trumpets Round abroad the fearful notes, which a higher 
 Toice gives to them, where all the powers of heaven and 
 larth are shaken ; and where in one and the same moment 
 tM righteous and the wicke<l receive their reward." 
 
 come to our rest in peace. — Vt- . 5. God haa 
 great power to destroy. Neither title-deed noi 
 hereditary right protects against his power. He 
 takes from whom He will and gives to whom He 
 will. But He has still greater power and pleasure 
 in building. The destruction is for a moment, the 
 building for eternity. And in his destroying build- 
 ing is always included. With the stubble ploughed 
 under, the field is manured for a new harvest ; and 
 the plough does not reap, but the ploughman. — 
 Ver. 7. Ye who despise the right, when you can 
 have it, need not wonder when you are treated as 
 if there were no right, and when you shall be dealt 
 with according to your own principle : stat pro 
 ratione voluntas. — Ver. 10. When the judgments 
 of God come, how quicklj" does everything on 
 which men formerly phvced their confidence and 
 hope, fall to ruin ! riicn the earth, which was 
 just now joyful, quakes. — Ver. 11. When God 
 permits you to succeed in everything that comes to 
 hand, it is no reason for ])ride, but for humiliation. 
 All success cleaves to him who is proud, not as a 
 merit, but as guilt, and God will require [the pun- 
 ishment of] the guilt. 
 
 Luther : On ver. 2. As if he would say, I 
 preach much, and it is of no avail ; my word is 
 despised ; no one becomes better ; they only be- 
 come continually worse. Therefore I know not 
 where to bring my complaint except to Thee ; but 
 Thou seemest as if Thuu hearest me not, and dost 
 not see them. But the prophet does not expostu- 
 late with God, as his words would sound and inti- 
 mate to the ear ; but he speaks thus in order that 
 he may alarm the people and bring them to re- 
 pentance, and show them how deservedly the wrath 
 and burden will come upon them, because they 
 turn not at preaching, threatening, and exhorta- 
 tion, nor even at prayer, directed against them. — 
 Ver. 3. This is written for our consolation and 
 admonition that we should not wonder nor think 
 it strange if few improve by our teaching. For 
 generally preachers, especially if they have just 
 newly come from the forge [seminary], indulge ex- 
 travagant expectations [meinen sie, das solle sobald 
 Hande und Ftlsse haben, undjlugs alles geschehen und 
 gedndert werden, they think that everything should 
 instantly have hands and feet, and that it should 
 be immediately done aiid changed]. But that is a 
 great mistake. Habakkuk rebukes the Jews, not 
 on account of idolatry and other sins, but only on 
 account of sins which were committed against 
 their neighbors ; there must, therefore, have been 
 still at that time pious people, who maintained di- 
 \ iiic worship in its purity ; but they were possessed 
 with avarice and addicted to the practice of injus- 
 tice and usury. So then no service, be it what it 
 may, is pleasing to God, in which one does wrong 
 to his neighbor. — Ver. 4. There are much worse 
 villains than public thieves and rogues. For the 
 latter act openly against the law, so that theii 
 wrong doing is palpable to and felt by every one ; 
 but the former pretend to be pious, and would have 
 wrong considered right. There are therefore two 
 kinds of villains : first, those who do wrong ; sec- 
 ondly, those who set off and defend the same wrong 
 under the name of right. — Ver. 5. All this is said 
 also for us, who have the name and semblance of 
 Christians, who boast of our baptism, or of our 
 spiritual profession and office, as giving us the ad- 
 vantage over heathen and Jews, and yet we arc, 
 like them, without faith and the spirit : so that we 
 also must certainly perish at last by those whom 
 we now despise and consider worse than ourselvci 
 just as it happened to the Jews by the Chaldajdu* 
 
CHAPTERS I. 12-11. 20. 
 
 17 
 
 — V )r. 6. It will be to you also of no avail that 
 Jeruialera is the city and dwelling; of God, to which 
 you now trust : it is in vain, the Babylonian people 
 will take possession of it altogether, though it is 
 not their own. — Ver. 11. No human heart can 
 'efrain from pride and boasting, when it has suc- 
 cess and good fortune. The Scriptures do not 
 Rhine teach this; but also the heathen testify and 
 acknowledge it from experience, as Virgil says : 
 'lescia mens hominuin servare modum rebus suhlatn 
 ^ecundis. It is a common saying : a man can bear 
 all things except prosperity. 
 
 Starke : Ver. 2. Human weakness is the rea- 
 son why we cannot reconcile ourselves to the won- 
 derful government of God, and why we think that 
 all evil might be easily remedied. Cut in this we 
 forget that it is not according to wisdom to treat 
 men, whom He has endowed with freedom of the 
 will, with absolute omnipotence and as if they 
 were machines. — Ver. 3. The ungodly exert 
 themselves to the utmost in sinning. — Ver. 4. 
 Kven lawsnits are not unknown to God : He keeps 
 also his record of them. — Ver. 5. God himself 
 brings the enemy into the land, and punishes 
 thereby all injustice. — Ver. 6. Those who sin in 
 haste and are unwilling to be restrained are sud- 
 denly punished by God, and do not escape. — Ver. 
 8. God punishes the avarice of his people, who 
 accumulate riches by injustice, in turn by the av- 
 •irice of the soldiers, who plunder the unjustly ac- 
 quired wealth and appropriate it to themselves. 
 God can employ even the beasts, which at other 
 times are compelled to render great service to 
 men, for their punishment. — Ver. 10. Those who 
 despise and laugh at pious teachers and their ad- 
 monitions, justly deserve in their turn to be de- 
 spised and laughed at. 
 
 Pfaff : Ver. 2 fF. Servants of God and preach- 
 ers of the Gospel have reason to sigh over the pros- 
 tration of foith in every quarter. Who can re- 
 proach them for thus sighing ? But woe to you 
 ungodly, who extort such sighs from them 'i — 
 
 Ver. 5. Whence come wa: bloodshed, and devas- 
 tation ? They come hence : justice is depressed 
 and the law of God is violated. 
 
 RiEGER : On 2 IF. O God, into what times hast 
 thou brought us 1 What must we see and experi- 
 ence ? Where is the answer of all the prayer that 
 has already for a long time been offered up for Di- 
 vine help'.' These are also footsteps of faith in 
 which we are often forced to tread. 
 
 ScHMiEDER : Ver. 4. The law becomes frigid, 
 which, however, in its nature is fire and flame, and 
 \'.'hirh, in the judgment, consumes sin. But where 
 the judge is good for nothing, the law is frigid and 
 lifeless. 
 
 BuRCK : Ver. 5. Ye believe it not, if ye muxely 
 hear it, if ye are not fui'nished with conviction by 
 sight. Much, if it is merely heard, does not work 
 in the mind of man faith so much as doubt. It is 
 a miracle worthy of God that men by the hearing 
 of the Gosjtel attain to faith. 
 
 ScHLiER : Habakkuk understands very well 
 what kind of a corrective such a people, insolent 
 and eager for conquest, are ; and, when all means 
 are in vain, only such n, fearful judgment by 
 means of a foreign people can rouse once more a 
 fallen nation. The Lord needs only to point him 
 to the Chaldseans ; thu 6 he knows that this nation 
 is the means in the hind of the Lord of setting 
 bounds to the state of general distress. 
 
 Talm. : Ver. 7. Four men deified themselves 
 and thereby brought evil upon themselves : Pha- 
 raoh, Hiram, Nebuchadnezzar, and Joash : the 
 punishment of Nebuchadnezzar was divestiture of 
 humanity. 
 
 BuRCK : Ver. 9. Those who commit deeds of 
 violence on one another (vers. 2, 3) deserve to ex- 
 perience them from others 
 
 Augustine : Ver. 1 1 What art thou, O man, 
 who pufifest thyself up ? Be contented to be filled. 
 He who is filled is rich ; he who puffs himself up 
 is empty. 
 
 CHAPTERS 1. 12-11. 20. 
 
 r The Prophet expostulates with God on Account of the Judgment, which threatens the 
 Annihilation of the Jewish People (chap. i. vers. 12-17). The waiting Posture 
 of the Prophet (chap. ii. ver. 1). The Command to commit to Writing the Per- 
 elation which was about to be made to Him (ver. 2). Assurance that theProphecy, 
 though not fulfilled immediately, ivill certainly be accomplished (ver. 3). The 
 proud and unbelieving loill abuse it ; but the believing will be blessed by it. The 
 Prophet then depicts the Sins of the Chaldceans, and shows that both general Jus- 
 tice and the special Agencies of God's Providence will surely overtake them with 
 fearful Retribution. — C. E.] 
 
 12 Art thou not from eternity, 
 
 Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? 
 
 We shall not die. 
 
 Jehovah ! for judgment thou hast appointed it ; 
 
 And Rock ! Thou hast founded it for chastisemenu 
 
 13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil ; 
 Thou canst not look upon injustice. 
 Why lookcst thou upon the treacherc js ? 
 
18 HABAKKUK. 
 
 Why art thou silent when the wicked destroys 
 Him that is more righteous than he ? 
 
 14 And thou makest men like fishes of the sea. 
 Like reptiles that have no ruler. 
 
 15 All ^ of them it lifts up with the hook ; 
 It gathers them into its net, 
 
 And collects them into its fish-net ; 
 Therefore it rejoices and is glad. 
 
 16 Therefore it sacrifices to its net, 
 And burns incense to its fish-net ; 
 Because by them its portion is rich, 
 And its food fat. 
 
 17 Shall he, therefore, empty his net, 
 
 And spare not to slay the nations continually ? 
 
 Chapteb II. 1 I will stand upon my watch^-post, 
 
 And station myself upon the fortress ; 
 
 And I will wait ^ to see what He will say to [in] mo^ 
 
 And what I shall answer to my complaint.* 
 
 2 And Jehovah answered me and said : 
 Write the vision ^ and grave " it on tablets, 
 That he may run, who reads it. 
 
 8 For still the vision is for the appointed time ;' 
 And it hastens to the end [fulfillment], 
 And does not deceive ; 
 Though it delay, wait for it ; 
 For it will surely come, and will not fail* 
 
 4 Behold the proud : 
 
 His soul is not right within him ; 
 But the just by his faith shall live. 
 
 5 And moreover, wine is treacherous : 
 A haughty man, he rests not : 
 
 He who opens wide his soul like Sheol, 
 And is like death, and is not satisfied. 
 And gathers all nations to himself. 
 And collects all peoples to himself: 
 
 6 Will not all these take up a song ^ against him ? 
 And a song of derision,^ a riddle ^^ upon him ; 
 And they will say : 
 
 Woe to him who increases what is not his own ! 
 
 How long ? 
 
 And who loads himself with pledges." 
 
 7 Will not thy biters ^^ rise up suddenly, 
 
 And those awake that shall shake thee violently? 
 And thou wilt become a prey to them. 
 
 8 Because thou hast plundered many nations. 
 
 All the remainder of the peoples shall plunder thee ; 
 
 Because of the blood of men and the violence done to the earth j 
 
 To the city and all that dwell in it. 
 
CH.:iPTEKS I. 12-11. 20. 19 
 
 9 Woe to him, that procureth wicked gain for his house 1 
 To set his nest on high, 
 To preserve himself from the hand of calamity. 
 
 10 Thou hast devised shame for thy house ; 
 Cutting off many peoples, and sinning against thyselll 
 
 11 For the stone cries out from the wall, 
 And the spar out of the wood-work answers it. 
 
 12 Woe to him, who builds a city with blood, 
 And founds a town in wickedness. 
 
 13 Behold, is it not from Jehovah of hosts. 
 That the peoples toil for the fire, 
 And the nations weary themselves for vanity ? 
 
 14 For the earth shall be filled 
 With the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, 
 As the waters cover the sea. 
 
 15 Woe to him that gives his neighbor to drink, 
 Pouring out thy wrath,^^ and also making drunk. 
 In order to look upon their nakedness. 
 
 16 Thou art sated with shame instead of glory ; 
 Drink thou also, and show thyself uncircumcised : 
 The cup of Jehovah's right hand shaU come round to thee^ 
 And ignominy " shall be upon thy glory. 
 
 17 For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee, 
 And the destruction of wild beasts which terrifies " them ; 
 Because of the blood of men, and the violence done to the eardiy 
 To the city and all that dwell in it. 
 
 18 What profits the graven image, that its maker has carved it ? 
 The molten image and the teacher of falsehood, 
 That the maker of his image trusts in him to make dumb ^ idols ? 
 
 19 Woe to him that says to the wood, awake ! 
 To the dumb stone, arise ! 
 
 It teach ! Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver ; 
 And there is no breath in its inside. 
 
 20 But Jehovah is in his holy temple. 
 Let all the earth be silent before Him. 
 
 TEXTUAL AND QRAMMATIOAL. 
 
 p T«r. Ifi. — rivS points ba«k to the ooUertive r3*TS, Ter. 14. Here it ii tlie otg'eot: in mt. 8^ tt !■ tha 
 ttra. Vox the form, see Oreen's Heb, Gram.f sec. 220, 1 b. The correct orthography ia 1 v3 
 
 p Ver. 1. — n]n!2t2!7^, observanee, guard, watch, from 1^127, to watch, observe, preserv$, *tt. Ban It if «Md m • 
 wnerete, the place, or post of observation. 
 
 [« Ver. 1. — riD^ signifies to look out, to look out /or anything, to await. 
 
 [4 Ver. 1. — "'I^nS'i'''^) ^y foofi coruradiction, reprooj, correction, complaint, refers to the oomplatnt, vhleh he 
 mmkes agunst God in chap. i. 13-17, that He peimits the Ohaldseans to multiply their conqnests. The Bufflx is not M 
 be taken passively, but actively, — not the complaiot against me, but the complaint that I make against Qod. LXX. : 
 •n Tor i\rfx6v itov ; Vulgate : et quid reapondeam ad atguentem me ; Luther : und was ieh antworttn $oll eitm, dm 
 wtick $tkiit ; Kleinert : was fur Besehfid ieh bringen soil aufmeine Gtgenrede. 
 
20 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 [6 Ver. 2. — "ji^n, iiision, the prophetic matter about to be communicated to the prophet, 
 
 [6Ver.2. — 1^'2r)^ and grave Tlie LXX. read Kal o-ac^ws ; the Vulgate has : et exptana eum. Luther: una viaie es 
 The idea of legibility, and not that of durability, is doubtless intended. The verb ~1S3 may, therefore, be anaerstooA 
 M lelative to IIHID *Dd qualifying it. Wrile the vision, and tiiat clearly. 
 
 p Ver 8 — ^17i^ 7 to the set time, the time fixed by God for its realization. 
 
 [t Ver 6 — bC?X3 parable, apothegm, proverb, poem, song, verse ; a satirical poem, Is. xiv. 4. 
 
 [9 Ver 6. — rr^"* VP from '^^ V, a song of derision. 
 
 [10 Ver. 6. — niTTI from ^I1^, intricate speech, a riddle, enigma. TheLXX. render them : wpofiKriiia eii SvijyiKriy ' 
 the Vulgate rea-Af, loquelam mnigmatum ; Luther: eine Sage und Sprilchwort ; Kleinert : eine Staehelrede, Ralhs'lspiele- 
 Delitzsch thinks that H^'' VTP signifies a brilliant oration, oratio splendida; and hence ^"^vQ is used (o denote an 
 Interpreter, not from the obscurity of the speaking but from his making the speech clear or intelligible. But ther« 
 •etim to be no instances in which ^^l V has the meaning of luce.re. 
 
 [11 Ver. 0. — tD''t2337, from 12317, to give a pledge, by the repetition of the last radical, signifies the mass of pledget 
 (pignorum eaptorum copia). The word tt'^tGIIll? may form two words, so far as the sound is concerned, namely . 327 
 
 ti*C cloud (i. e. mass) of dirt. Jerome and the Syriac take the word in this sense. The Vulgate reads: et aggraiat 
 tonira ne densum lutum ; Luther : und ladet nur viel Schlamm auf sich. 
 
 [12 Ver. 7. — vyDCJi from Tflf^, 'o '"'«i '" '""^ "" usury. The idea seems to be, that those would arise, wht 
 would demand back from the Chaldseans, with interest, the capital of which they had unjustly taken possession. There 
 ia an antithesis to tl"*l2337, at the close of the preceding verse. 
 
 [18 Ver. 15. — T^nSin is the construct of nDH hxat, wrath, and not of HX^n, bottle. Luther employs th« 
 •econd person : Wehe'dir,'der du deinem Ndcksten einschenkesl und mischest deinen Grimm darunter, etc. So also Klei- 
 nert : Wehe dir, der da zu trUiken giebt seinem Ndchsten, iiidem du deinen Zornschlauch ausgiessest. 
 
 [14 Ver. 16.— )i7i7"'|'? * °^^- ^^■' according to Keil, formed from the Pi/pal, Vp^p from 77p; but, according 
 to Henderson, a reduplicated form of P^p, shame. In some MSS. it is read as two words, W^p, vomit, and "I"! Vp, 
 shame, and this etymology has been approved by both Jewish and Christian interpreters. The Vulgate reads : et yom- 
 itiis ignominitp. super gloriam tuam ; Luther : und musst sehdndlich speien fur deine Herrlichkeit ; Keil : the vomiting c/ 
 ihame ; Kleinert : Schandgexpei Uber deine Herlichkeit 
 
 [IS Ver. 17. - inTT* nSjISniS TtC) LXX. : Koi t. fl. 7rTo^(7et o-e ; Vulgate: et vastitas animalium deterrebit 
 •OS ; Luther : und die verstorten Thi'ere iverd'en dich schrecken; Kleinert : und die YerstHrung der Thiere, die er vcrscheucht. 
 Keil considers 'jn'^n^ a relative clause, and translates the clause: "and the devastation among the animals, which 
 Mghterud them. According to this view, the appended Nun is not paragogic, but the verbal sufilx of the third femi- 
 nine plural, agreeing with ni'^n3. For the use of the sufax fem. 3 pi. see Green's Heb. Gram., sec. 104, g. ; and for 
 the peculiar form of the verb, sec. 141, 3. Furst's Heb. Lexicon ; die Yerwiistung durch Behemot 
 
 [16 Ver. 18. — CXi vM D^ b^bS ' compare etSw\a to. 5.<j><ava, 1 Cor. xii. 2. — C. E.] 
 
 EXEGETICAL. 
 
 The first glance shows that this [second] dia- 
 logue also is divided into distinct members. 
 
 These are : — 
 
 (1) The Question of tlie prophet in the name of 
 Israel Is then the destroyer predicted (vers. 5- 
 II), to have continual security'? i. 12-ii. 1. 
 
 (2). The Answer of God by the prophet (ii. 2-20).- 
 Every one v^'ho is guilty and does not trust in the 
 living God mu.st be destroyed, consequently also 
 the destroyer. 
 
 I. Chap. i. ver. 12-ii. 1. The Question. As if the 
 prophet had fallen into terror by the distressing an- 
 swer and the terrifying description, which the Spirit 
 of God drew by hi'm of the destroyer, and had in 
 the mean time failed to hear of the glorious prospect, 
 which was already opening up in ver. 11, he turns, 
 praying and expostulating, to God : Art thou not 
 from eternity, Jehovah, my God, my Holy 
 One ? in order to receive himself the consoling 
 confidence from the experimental fnith, which puts 
 this address in his mouth : we shall not die. 
 "Jehovah, my God" is the vocative, and "my 
 Holy One " is the predicate. The suffixes of the 
 
 first person refer not to the prophet as an individ 
 ual, but to the people whom he represents ; for ac- 
 cording to the usage of Scripture language Jeho- 
 vah is not the Kivdosch [Holy One] of the prophet, 
 but the Kadosch of Israel ; hence in the verb the 
 change to the plural. Jehovah is implored as the 
 Holy One, t. e., as He, who in a special manner, 
 by special avowal of property [in them] and spec- 
 ial revelation (Ex. xix. 4), adopted Israel from 
 amonj^ all nations ; and hence as He requires spec- 
 ial purity from Israel, so also He will exercise 
 special mercy toward him (Hos. xi. 9) ; and [He ia 
 implored] as He, who has life in Himself, so that 
 whoever abides in Him, cannot be abandoned tc 
 death. (Hence H^ltt^D S?). Compare the JaArft. 
 f. deutsche Theologie [Journal of German Theol- 
 ogy], xii. (1867), l,p. 42 f. As such, God had 
 shown himself from times of old (comp. Is. Ixiii. 
 16), and He is one Jehovah, one continuing al- 
 ways the same (Ex. iii. 14 ; Deut. xxxii. 40) , 
 hence also now He will not show himself other' 
 wise. But at the same time there lies also in the 
 designation Kaddsch the ethical reason that the 
 Holy One of Israel cannot leave unpunished (Nah. 
 ii. 3) him, who has done injury to his sanctuary 
 Ps. cxiv. 2) ; and then the concluding thought u 
 
CHAPTERS I. 12-11. 20 
 
 21 
 
 introduced by virtue of vcr. 11, which is afterward 
 further carried out in ver. 13. Rather, if Jehovah 
 jjcnnits the destroyer at all to exercise violence 
 upon Israel, the ground of it is a phiii of Divine 
 Wisdom and )f a holy (government of the world : 
 fehovah, for judgment hast thou appointed it, 
 .^.nd thou Kock hast founded it for chastise- 
 ment. The noun -):i^ signifies figuratively the 
 same thing as Jehovali in renlity ; the unchange- 
 ithle God, wlio among all the jierverse w.iys of men 
 remains always tlie same, (l)eut. xxxii. 37 ; I's. 
 xviii. 32, and above). The chastisement does not 
 tend to the destruction, but to the salvation of 
 those who are chastised (Ps. cxviii. 18). The voc- 
 atives Jehovah and Rock are continued by the 
 vocative address ver. 13 : Thou art too pure in 
 thine eyes to be able to look upon evil (for the 
 i-onstr. comp. Judges vii. 2 ; Deut. xiv. 24) and 
 thou canst not look, inactively, upon mischief 
 (comp. on ver. 3) ; thou, who on account of un- 
 godliness among us, bringest up the d"stvoyer, 
 why wilt thou look upon the plunderer ? 
 Thou wilt also not leave the sin unpunished, with 
 vrhich thou punishest sin. Boged is in prophecy 
 a standing term for designating the violent Baby- 
 lonian conqueror (Is. xxi. 2 ; xxiv. 16). The w/ii/ 
 is rhetorical : Thou canst certainly not do it. 
 Why art thou silent — epexegetical to the apa- 
 thetic looking on inc, for the purpose of designating 
 it as an inactive, tranquil letting-alone (comp. Ps. 
 1. 21 ) ; — when the wicked — who does not even 
 know thee, but has always been at a distance from 
 thee (comp. Micah ii. 4) — devours him, who is 
 more righteous than he .^ Although there is 
 much wickedness in Israel, yet, because tlie Holy 
 One (ver. 12) dwells in the midst of them, they 
 are still much more righteous (comp. the N. T. 
 idea of the SiKaioi and ayioi), tlian he, who pur- 
 poses to extirpate the worship of Jehovah along 
 with his people; comp. Is. xxxvi. 15 IF. Grotius : 
 "Judcei magnis crimimbus involuti erant, sed tamen in 
 ea re multtim a Chaldais super abantur." 
 
 The "^^^ is tn be supplied in ver. 14 also from 
 ver. 13: and why makest thou, wilt thou make 
 men like fishes of the sea. [So Henderson ; but 
 
 Keil does not supply ^^7 C. E.J These are 
 
 not considered as elsewhere with reference to their 
 great number, but to their defenselessness against 
 the fisher's net, to which the Chaldaean is compared. 
 Hence the parallel clause : like the reptile — here 
 the creeping things of the sea (as in Ps. civ. 2.5) — 
 which has no ruler, no one wlio apjiears to care for, 
 protect and defend them, who goes before collecting 
 means for defense. Where there is no ruler there 
 are helplessness and destruction (Micah iv. 9). 
 
 Instead of 17, indicating possession, 121 stands in 
 
 the short relative clause, because 7ti?Q jg con- 
 strued with this preposition ; literally, no one rules 
 ^ver them. 
 
 Ver. 15. All of them (comp. ver. 9) [suf. n 
 referring to the collective ^7^' ^^^- ^* — C. E.] 
 he, the fisher, lifts up with his hook, from the 
 deep in which they thought themselves safe. [Be- 
 rause the short vowel seghol is lengthened in the 
 
 first syllable of n72?n into tsere, thecorrespond- 
 'i^ hhateph-seghol must pass over into hhateph- 
 pattach, which occurs after all rowels except seg- 
 hol and kamets. Ges., sec. 63. Rem. 4. J. And 
 
 he draws (712) them into his net, and collects 
 
 them in his fish-net. Therefore — to his net 
 (ver. 16). That is to say, he sacrifices to his mar 
 tial power, by which he brings the nations under 
 his sway, and which is forsooth his god (ver. II). 
 The Sarmatians were accustomed to offer annu- 
 ally a sacrifice to a sabre set up as an insignia of 
 Mars (Her., iv. 59, 62; Clem. Al., Protrept. 64). 
 Whether a similar custom exit ted among the 
 Babylonians is not known ; this passage is clear 
 without the su])positiou of such .i custom. For 
 by them, net and fish-net, his portion is rich, 
 his ])ossessions and gain (Eccl. ii. lu), and his 
 food is fat. It is the manner of men to render 
 divine honor to that, by which they procure the 
 means of living luxuriously ; and idolatry is a per- 
 version of the necessity of gratitude, which searches 
 after the giver (Hos. ii. 10). 
 
 Ver. 17. But, therefore, shall he empty his 
 net, *'. e., for the purpose of casting it out again 
 for a new draught and always strangle nations 
 without sparing? That, Thou, the only One, 
 certainly canst not suffer, comp. ver. 13. In the 
 last member the figurative language changes to 
 
 literal ; the infinitive with 7 is not dependent 
 upon 7Dn, but it stands instead of the finite 
 verb. Compare on Micah v. 1, boH'' sb, " un- 
 sparingly," a frequent periphrase of the adverb by 
 means of an adverbial clause (Is. xxx. 14 ; Job vi. 
 10). 
 
 Like Micah vii. 7 and Asaph, Ps. Ixxiii. 28, the 
 prophet (ii. 1 ) flees from the picture of destruc- 
 tion, which involuntarily unrolls itself again be- 
 fore his eye, to the solitary height of observation 
 where he hopes to learn the ways and direction of 
 God. I will stand upon my watch-tower and 
 station myself upon the fortress. The lan- 
 guage is not literal, like that of Deut. xxii. 3 ; but 
 figurative (comp. Is. xxi. 8) ; since the prophet 
 does not pretend, like the heathen Seer, to discovei 
 the Word of God from any celestial sign observed 
 in solitude ; but he receives it ia the heart (Deut 
 xxx. 14; Num. xii. 6). [Keil: "Standing upon 
 the watch, and stationing himself upon the forti 
 fication, are not to be understood as something 
 external, as Hitzig supposes, implying that the 
 prophet went up to a lofty and steep place, or to 
 an actual tower, that he might be far from the 
 noise and bustle of men, and there turn his eyea 
 toward heaven, and direct his collected mind to- 
 wards God, to look out for a revelation. For 
 nothing is known of any such custom as this 
 since the cases mentioned in Ex. xxxiii. 21 and 1 
 Kings xix. 11, as extraordinary preparations foi 
 God to reveal Himself, are of a totally different 
 kind from this ; and the fact that Balaam the 
 soothsayer went up to the top of a bare height to 
 look out for a revelation from God (Num. xxiii. 
 3), furnishes no proof that the true prophets of 
 Jehovah did the same, but is rather a heathenish 
 feature, which shows that it was because Balaam 
 did not rejoice in the possession of a firm pro- 
 phetic word, that he looked out for revelations 
 from God in significan: pher omena of nature (see 
 at Num. xxiii. 3, 4). The words of our verse are 
 to be taken figuratively, or internally, like the ap- 
 pointment of the watchman in Is. xxi. 6. Tht 
 figure is taken from the custom of ascending high 
 places for the purpose of looking into the distance 
 (2 Kings ix. 17 ; 2 Sam. xviii. 24), and simply ex- 
 presses the spiritual preparation of the prophet's 
 soul for hearing the Word of God, i. e., the collect 
 
22 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 Jng of his mind by qnictly entering into himself, 
 and meditating upon the word and testimonies of 
 God." — C. E.] Hence he continues : and I will 
 Bwait, literally look out for, what He will speak 
 In me, " accurate observarc, quce nunc in spiritu men- 
 tis continc/ant," Barck. Compare Hos. i. 2. Oehler 
 in Herzog, R. E., xvii. 637. And what answer I 
 
 Bhall bring to my complaiat. ^"'Ji^n as in 2 
 Sam. xxiv. 13. In direct words the prophet oc- 
 cupies the position of a mediator founded on 
 Micaz vii. 1 : he complains and answers himself; 
 by virtue of his subjectivity, which connects him 
 to the people, he represents them ; and by virtue 
 of the Spirit which comes upon him, and to which 
 bis Ego listens eagerly as something objective, he 
 represents God. He calls his address, which has 
 
 just been concluded, nn!3in, a rejoinder, prop- 
 erly a speech for tlie purpose of conviction, or 
 vindication, in a law suit (Job xiii. 6) ; with refer- 
 ence to the fact, that, against the threatening, 
 which was in the first answer of God, it took the 
 character of an objection, a deprecatio, an appeal 
 to the mercy, holiness, and justfce of God. 
 
 The answer follows immediately in the Reply of 
 Jehovah, ver. 2-20. It is introduced by a paren- 
 thesis, giving directions and information to the 
 prophet, like the reply of Micah to the fiilse pre- 
 dictions of the false proplicts (ill. 1): and Jeho- 
 vah answered me and said. After an Introitus, 
 which has tlie jnirpose of indicating the import- 
 ance and immutability of the decrees announced, 
 and after a Divine acknowledgment that the de- 
 stroyer is worthy of punisliment, the reply runs 
 into a five-fold woe, which announces judgment 
 upon all ungodly, rapacious, idolatrous conduct, 
 consequently a general judgment of the world, 
 which involves also the destruction of the con- 
 queror. 
 
 Vers. 2 b, 3. Introitus. Write down the vision 
 
 'comp. on i. 1 ; Ob. 1). pTR is not merely that 
 .vhich is seen, but also that which is inwardly per- 
 ceived : nTn relates to the eye of the soul. And 
 
 make it plain (~)SZ1 a,s in Deut. xxvii. 8) on 
 tables, that he may make haste, who reads it, 
 I. e., write it so plainly that every one passing by 
 
 may be able to read it quickly and easily ; S"1p 
 
 to read, with 2 as in Jer. xxxvi. 13. From the 
 fact that the tables are designated by the article as 
 known, Calvin has already, in the Introduction to 
 his commentary on Isaiah, drawn the conclusion 
 that tables were put up in the temple (Luther, 
 Ewald : in the market-place), on which the prophets 
 noted down a summary of their prophecies, in order 
 to make them known to the whole people. In this 
 way he thinks the possibility of preserving so 
 many prophecies from being falsified may be un- 
 derstood : the tablets, on which they were written, 
 were taken down and piled up Indeed this latter 
 supposition has nothing incredible ; this method 
 of preservation, as the most recent excavations 
 prove, was well known in the ancient East. In an 
 excavation at Kouyunjik (Introd. to Nahum, p. 9) 
 the workmen came ujion a chamber full of tablets 
 of terra cotta, with inscriptions in perfect preserva- 
 tion, piled in heaps from the floor to the ceiling. 
 'Compare Zeitschrift der Deutsch-morgenldndisrhen 
 deselkchaft [the Journal of the German Oriental 
 Society] v. p 446 ; x. pp. 728, 731 ; and on the 
 x>ntjnt8 of the tablets Brandis, art. " Assyria," in 
 PhuIj's Encyclopedia, i. p, 1890). The tablet, of 
 
 course, of which Isaiah speaks, viii. 1, is not a pub 
 lie one, but one disposable for the private use of 
 the prophets (comp. v. 16), and on that account i', 
 might appear doubtful whether such tablets were 
 constantly fixed up; but at all events it follows in 
 this passage that it was incumbent upon the 
 prophet to fix them up. The article then points 
 to the fact that the prophet had already laid them 
 up for writing down the vision ; since indeed he was 
 not surprised by it, but he had looked out for it 
 (ver. 1). The reason that several tablets are men- 
 tioned here, and not one, as in Isaiah, is found in 
 the rich and various contents of the five-fold woe. 
 But at all events the design of the command, as 
 the connection with what follows shows, is two- 
 fold : first, that the word may be made known to 
 all (comp. Is. viii. 1 ) ; secondly, that it shall not 
 be obliterated and changed, but fulfilled in strict 
 accordance with the wording. (Comp. Job. xix. 
 24; Is. XXX. 8.) 
 
 The latter reason appears with special force in 
 ver. 3 : for the vision is yet for the appointed 
 time, still waits for a time of fulfillment, lying 
 perhaps in a far distant future, but nevertheless 
 a fixed (this is indicated by the article) time 
 (comp. Dan. x. 14) ; what this set time is, that 
 which follows declares : and it strives to [reach] 
 the end: the final time, withheld from human 
 knowledge (Acts i. 7), which God has appointed 
 for the fulfillment of his promises and threatenings 
 (comp. on Micah iv. 1 ; Dan. viii. 19, 17). The 
 
 verb nD\ it puffs, pants to the end, is chosen with 
 special emphasis : " true prophecy is animated, as 
 it were, by an impulse to fulfill itself." Hitzig. 
 
 [The third imp. (Hiph.) nS^ is formed with 
 
 tsere, like "^P^? Ez. xviii. 14]. And it does not 
 lie, like those predictions of the false prophets, 
 which fixed the time of prosperity as near at hand 
 (Micah ii. 11). Therefore, iJF it tarry, wait for it 
 
 (comp. viii. 17) ; for it will come (comp. S12 
 of the fulfillment of prophecy, 1 Sam. ix. 6), and 
 
 not fail (~inS as in Judges v. 28 : 2 Sam. xx. .5). 
 The use of this passage, Heb. x. 37, where it seems 
 to be combined with Is. xxvi. 20, is grounded on 
 the translation of the LXX., who point the pre- 
 ceding inf. abs. ^2 as the part. 1^2, and under- 
 stand by the epx^jJ-^vos, who will certainly come, 
 the Messiah, the judge of the world. There is 
 no objection to this Messianic reference, so far as 
 the meaning is concerned, since all prophecy has 
 its goal in Christ ; but, if we accept that punctua- 
 tion, the reference cannot lie in the words, since 
 in ease the definite individual, Messiah, is referred 
 
 to, we must at least read W^H. 
 
 Ver. 4-6 a. The starting-point of the following 
 announcement of the judgment is exhibited as an 
 ethical one with special reference to the conqueror. 
 Behold pufifed up, his soul is not upright in 
 him, consequently he must perish, which furnishes 
 the antithesis to ''live" in the second half of the 
 verse. In harmony with i. 7-11, the insolent defi- 
 ance, exhibited in his pride, putting itself in the 
 place of God, is pointed out as the pith of the sin 
 of the foreigner. 
 
 LnT'Q^, 3 fcm. Pual, denominative from the 
 
 subst. vD37, mound, tumor, from which also a 
 Hiphil, Num. xiv. 44, is formed.] The uprightness 
 4 b, forms a contrast to it which consequently i« 
 
CHATTERS I. 12-11. 20. 
 
 23 
 
 Qot here, as at other times, opposed to it like sim- 
 plicity to cunning sophistry (Ecc. vii. 29), but like 
 humble rectitude to lying ostentation. 
 
 All pride against God rests on self-deception ; 
 and the judgment has no other object with refer- 
 ence to this self-deception than to lay it open, 
 whereby it is proved to be nothing, consequently 
 its possessor falls to destruction. But the just 
 will live, not by his pride, not at all by anything 
 that is his own, but by the constancy of his faith 
 resting upon God and his word. The use, which 
 the Apostle Paul makes of these words (Rom. i. 
 17 ; conip. Gal. iii. 11), is authorized, since there 
 as here the antithesis, by which the idea broad in 
 itself is distinctly sketched, is the haughty boast 
 of his own power entangled in sin. [On the con- 
 trary the application of the first half of the verse 
 iieb. X. 38, is obscured by the use of the incorrect 
 transhition of the LXX., as it is not characterized 
 as an argumentative citation by the free transposi- 
 tion of both lialves of tlie verse, but as a free re- 
 production. Compare Bengel on the passage.] 
 Isaiah vii. 9 is also parallel to this passage in sense. 
 The idea of faith, which, in this passage and gen- 
 erally in the 0. T. lies at the foundation of the 
 words n3"10M resp. "J"^ttSrT, is not yet the spe- 
 cific N. T. idea of the appropriation of the pardon- 
 ing grace of God, which brings salvation, but the 
 broader one, which we find in Heb. ii. : laying firm 
 
 hold upon (]^ttSn), and standing firmly upon 
 
 (riDIJSS) the word and promise of God, the firm 
 reliance of the soul upon the invisible, which can- 
 not be depressed and misled by the antagonism of 
 that which is seen: constautia, Jiducia. [For the 
 word inrSffTatris, Heb. xi. 1 (Oetinger: substruc- 
 ture), is certainly not chosen without reference to 
 
 the stem "JS3M. Compare the verb HSH, ver. 
 3. Hitzig is certainly right in claiming for the 
 
 substantive Hj^DS the signification of fiiithful 
 disposition = npl!J 5 in passages like Prov. xii. 
 17 and Ez. xviii. 22, comp. 1 Sam. xxvi. 23, it 
 cannot be doubled. But this meaning, however, is 
 to be explained from the etymon, and is not in it- 
 self the only authorized one ; and one needs not go 
 
 back to the Hiphil ]"*X2Sn (as H. seems to think), 
 in order to discover as the primary meaning, of 
 the word ]^S, that of standing firm. As pl!J 
 is the adherence of God to his word and covenant 
 and the adherence of man to the word and coven- 
 ant of God, so HDlDt^ (compare the prevailing 
 usage of the Psalms, especially Ps. Ixxxix. 25, 
 comp. 29) is the standing fast on the part of God 
 to his word (vcr. 1, 12), and the standing fast on 
 the part of man to the word of God : any other 
 constancy than that of a mind established on the 
 word of God the N. T. docs not know, at least 
 not as a virtue. Comp. below Luther on the pas- 
 sage. 
 
 The general point of view, ver. 4, from which it 
 is plain, what he says of the Babylonians, is par- 
 ticularized and enlarged in ver. 5, whilst the crimes 
 of the Babylonian are placed under the light of 
 ex])erience, as it is expressed in a proverb. And 
 
 moreover (the combination "'D SS stands here in 
 its natural signification, indicated by both words 
 themselves, not in the modified meaning, as in 1 
 Kinps viii. 27 ; Gen. iii. 1 ), wine is treacherous. 
 
 The Babylonians were notorious for their inclina- 
 tion to drink : compare Curtius, ver. 1 : " Bahylonit 
 maxime in tnnum et quce ebrietatem sequuntur effun 
 sunt ; " and in general concerning their luxury^ 
 the characteristic fragment of Nicolaus Damas- 
 cenus [Fragm. Hist. Grcec, ed. C. Miiller, vol. ii. 
 Paris, 1848. Fragm. 8-10, p. 357 ff".). [Rawlin- 
 son's Ancimt Monarchies, vol. ii. pp. 504, 507. — 
 C. E.]. The brief formula has the stamp of 
 
 the proverb, and "^32 is not used in the sense of 
 violent plundering, as in i. 13, but in that of per- 
 fidious treachery, as in Lam. i. 2 ; .Job vi. 15 (here 
 also intrans.). In drunkenness men arrogate to 
 themselves high things, and afterward have not 
 strength for them. Comp. also Prov. xxiii. 31 f. 
 The otiier proverb reads : A boastful man, great- 
 mouth, continues not. "JTI^, only here and 
 Pi'ov. xxi. 24, signifies, in the latter passage by 
 virtue of the parallelism (^^.) and according to 
 the versions, tumidus, arrot/ans. The predicate is 
 
 attracted by 1, in order to give emphasis to the 
 subject, as in Gen. xxii. 24 ; Ew., sec. 344 b. 
 (Hupfeld on Ps. i., 1 takes "l^H^ "132 as predicate 
 to ])'^-, this, however, is too artificial. 
 
 That which follows forms together with ver. 6 a 
 subjoined relative sentence, whilst the relative in- 
 troduced before [its antecedent] is defined by the 
 
 V737 in the following verse ; and the contents of 
 this subjoined sentence is the direct application of 
 vers. 4, 5 a to the Chaldfean : He, who widens 
 his desire like the insatiable (Prov. xxvii. 20) 
 
 jaws of hell. tt7?3, as in Ps. xvii. 9 ; compare 
 for the figure Is. v. 14. Yea, he, who like death 
 is not satisfied (construction as in the first mem- 
 ber), but gathers together all peoples to himself 
 (comp. i. 15) and collects together all nations 
 to himself; will not all these (comp. Nah. iii. 
 19) take up a proverb concerning him, yea a 
 
 satirical speech, a riddle upon him ? On Stt73 
 compare Commentary on Nah. i. 1. /ti"'Q, usu- 
 ally a figurative discourse, then a brief epigram, a 
 proverb (Prov. i. 1) ; here as in Is. xiv. 4, accord- 
 ing to the connection, a scoffing, mocking song, in 
 view of the certainty of the fate prepared for him 
 The same sense is given by the context to the 
 
 word nS'^ba, to which it [the sense] seems more 
 
 nearly related by the root V ''» to mock, and the 
 
 derivatives Vi? arid P^^. • Yet this is in fact no 
 more than semblance, as the passage, Prov. i. 6, 
 proves, from which Habakkuk borrows the phrase- 
 ology of this verse, and in which nothing of de- 
 rision is to be found. We must rather go back to 
 the Hiphil of the stem, which signifies interpre- 
 
 tari: \^"'7tt is an interpreter. (Delitzsch denies 
 
 this signification of V^ ''U [Hiph. pret.], however 
 without proof; his explanation, brilliant oration, 
 is entirely imaginary.) Therefore n^"'/P is not 
 an explanatory saying, /. e., it is not an illustra- 
 tive, luminous one (Kcil), the contrary of which 
 the passage Prov. i. 6, and likewise the character 
 of the proverb following, prove, but it is a saying 
 which needs interpretation (as our riddle does not 
 guess, but is intended to be guessed), an apothegm 
 (so the LXX. on Prov, i. 6 : (TKoreivhs \iyat ; ir 
 
24 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 this passage they construe n!J"'7^ with what fol- 
 lows) , accordingly it is synonymous with the fol- 
 lowing word mTTI, alviyfxaTa, enigma — an ex- 
 tremely popular form of poetry in the East, and 
 which is also among us a favorite form of popular 
 political ridicule. Certainly to the mind of the 
 prophet it is something different, a prophetic 
 speech. 
 
 (Keil : " Mdshal is a sententious poem, as in 
 Mic. ii. 4 and Is. xiv. 4, not a derisive song, for 
 this subordinate meaning could only be derived 
 from the context, as in Is. xiv. 4 for example ; 
 and there is nothing to suggest it here. So, again 
 M'^litmh neither signifies a satirical song, nor an 
 obscure enigmatical discourse, but, as Delitzsch 
 has shown, from the first of the two primary 
 
 meanings combined in the verb Y^^, lucere and 
 Inscivire, a brilliant oration, or alio splendida, from 
 
 which V** .^ is used to denote interpreter, so 
 called, not from the obscurity of the speaking, but 
 from his making the speech clear or intelligible. 
 
 ib niTH 
 
 IS m apposition to 
 
 ni^^bri 
 
 and 
 
 ^^^'^> adding the more precise definition, that the 
 sayings contain enigmas relating to him (the Chal- 
 daean)." 
 
 Lucere does noi seem to be one of the primary 
 
 meanings of V'^ ''• Fiirst gives umherspringen, — 
 hiipfen (aus Muthwillen), dah. muthwillig, ausgel- 
 a$sen, unruhigen Geistes sein ; iibertr. ve^hohnen, — 
 spotten, achten unhestdndig sein. Gesenius balbu- 
 tire, (1) barbare loqui; (2) ilbidere, iiridere alicui. 
 Thesaurus. See " Special Introduction to the 
 Proverbs of Solomon," sect. 11, note 2, in this 
 Commentary. — C. E.] 
 
 Vers. 6 b-20. The Fivefold Woe. Two views 
 are possible concerning the contents of this dis- 
 course. One may view it either wholly as the 
 song of the nations indicated ver. 6 a, conse- 
 quently as entirely and specially directed against 
 Babylon ; or that only the first woe constitutes 
 this song, but in the others the prophet retains the 
 form once begun, in order to connect with them 
 ;;eneral thoughts of the judgment. If in f;ivor of 
 this latter view no further argument can be urged 
 than the one, that in the time of Habakkuk, Neb- 
 uchadnezzar had not yet committed all the sins, 
 which are here laid to his charge, a consideration 
 on which Hitzig certainly lays stress, one might 
 perhaps be authorized in calling it, with Maurer 
 and Keil, the most infelicitous of all. But not 
 only the general contents of the following threat- 
 enings, which as much concern the sins of Judah, 
 as those of the Chaldaians, are in favor of it ; but 
 also the circumstance that it appears worthy of 
 God, after the impressive introduction, vers. 2, 3, 
 and the profound conclusion ver. 4 to command 
 the prediction not of a mere amplified derisory 
 song of the naticms, but of a universal threatcn- 
 'ng against sin, in which of course and before all 
 ihe sin of the Chaldajans is also to be included. 
 Further, in favor of this view is the fact that pre- 
 cisely the first woe, vers. 6-8, has both the form of 
 the brief, aphoristic, enigmatical song and a direct 
 reference toBabyJon, while in the second and third 
 both are entirely wanting ; and further that the 
 immediate transition from such a poetical form in 
 the beginning to a more extended prophetical ad- 
 dress frequently occurs in other places in the 
 prophets (Mic. ii. 4 AT. ; Is. xxiii. 16 ff. ; xiv. 4 flF.). 
 
 Also the plural of mPIV ver. 2, points rathej 
 I to a plurality of objects of the prophecy than to 
 a single one ; and so also the concluding formula 
 ver. 20 (all the world), points to the universality 
 of the predicted judgment. Finally, we had in 
 chap. i. the same double reference of the prophecy; 
 both to the intolerableness of the present sinful 
 state of things (ver. 2 ff.), and to that ot the future 
 state o< calamity ; both are characterized by en- 
 tirely parallel formulae, comp. namely, vers. 3 and 
 13 : the five woes correspond to both complaints. 
 
 Vers. 6-8. Firat Woe. It is immediately con- 
 nected by the I^S*''] to the "ISU?^ in ver. 6 a, and 
 thereby expressly pointed out as the song raised 
 by the oppressed over the fall of the conqueror. 
 ' ^T is used here, as in 2 Kings ix. 17 ; Is. Iviii. 9 ; 
 
 Ps. Iviii. 1 2, in distinction from the aorist 1^S*1, 
 as an annexed jussive form in a future sense and 
 impersonal (comp. Micah ii. 4) ; they shall say: 
 Woe (comp. on Nah. iii. 1 ) to Mm who accu 
 mulates what is not his owii. i v"t^7 as in i. 
 6. By this accord of sounds the solution of the 
 enigma, which lies in this designation of the Baby- 
 lonian, is undoubtedly and fully suggested. How- 
 ever, there is in the accord itself, as Delitzsch re- 
 marks, a new enigma, to wit, the ambiguity : he 
 accumulates not for himself (Eccl. ii. 25). In the 
 following expression : For how long, the excla- 
 mation, how long already I as Hitzig thinks, is not 
 intended; but the exclamation, how long still! 
 The entire contents of the verse show that he does 
 not suppose the catastrophe as having already 
 taken place, but he predicts it in the midst of the 
 oppression. Generally the formula '^r\72 IV i* 
 employed only in the sense of complaint concern 
 ing a present evil. And who loads himself with 
 a burden of pledges gained by usury (comp. i. 
 11). 12^!2317 is also ambiguous : derived from the 
 root 12337. it can signify either a inass of pledges 
 (comp. 1 I^D, shower of rain, T*"^tt3, thick dark- 
 ness) : to wit, the laboriously acquired property of 
 the nations, which he collects together, just as the 
 unmerciful usurer heaps up jjledges contrary to the 
 law of Moses (Deut. xxiv. 10) ; and which he must 
 for that reason deliver up ; or it may be consid- 
 ered as a composite of ^37 (thickness, comp. Hupf. 
 on Ps. xviii. 12) and T2"^!2, thick mud. Compare 
 Nah. iii. 6. 
 
 Ver. 7. 'Will not those who bite thee rise up 
 suddenly (a play upon words between Tf f 2, bite of 
 a snake, and'^^^, interest : who recover usury from 
 thee) ; and those who shake thee violently [al- 
 lusion to the violent seizure of a debtor by his cred- 
 itor — C. E.] wake up (ft-om VP'') • ■^^** *^°^ 
 wilt become a booty to them, niDCiC, phir. 
 rhet. Comp. on Micah v. 1 . 
 
 Ver. 8. For thou hast plundered a miiltitude 
 of nations (comp. Micah iv. 2), so all the rem- 
 nant (v. 2) of the nations wiU plunder thee : the 
 remnant of the subdued, i. e..the not subdued, those 
 lately come into existence, as e. g. the Persians (Is 
 xiv.). [Keil, after a labored exposition, concludes 
 " From all this wc may see that there is no neces- 
 sity to explain ' all the remnant of the nations,' a? 
 relating to the remainder of the nations that haa 
 not been subjugated, but that we may undersiand 
 it as signifying the remnant of the nations plun- 
 dered and subjugated by the Chaldseans (as is don* 
 
CHiVPTERS I. 12-11. 20. 
 
 25 
 
 oy the LXX., Theodoret, Delitzsch, and others), 
 which is the only explanation in harmony with the 
 asage of the languas^e. For iu Josh, xxiii. 12, ye- 
 iher haggofjim denotes the Canaanitish nations left 
 after the war of extermination; and in Zech. xiv. 
 2, yether hd'dm signifies the remnant of the nation 
 left after the previous conquest of the city, and the 
 carrying away of half its inhabitants." — C. E.] 
 For the blood of men (]Q as in Ob. 10) and 
 violence in the earth, the city, and all that 
 dwell in it. The same enumeration of everything 
 destructible, as i. 11 ff. 14 ; hence not to be restrict- 
 ed to Jerusalem and Israel, though specially in- 
 tended, but to be understood generally, like Jer. 
 xlvi. 8 [Rawliuson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii., 
 p. 506. — C. E.] 
 
 Vers. 9-11. Second Woe. If the Chaldcean (vers. 
 6-8), according to the connection, was the only 
 possible object, this threatening of judgment cer- 
 tainly reaches farther : Woe to him, who accu- 
 miilates wicked gain lor his house, who sets 
 his nest on high (the iiif with 7 continues the con- 
 struction of the imperfect, as is frequently the case), 
 [the infin. with */ is used to explain more precisely 
 the idea expressed by the finite verb. Nordheimer's 
 Heh. Gram., sec 1020,2. — C. E.] to save him- 
 self from the hand of evil. The judgment of 
 God, proceeding from his holiness, has its source in 
 a necessity universally moral, and, on this account, 
 falls upon all sinners ; and the description of those 
 characterized here does not fit so well, according to 
 the language of proi>hecy, the Chaldaeans, who in- 
 habited a low country, — the parallel (Is. xiv. 12 ff.) 
 produced by Deiilzsch, conveys the idea of heaven- 
 defying pride, whilst here the prophet speaks of 
 concealing treasures, — as it does the Edoraites, 
 who stored up their plunder in the clefts of the 
 rocks (Ob. 3. ; Jer. xlix. 7 f ). And it applies just 
 as well to the lich in Jerusalem (comp. Is. xxii. 
 16 ff.), and especially to King Jehoiakim, whose 
 conduct is described in language (Jer. xxii. 13 ff) 
 uttered nearly at the same time with that of our 
 prophet, and in exactly similar modes of expression. 
 JRawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii. p. 504. — 
 C. E.] 
 
 Ver. 10 also applies to the same person : Thou 
 hast consulted shame, instead of riches, for thy 
 house, the house of David, which was called to a 
 position of honor before God. And what is the 
 shame? The ends of many nations, i. e., the 
 collective multitude of peoples (comp. 1 Kings, 
 xii. 31) which shall come up like a storm to take 
 vengeance upon the sins of Israel, just as the rem- 
 nant of the nations are at a future time, to take 
 vengeance upon the sins of the Babylonian. And 
 thou involvest thy soul in guilt (Prov. xx. 2). 
 
 [" The ends of many nations," by which Klei- 
 Tiert renders CS"! C^aVniSfJ, gives no intelli- 
 gible meaning, nii^p is not the plural of "^^i^j hut 
 
 tlie infinitive of i^^rj? to cut off, destroy. The proper 
 rendering, therefore, is cutting off many nations. — 
 C.E.I 
 
 Ver. 1 1 . For the stone cries out of the wall, 
 ^il)lt in sin, to accuse thee (Gen. iv. 10), and the 
 spar out of the wood-work answers it, — agrees 
 with it in its charge against thee : when the judg- 
 li.tnt draws near they are the accusing witnesses, 
 immediately joined to this is — 
 
 The Third Woe, verj. 12-13. "Woe to him who 
 builds the fortress in blood, and founds the city 
 
 in wickedness. Since the prophet has not de- 
 nounced punishment upon Nebuchadnezzar for 
 building, but for destroying cities (i. 11 f ), we 
 must here also, especially on comparing Micah iii. 
 10 and Jer. xxii. 13, understand the reference to 
 be to the buildings of Jehoiakim. Behold, doea 
 it not come to pass (2 Chron. xxv. 26) from Je- 
 hovah of hosts, that the tribes weary them- 
 selves, — either come up on compulsory service 
 for the king, or driven to Jerusalem by the calam- 
 ity of war to work upon the fortifications (2 Chron. 
 xxxii. 4 f ; compare also Micah i. 2) — for the 
 fire, and the nations exhaust themselves for 
 vanity P All humaTi wisdom and toil have no suc- 
 cess, where Jehovah does not assist in building 
 (Ps. cxxvii. 1) ; this applies to Israel (Is. Ivii. 10; 
 xlix. 4 ; comp. xl. 28, 30; Ixv. 23), as it does to 
 Babylon (.Jer. Ii. 58). And this vanity must be 
 made manifest : the works of men must crumble 
 into the dust from whicli thev arose (comp. JMicah 
 V. 10; vii. 13). 
 
 For (ver. 14) the earth shall be flill, but ol 
 the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the 
 waters cover the bed of the sea. So God him- 
 self has promised by Isaiah (xi. 9 ; comp. ii. 3). 
 This glory is the resplendent majesty of the Ruler 
 of the world coming to judgment against all un- 
 godliness, and for the accomplishment of salvation 
 (Num. xiv. 21; Ps. xcvii. ; Zech. ii. 12). This 
 knowledge comprehends, at the same time, the ac- 
 knowledgment of Jehovah and the confession o{ 
 sin. sbo is not construed as usual with the ace. 
 of the subst., but with v and the infinitive. To 
 analyze the last clause into a noun with a following 
 7'elative clause is unnecessary : 3 can also be used 
 (which Ewald and Keil deny) as a particle of 
 comparison before whole sentences (Hupfeld, 
 Psalms, ii. p. 327 A. 99). □"* does not mean here 
 the sea itself, but the bed, or bottom of the sea, aa 
 in 1 Kings vii. 26. With the general thought which 
 ver. 13 f adds to the special turns [of thought] 
 there is a return to the ])unishment of heathen 
 wrong-doers. Upon them falls exclusively — 
 
 The Fourth Woe, vers. 15-18, which also directly 
 introduces again some enigmatical sounds of the 
 first. Woe to thee [so Kleinert and Luther : the 
 LXX., Vulgate, A. V., Keil, and Henderson, use 
 the third person, ime tn him — C. E.] that givest 
 thy neighbor to drink — whilst thou pourest 
 out (nSD, as in Job xiv. 19 ; synonymous with 
 TJSti?, Jer. X. 25,) thy wrath [or thy leathern 
 bottle, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Hitzig (Gen. xxi. 14) ; 
 perhaps as the whole address directs ns back to 
 ver. 6 ff., there is again here also an intentional 
 ambiguity] and also makest him (thy neighbor) 
 drunk (inf abs. pro v. fin., Ges., sec. 131, 4 a.) 
 in order to see their shame ; to make it wholly 
 subservient to his voluptuous desire (Nah. iii. 5). 
 [In place of the third person in the first member, 
 the address changes, in the second member, to the 
 second person ; in the fourth member the singu- 
 lar is changed into the plural. Both the middle 
 clauses are adverbial to the HpICD of the first 
 member] . The figure is taken from common life, 
 and is clear of itself; it is the more appropriate 
 as the Chaldaean is described (ver. 5) as a drunk- 
 ard. The leathern bottle, from which the Chal 
 daean pours out his compacts (comp. Is. xxxix.) 
 is, as it turns out in the end, a bottle of wrath 
 and the disposition in which it is passed is that of 
 wild desire aTid barbarous lust of power. Ther« 
 fore the same comes noon him. 
 
2G 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 Ver. 16. So thou shalt be satisfied, as thou 
 desirest, but with, shame instead of glory. Drink 
 thou also (comp. Nah. iii. 1 1 ) and uncover thy- 
 self [Heb. : show thyself unciicuiiicised — C. E.] : 
 frocQ Jehovah's right hand the cup, also a cup 
 of wrath (comp. Ob. 16) will come in its turn 
 to thee, and shameful vomit upon thy glory. 
 fRawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii. p. .504. — 
 
 C. E.] ]1 '|7*~, accordins: to the Pilpel derivation 
 
 from ^^P instead of ] wp 7i7i signifies the most 
 extreme contempt ; but it can, at the same time, 
 be considered as a composite word from livp S'^p, 
 vomit of shame, or shameful vomit (comp. Is. 
 xxviii. 8) referring to the figurative description of 
 the drinking revel. 
 
 Ver. 15. For the outrage at Lebanon, whose 
 cedar forests the conquerors wickedly spoiled, in 
 order to adorn ;vith them their magnificent edifices 
 in Babylon (Is. xiv. 7 ft".; comp. Ausland, 1866, 
 p. 944), shall cover thee, shall weigh upon thee 
 like a crushing roof, and the dispersion of the 
 animals, which it, the outrage, frightened away ! 
 The wild beasts of Lebanon, which fled before the 
 
 destroyer. (^n^rT^, instead of 1j7'i7'! compensation 
 for the sharpening by lengthening the vowel, Ges., 
 20, 3 c. Rem., and pausal change of the ~into~ , 
 Ges., sec. 29, 4, c. Rem.). [See Green's Heb. Gram., 
 sec. 112, 5 c; 141, 3. — 0. E.] And as Lebanon 
 vfith its cedars (Jer. xxii. 6, 23), appears to be a 
 representative of the Holy Land and its glory, so 
 here also a general meaning is given to the outrage 
 upon inanimate nature by the repetition of the re- 
 frain from the first woe, ver. 8 : On account of 
 the blood of men, the oiitrage upon the land, 
 the city and all its inhabitants. However, the 
 obvious reference to Israel and Jerusalem, in this 
 passage, is made, by the connection, more dis- 
 tinctly prominent than in ver. 8, above. 
 
 Ver. 18, according to the thought, is preliminary 
 to the following woe ; just as we saw above that 
 ver. 11 was preliminary to the third woe, and ver. 
 13 to the fourth. "What proflteth the graven 
 image, that its maker carves it ? HO is used 
 sensu negativo, as in Eccles. i. 3 ; and since it re- 
 quires a negative answer, the secondary clause in- 
 troduced into the rhetorical question by '^^ is also 
 answered thereby in the negative : quid, cur ? It 
 profits nothing (Jer. ii. II), consequently it is folly 
 to carve it. Parallel to this is the following clause : 
 what profiteth the molten image and the teacher 
 of lies, i. e., either the false prophet, who enjoins 
 men to trust in idols, and encourages the manu- 
 facture of them (Is. ix. 14 [15?]), or rather, ac- 
 cording lo the n~lV in the following verse, the 
 idol itself, which points out false ways in oppo- 
 sition to God, the true teacher (Job xxxvi. 22 ; Ps. 
 XV. 12; Delitzsch, Hitzig), That the carver of 
 his image trusts in him to make dumb idols ? 
 (Ps. cxxxv. 16 f ; 1 Cor. xii. 2.) The negative an- 
 swer to this rhetorical question is given by — 
 
 The Fifth Woe. which is immediately subjoined, 
 vers. 19, 20 : "Woe to him, who says to the 
 block, wake up! as the pious man can pray to the 
 true God (Ps. xxxv. 12 [23] ) ; arise ! to the dumb 
 stone. Can it teach ? To teach is used here, as 
 in the former ver.'e .and generally, to signify that 
 active guidance and advice, which belong to the 
 Deity in contradistinction to men, and which form 
 (he basis of practical j)iety. Concerning the form 
 jf the in<lifjnant question, compare [Com.] on Mic, 
 ii. 6. Behold it is enchased with gold and sil- 
 
 ver (Ace.) and there is nothing of soul, neither 
 breath, nor feeling, nor understanding, in it, 
 (Com. Ps. cxxxv. 17). However fine it is, it does 
 not even have life (comp. Jer. x. 14) : how can it 
 teach! Compare the amplific«,tion of the sam< 
 thought, Is. xliv. 9 ff. 
 
 The whole threatening address concludes with 
 the prophetical formula : Jehovah is in the tem- 
 ple of his holiness, i. e. according to Ps. xi. 4 
 compare xx. 7 [6], heaven, from which, as thesitu 
 ation now stands and as the -woes about to past 
 over the earth are anticipated, we are to expect hii 
 judgment, i. e. the confirmation that He will giv< 
 to show that He is the Holy One (comp. Ps. xviii 
 7 fT. ; Is. V. 16). Therefore, — compare the en- 
 tirely similar connection of thought Zeph. i. 7 ; 
 Zecli. ii, 13 [Heb. Bib. ver. 17]: — Let all the 
 world be silent before Him. 
 
 [Keil: Vers. 18-20. Fifth and last strophe. 
 This concluding strophe does not commence, like 
 the preceding ones, with hoi, but with the thought 
 which prepares the way for the woe, and is attached 
 to what goes before to strengthen the threat, all 
 hope of help being cut ofif from the Chaldaan. 
 Like all the rest of the heathen, the Chaldaaan also 
 trusted in the power of his gods. This confidence 
 the prophet overthrows in ver. 18 : " What use is 
 if?" equivalent to "The idol is of no use" (cf. 
 Jer. ii. 11 ; Is. xliv. 9, 10). The force of this ques- 
 tion still continues in massekhah : " Of what use is 
 the molten image ? " Pesel is an image carved out 
 of wood or stone ; massekdh an image cast in metal. 
 — C. E.] 
 
 DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 
 
 The sjjhere of thought of this chapter rests upon 
 the two intersecting ground-lines, sin and death, 
 faith and life. (Compare on the idea of faith the 
 Exegetical Exposition of ii. 4.) 
 
 Sin and death belong together : sin is the ethical, 
 death the ])hysicai expres.sion of separation from 
 God. Therefore the people of God cannot die, 
 because He is their Holy One ; because by virtue 
 of their belonging to the Holy One they drink 
 from the fountain of life. Therefore to Israel God's 
 judgments are a means of purification, while they 
 are destruction to others. And if God, who is a 
 Rock, has such a hatred against sin, that he does 
 not suffer it in his people [heiJiqrv Figenthum, sa- 
 cred property] chosen of old (comp. Com. on Micah, 
 p. 00), and brings upon it the scourge of his judg- 
 ment, how much less will He suffer it in him who 
 is a stranger to his heart, and whom He employs 
 only as an instrument of his judgment. From 
 the consideration that God judges Israel follows 
 the certainty that He will judge the heathen also, 
 consequently the certainty that Israel will be 
 saved. 
 
 The sin of the world-power is two-fcld ; first, it 
 deals with the ]>roperty of God as if it were its 
 own ; secondly, it does not honor God for the sue 
 cess granted to it, but its own power. T> is must 
 cease. 
 
 The countenance of fnith is directed forward ■ 
 into the future. Thence it derives its answer for 
 consolation and hope. (Of course it would not 
 have this direction if it haxl not the promise of God 
 behind it (Gen. xlix. 18) ; God is, however, always 
 the author : He is of old the Holy One of his peo- 
 ple.). When Israel forgat the promise, they began 
 to look back to the flesh pots of Egypt. The 
 whole religion of the O. T. is a religion of th« 
 future. Heathendom exercised its intellectual en 
 
CHAPTERS I. I2-II. 20. 
 
 27 
 
 STgy upon the origins of things for the purpose of 
 Arming and developing their theogonies : the Holy 
 Spirit directs the mind of Israel to prophecy : no 
 ancient people has so little about the primitive time 
 as we find in the 0. T. ; even modern heathendom 
 knows [professes to know| much more about it. 
 The exact time is not specified in prophecy, at 
 least in regard to the intermediate steps (i. 5) ; 
 but the lertiinty is >pecilied, and the exact time 
 is tixtd ill th-' purpose of God. God can no more 
 lie than Qe can look upon iniquity. The cer- 
 tainty of prophecy, and consequently of our con- 
 fidence, rests upon the holiness of God. How dif- 
 ferent is the resignation of the O. T. fi"om fatalism. 
 The former comes from life, the latter from death. 
 Resignation places the holiness of God in the cen- 
 tre : fatalism destroys it. 
 
 God's way is the right way. He hates all crooked 
 lines, — the side-lines of sophistry, the curve-lines 
 of boasting, the downward sunk lines of dark con- 
 cealment. Sin is deviation from the straight way. 
 The straight way is the way of life. 
 
 The piety of the Old Testament begins with 
 faith (Gen. xv. 4 [6]). The stage of the law ea- 
 ters, which gives the uppermost place to faith in 
 action, the obedience of faith, and which, with the 
 apparent extension of the principle of faith, involves 
 in fact a narrowing of it. In prophecy the orig- 
 inal principle, in its universality, enters again grad- 
 ually into its right position. The book of Job may 
 be mentioned as a proof of this. The obedience of 
 the law td= I'ur it? correlative the doctrine of retri- 
 bution. On this Job is put to shame. Agamst it 
 he has no sufficient answer. But because his heart, 
 in every trial, maintained its faith in God, he is 
 nevertheless justified. The book of Job is the ex- 
 position of Plab. ii. 4. Eaith is the direct way to 
 the heart of God. He who interposes himself (his 
 own works, his own merits, his own law, his own 
 thoughts) perverts the way. Apostasy from faith 
 is the beginning of sin. In the heart of God is 
 imperishable life, because there is imperishable holi- 
 ness. Therefore the faith of Israel is the correla- 
 tive of the Holy One of Israel ; and faith is the 
 way to life, as sin is the way to death. 
 
 The characteristic mark of the kingdom of God 
 is free-will. The world-power raffs men together ; 
 they are invited into the kingdom of God ; they 
 rise and say : Come, let us go. The coge intrare is 
 contrary to the Scripture. (The prohibe of the en- 
 emies of missions is just as truly so. Is. xlix. 6.) 
 He who thus gathers [menj together, brings upon 
 himself scorn at last. All nations, which Rome 
 has conveitcd Ly force, have fallen away from her, 
 and they sing over her a song of derision. 
 
 Property is sanctified by God ; but over-grasp- 
 ing gain is cursed by Him. His omniscience is 
 present in his judgment. Hidden crime is laid 
 open and punished, as if blood, spar, and stones 
 had speech to inform against what is concealed be- 
 hind them, the guilt that is built up in them. We 
 see in the manner in which no concealed wicked- 
 ness remains unpunished, but is banished out of 
 sight, the hand of God and the manifestation of 
 his glory on every side, without seeing himself. 
 The pillar of smoke and of fire over the burned 
 city of sin is the veil of his glory. The design of 
 the creation, according to the O. T., is the glory 
 of Gk)d. For this the earth was made, just as the 
 basin of the sea was made for the water. 
 
 The sinner does not find the right way : he is 
 like a drunken man. To the upright man the ways 
 of sinners are a reeling [an intoxication]. He who 
 leads astray makes drunk ; but he enters of him- 
 
 self upon the most crooked way, and hence comei 
 to destruction. The intoxication of sin cnlminatea 
 in the insanity of idolatry. The idol is lifeless. 
 Its worshipper seeks by idolatry, as the righteous 
 man does by faith, the way of life ; but he comes 
 to the silence of death. The tranquillity of life is 
 quite another thing. (Is. xxx. 15.) 
 
 Oetingek : Rectitude of heart is the substance 
 and ground of truth. He who has a right heart, 
 sees rightly and hears rightly ; he who has a per- 
 verse heart heaps up falsehood, without knowing 
 it. Nature produces all the elements at once : the 
 upright soul attracts to it what is true and honest. 
 Intensiveness precedes extensiveness : the moral 
 precedes the physical ; the physical, the metaphys- 
 ical. 
 
 R. Joseph Albo (in Starke and Delitzsch) : in 
 the book of Chronicles it is said : believe in the proph- 
 ets, and ye siiall be prosperous (2 Chron. xx. 20). 
 This proves that faith is the cause of prosperity, 
 as well as the cause of eternal life, according to the 
 saying of Habakkuk : the just shall live by his 
 feith ; by which he cannot mean the bodily life, 
 since in respect to this the righteous man has no 
 advantage over the wicked, but rather the eternal 
 life, the life of the soul, which the righteous enjoy, 
 and for the attainment of which they trust in God, 
 as it is said : The righteous has still confidence in 
 death [A. V. : The righteous hath hope in his 
 death]. (Prov. xiv. 32.) 
 
 W. Hoffmann : Abraham had a view [aus- 
 schau, outlook] through the promise, in 'ivhich, at 
 last, every streak of shadow vanished, and in the 
 distant horizon all was light and glory. He looked 
 beyond this world to the blessed rest of the people 
 of God ; and he could not do otherwise than this, 
 since he acknowledged God as the restorer of the 
 life of men, of his own life, and of the life of all hia 
 descendants and tribes, — a life perverted to sin, 
 fallen, and burdened with the curse. It is very 
 likely that the thoughts of the father of the faith- 
 ful were dark and obscure in regard to this, for 
 it required yet great advancement before clear 
 language could be employed concerning this holy 
 change ; but the heart's experience, which he en- 
 joyed of it, was full and steadfast. Restoration 
 of the lost, removal of sin, deliverance from spirit- 
 ual death — that is the key-note of Abraham's 
 faith. And it was deliverance only by the mani- 
 festation of God. It was this manifestation to 
 which all the revelations of God at that time re- 
 lated. God's nearness, His dwelling with the chil- 
 dren of men ; this was the goal ; hope could fasten 
 upon no other. What eLe, therefore, was his faith 
 than — although not consciously clear and grasped 
 by the tmderstanding — a laying hold upon the 
 fiiture Saviour with outstretched arms 1 
 
 Delitzsch : Troublous times are at hand. 
 What then is more consoling than the fact, that 
 life, deliverance from destruction, is awarded to that 
 faith, which truly rests on God, keeps fast hold of 
 the word of promise, and in the midst of tribalv 
 tion confidently waits for its fulfillment ? Not the 
 veracity, the trustworthiness, the honesty of the 
 righteous man, considered in themselves as virtues, 
 are, in such calamities, in danger of being shaken 
 and of failing, but, as is shown in the prophet 
 himself, his faith. Therefore, the great promise, 
 expressed in the one word, Life, is connected with 
 it. 
 
 ScHMiEDER : All Bible prophecy looks forward 
 to a distant time determined by God, but whicli 
 we do not know. It points to the end, when the 
 Lord by judgment and redemption shall cstablisb 
 
28 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 his perfect kingdom. This prophecy will not lie, 
 but will certixinly be fulfilled, though its fulfillment 
 is always longer and longer deferred. 
 
 HOMILBTICAL. 
 
 Chap. i. ver. 12. Of the great joy, which we have 
 reason to ground upon the fact, that God is the Holy 
 One of his people. 
 
 1. It is ii joy of gratitude that He has alwa3's 
 been with his own. Ver. 12 a, b. 
 
 2. A joy of continual confidence, that we can- 
 not perish. Ver. 12 c. 
 
 3. A joy in chastisement, that it is only for the 
 confirmation of his holiness, and for our purifica- 
 tion. Ver. 12 d, e. 
 
 Chap. i. vers. 13-17 : There is a limit set to the 
 power of the wicked upon earth. For — 
 
 1. God is holy. Ver. 13 a, b. 
 
 2. But the work of the wicked is unholy. For — 
 
 (a) It is a work of hatred against the righteous. 
 Ver. 13 c, d. 
 
 (b) It is an abuse of the powers bestowed bj- 
 God. Ver. 14. 
 
 (c) It does nothing for God, but everything for 
 itself. Ver. 15. 
 
 (d) It does not give God honor, but It makes 
 itself an idol. Ver. 16. 
 
 3. Therefore it must have an end. Ver. 17. 
 Chap. ii. vers. 1-4. The way of patience (compare 
 
 H. Miiller, Erquickstunden, Nr. 97). 
 
 1. I must suffer, for God's judgments and puri- 
 fications are necessary. Ver. 1 in connection with 
 chap. i. 
 
 2 I can suffer ; for God's Word sustains me. 
 Vers. 2, 3. 
 
 3. I will suffer, for I believe. Ver. 4. 
 
 Or: Persevere, for the redemption draws nir/h. 
 (Advent-sermon). 
 
 1. The manner of perseverance: confidence. 
 Ver. 1. 
 
 2. The ground of perseverance : the promise. 
 Vers. 2, 3. 
 
 3. The power [Kraft, active power, or cause] 
 of perseverance : faith. Ver. 4. 
 
 Chap. i. 12-ii. 4. Israel's life of promise. 
 
 1 . A believing retrospect into the past. 
 
 2. A believing look into the future. 
 
 Chap. ii. vers. 5-20. Of shameful and hurtful 
 avarice. 
 
 1 . Avarice is contrary to the order prescribed 
 by God ; therefore God must bring it back to or- 
 der by chastisement. Vers. 1, 6 b, 7. 
 
 2. It is contrary to love, therefore, it produces 
 a harvest of hatred. Ver. fi a. 
 
 3. It confounds the ideas of right, therefore 
 wrong must befall it. Ver. 8 a. 
 
 4. It makes the mind timid ; but where fear is 
 there is no stability. Ver. 9. 
 
 5. It accumulates [riches] with sin, therefore 
 for nothing. Vers. 12, 11, 13, 17. 
 
 6. It seeks false honor, therefore it acquires 
 shame. Vers. 15, 16. 
 
 7. It sets its heart upon gold and silver and life- 
 less things, therefore it must perish with its lifeless 
 gods. Vers. 18, 19. 
 
 8. On the whole, it provokes the judgment of 
 God. Vers. 8 b, 14, 20. 
 
 On chap. i. 12. Jehovah, the God of Shem, the 
 (iod of Abraham, of Israel nnd of Jacob, is not a 
 God of the dead, but of the living. He is a rock : 
 he who stands upon Him stands firm ; he who falls 
 3f>«^n Him is crushed. Everything that (5od does 
 
 takes place for the instruction of him, who conse 
 crates himself to Him. The best way through the 
 afflictive dispensations ot God, is not to ask : How 
 shall I adjust thorn to my mind ? But how shall 
 I make them productive of my improvement ? — 
 Ver. 13. There is an inability, which is no want 
 of freedom, but which is the highest freedom ; and 
 there is an ability, which is not freedom, but the 
 deepest bondage. Matt. iv. 9. There is not ona 
 absolutely righteous man, but there are relatively 
 more righteous men ; the judgment of God has re- 
 spect to this fact. — Ver. "14 f. Man was made lord 
 over the beasts. God indeed permits men to bu 
 treated sometimes like beasts, but he who does it 
 commits sin by it ; and his insolence will be cnangei! 
 to lamentation. — Ver. 16. The sinner perverts and 
 vitiates the holiest thing in man, the necessity of 
 worship. Everything is a snare to him, who for- 
 sakes God. — Ver. 17. Everything continues its 
 time. Eccles. 3. 
 
 Chap. ii. 1. Although we have the Holy Spirit 
 as a permanent possession of the Church, and are 
 no longer referred, like the prophets, to separate acts 
 of enlightenment, nevertheless the answers of the 
 Holy Spirit do not come to us without prayer, and 
 jiatience and quiet waiting. — Ver. 2. Everything 
 that is necessary to know in order to salvation, is 
 SI I plainly written in the Scriptures, that even one 
 who only looks at it hastily, in passing, cannot 
 say that he may not have understood it. — Ver. 3. 
 It is a great consolation to know that there is One 
 who cannot lie. Ps. cxvi. 1 1 . God's time is the 
 very best time. We should not measure God's 
 ways by our thoughts, nor the periods of eternity 
 by our hours ; but we should measure our ways by 
 God's Word. — Ver. 4. Take heed that thou think 
 not of thyself more than it is proper for thee to 
 think. In humility there is power. Matt. xv. 28. 
 Where there is no faith there is no righteousness. 
 The prophet considers faith to be a self-evident pos- 
 session of the righteous man. Life is the richest 
 idea in the Scriptures. It is a great consolation to 
 be able to say to the enemy, rage on ; thou canst 
 not do more to me than God has bidden thee, nor 
 more than what is useful to me ; and thy time is 
 already measured. — Ver. 5. Tho intemperate are 
 generally also vain-glorious. Both lead to destruc- 
 tion. Only a clear and sober eye finds the right 
 way. There are many things which intoxicate. 
 One can be intoxicated with honor, and another 
 with hatred against honor. One can be intoxicated 
 with science, and another with hatred against 
 science. All partisan disposition is an intoxicatini; 
 wine. Desire is insatiable : therein lies its destna- 
 tion : it devours that, which produces its death. — 
 Ver. 6. It is a miserable feeling for fallen great- 
 ness to be derided by those hitherto despised. He 
 who gathers what is not his own does not gather 
 it for himself This also cannot continue long. 
 Dignities are burdens [ Wiirden sind Burden, Prov, 
 = the more worship, the moi-e cost — C. E.J dig 
 nities fraudulently obtained are burdens. — Ver. 7 
 It is by [divine] ordination, when he, whom God 
 intends to judge, nurses in his own bosom the 
 .serpent, which is to sting him. So itwis-i with 
 Nineveh. Thereby too [i. e., by the same appoint- 
 ment : darin refers to Verh&ngniss ; see Acts ii. 23 — 
 C. E.] Christ took upon himself the heaviest judg- 
 ment of sin. — Ver. 8. The whole world become* 
 silent only before God. For all others there is a 
 remnant of those, who have not bpcn subdued, by 
 whom they come to ruin. For tlui-e, who are nol 
 able to stay their hearts by faith in (Jod, the doc- 
 trine of retribution taught in the law remains ir 
 
CHAPTERS I. 12-11. 20. 
 
 29 
 
 full power. They have no desire lo choose the grace, 
 therefore wrath abides upon them. God takes care 
 of each individual, and will require each and every 
 abused and ruined soul from the destroyer. — Ver. 9. 
 Flee a*? h gh as you may, God is always still higher. 
 What profit is there in all the prudence and in 
 all the gain of the world, if the soul is a loser by 
 them? — Ver. 11. God has his witnesses every- 
 where. " If these are silent, the stones will cry 
 out." The blood of Abel cries from the earth, 
 and the thorns and thistles in the held speak of 
 Gen. iii. — Ver. 12. There is a building which de- 
 stroys ; and a destroying which builds. — Ver. 13. 
 The blessing, or the curse, upon any Avork, comes 
 after all, hnally, only from above. Nothing can 
 hinder the purposes of God concerning the world. — 
 Ver. 15 f. The career of a great conqueror has 
 something intoxicating. Before Napoleon not only 
 degraded men became idolaters. There is a witch- 
 craft in it. (Comp. i. 12 with the Introduction to 
 the book of Job. ) This comes hnally to light, when 
 God judges it, and bitter sobering follows the in- 
 toxication : men then have a horror of the human 
 greatness before which they bowed. — Ver. 18. 
 There is also in idolatry a kind of intoxication. 
 The sober questions : What proHteth the image'? 
 How can it govern ? guide 1 teach ? do not occur 
 to the minds of the worshippers of idols. A god 
 that cannot speak is nothing. Without the Word 
 of God there is no religion. Him, who is not silent 
 before Jehovah from submission and faith, God's 
 judgments must make silent. 
 
 Ldtiier : Chap. i. ver. 12. The prophet calls 
 God the Holy One of Israel, because they were holy 
 through their God and by nothing else. And truly 
 from all eternity God is a Holy One. For it gives 
 great courage, when we know and firmly believe that 
 we have a God ; that He is our God, our Holy One, 
 and that He is on our side. — Ver. 13. With these 
 words Habakkuk shows what thoughts occur to 
 wrestling faith, which holds that God is just ; but 
 He delays so long, and looks on the wicked, that 
 one might almost think that He may not be just, 
 but may have pleasure in evil men. It is a source 
 of excessive grief that the unrighteous should be 
 successful so long anfl acquire such great prosper- 
 ity, though with calamity. But their success is per- 
 mitted, in order that our faith, having been well 
 tried, may become strong and abundant in God. 
 And yet this is not grievous beyond measure, when 
 a prophet stands by himself in such a conflict of 
 faith ; but when he stands in his official capacity and 
 is to console and preserve an entire nation with him, 
 then it is trouble, misery, and distress. Then the 
 people kick, and there are scarcely two or three in 
 the whole mass, who believe and strugt^le with him. 
 — Chap. ii. ver. 1. Such words as the following will 
 become the common cry : Fray, where are now the 
 prophets, who promised us salvation ? What fine 
 fools they have made of us. Believe, Avhoever will, 
 that it will come to pass. Thus does reason behave, 
 when God fulfills his Word in another way than it 
 has imagined. It is also the case then that one 
 will not believe God at any time. Does He threat- 
 en 'f Then the present prosperity hinders us [from 
 believing]. Does He promise grace ? Then the 
 present calamity hinders us. Then the prophets 
 first of all endeavor to labor with the unbeliev- 
 ing, fiiint-hearted people. Therefore I stand, says 
 the prophet, as one upon a tower, and contend 
 strongly and firmly for the weak in faith against 
 he unbelieving. — Ver. 4. Some take up the Jew- 
 ish objection, pretend to be wise, and pass judg- 
 xaent upon Paul, as if he had dragged in Habak- 
 
 kuk unfairly and forcibly by the hair, since Hab- 
 akkuk speaks of his table, and not of the Gospel. 
 Though this table also speaks of the Gospel, ye* 
 it speaks of it as future, while Paul speaks of the 
 present Gospel. It is, however, the same Gospel, 
 which was then future and which has come, just 
 as Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever 
 (Heb. xiii. S), although He is announced in a dif- 
 ferent way before and after his coming. But that 
 is a matter of no importance ; it is nevertheless the 
 same faith and spirit. The truth, which one has 
 ill his heart, is called Emunah [firmness, stability, 
 faithfulness, fidelity], and by that he clings to the 
 truth and fidelity of another. Now I let it pass, 
 whoever may be disposed to quarrel about it, that 
 he who has the feeling in his heart which cleaves 
 to another as faithful and true, and depends upon 
 him, may call it truth, or what he will; but Paul 
 and we do not know any other name for such a 
 disposition than faith. — Ver. 11. Not only his ed- 
 ifice, but also tlie wide world, becomes too narrow 
 for him who has a timid, desponding heart, and 
 when a pillar or a beam cracks in his house he is 
 terrified. Therefore princes and nobles, if they 
 would build durably, should see to it that thev lav 
 a right good foimdation, that is, they shoula first 
 pray to God for heart and courage, which in thfc 
 time of trouble may be able to preserve the building. 
 But if no care is bestowed to acquire this courage 
 [den AJuth, by which Luther means faith, or the 
 courage inspired by it — C. E.], but only wood an«! 
 stone are reared up, it [the building] must finaljy, 
 when the time comes, perish, as is here recorded. 
 
 Starkk : Chap i. ver. 12. One can certainly prav 
 to God for a mitigation, but not for an entire a vert- 
 ingof all punishment. — Vers. 17. PlusiUtra, always 
 onward, is the maxim of heroes ; how much more 
 should it be the maxim of Christians, in regard to 
 their constant growth and increase in spiritual life, 
 
 — Chap. ii. ver. 1. Although all Christians, by 
 virtue of the covenant of baptism, have been ap- 
 pointed watchmen by God (Ps. xviii. 32 IF ; exxxix. 
 21), yet teachers particularly are called watchmen. 
 
 — Ver. 2. The prophets had not only a commi.s- 
 sion to preach, but also to write. They act very 
 wickedly who prevent plain people from reading 
 the Holy Scriptures. God's Word must be plainly 
 presented, so that even the most simple may learn 
 to understand it. — Ver. 3. Waiting comprises in 
 it (1) faith ; (2) hope ; (3) patience, or waiting to 
 the end for the time which the Lord has ap- 
 pointed, but which He intends us to wait for. — 
 Ver. 5. Pride, avarice, bloodthirstiness, and de- 
 bauchery God does not leave unpunished in any 
 one. — Ver. 8. We see here that not everything 
 which is done in accordance with international 
 law is right before God also, and allowed by Him. 
 
 — Ver. 9. Prosperity inspires courage ; courage 
 pride : and pride never does one any good. — Ver. 
 10. Bad counsel affects him most who gives it. 
 When tyrants are to execute the command and 
 sentence of God, they generally observe no mod- 
 eration in doing it. — Ver. 15. One should never 
 invite any one as a guest, against whom he cher- 
 ishes a malignant heart. — \^er. 16. Those who 
 rejoice in distressing others, will in their turn be 
 brought to distress by God and made objects of 
 derision. 
 
 Pfaff : Chap. i. ver. 12. In times of public dan- 
 ger th" safest and the best [means] is to have recourse 
 to prayer. By it one can best vanquish the enemy 
 and arrest his career. — Chap. ii. ver. 1. The min- 
 isters of the Gospel are spiritual watchmen, partly 
 in relation to the souls of men, over which they 
 
'60 
 
 IIABAKKUK. 
 
 are to watch, and partly in relation to the Lord, to 
 whose Word they are to give heed and which they 
 are to preach. — Ver. 3. Ye despisers of the Word 
 of God, do not imagine that the Word of the Lord 
 against you will not be fulfilled. — Ver. 7 If. To 
 God belongs the right of retaliation. With what 
 measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you 
 again. — Ver. 20. If the divine judgments fall 
 also upon us, we must adore with the deepest 
 humility of heart, and lay our finger upon our 
 mouth. 
 
 RiEGER : Chap. ii. ver. 1. Even those who are in 
 true, communion with God are not always in the 
 same state of mind. They are at one time, although 
 in a godly frame [of mind],* occupied with external 
 things ; at another time they are entirely abstracted 
 from earthly things, and placed in a condition 
 which approaches to waiting before the throne of 
 God. This is sometimes effected by the grace of 
 God through the medium of an unexpected im- 
 pulse; but there are also sometimes on the part of 
 the believer a preparation and composing of the 
 mind for it. This state of mind is indicated in the 
 New Testament by the expression, I was in the 
 Spirit ; and the prophet calls it his tower. — Ver. 
 3 f. What, according to our reckoning, seems to 
 be delayed, will be admitted not to have been de- 
 layed ; but to have taken place at the appointed 
 day and at its proper time. The promises cannot 
 be forced [into fulfillment] by a headstrong dispo- 
 sition ; but on the contrary one falls sooner from 
 such busy activity back again to a state of indiffer- 
 ence, and thereby neglects the promise. — Ver. 5 ff. 
 Upon what must a man, who has in his heart no 
 peace arising from faith, lean for the purpose of 
 finding peace therein ? And how is it with him 
 who misses the path that leads to God "i There is 
 nothing else adequate to fill the abyss of his soul, 
 even though he were able to swallow the whole 
 world. What filth upon his soul has he in his con- 
 quests, in his forced acquisitions and possessions ! 
 — Ver. 20. The prophet had obtained this whole 
 disclosure by quiet and persevering waiting upon 
 the Lord, and now for the sake of its realization, 
 also, he directs the whole world to be still before the 
 Lord, who from his holy temple will certainly 
 hasten the fulfillment of these his words, but who 
 also will be honored by the respect and by the 
 measure of the regard of his own people to his 
 judgments. When the heart is free from its thou- 
 sand cares, projects, passions, partial inclinations, 
 then, and not till then, can it receive many a ray 
 of divine knowledge. Faith is no sleep, but a vigi- 
 lant knowledge ; it is moreover no hasty and ^re- 
 tipitate attempt to help one's self, but a waiting 
 upon the Lord. 
 
 ScHMiEDER : Chap. i. ver. 13. It would be in 
 conformity to the simple arrangement of God that 
 the pious should punish the impious, the more 
 -Ighteous the unrighteous, not the reverse. But 
 .he ways of God in the present government of the 
 world are so complicated and intricate, that the 
 reverse often actually takes place ; and this is to 
 the pious, who are not yet ijro])erly enlightened, i 
 great trial. — Ver. 14. Then it seems as if things 
 were directed by chance and at will. He who knows 
 God does not trust to false appearances ; but the 
 appearance nevertheless pains him, and he would 
 wish that even the appearance did not exist. — Chap. 
 li. ver. 2 f. The end, the very last time and the 
 establishment of the perfected kingdom of God, is 
 of all future things the most certain and the most 
 important, and every intermediate prophecy of 
 
 ndgment and redemption has a real value only in 
 
 the fact that it delineates this last end and assurei 
 us of it. — Ver. 4. Here the character of Abra- 
 ham, the father of the faithful, is depicted in con- 
 trast with that of the insolent piinces of the world 
 This character is righteousness, the source of right- 
 eousness is faith, the fruit is life in the full Biblical 
 sense of the word. Faith has no merit on the part 
 of man, because man caniiot produce, but only re- 
 ceive it, for faith, as the consciousness of God, ia 
 the work of the Creator in man. It is also faith 
 alone, which receives Christ and all the grace of 
 God in him ; but the same faith is also the essen- 
 tial principle of all good works. We must beware 
 of considering the faith, which lays hold of grace 
 and justifies the sinner, as a peculiar, separate kind 
 of faith : faith cannot be so divided in reality ; but 
 it is an indivisible unity : so the Bible understands 
 it. The dividing and isolation of faith into sep- 
 arate kinds, belongs only to the dogmatic systems 
 of human science. — Ver. 5. Comp. Dan. v. — 
 Ver. 6. There are times, when nations, that are 
 so often devoid of understanding, become prophets, 
 and the voice of God becomes the voice of the peo- 
 ple. — Ver. 18. The teacher, who makes an idol, 
 tries to animate stone and wood. But the anima- 
 tion by means of Imman idea and art ever i-emains 
 only a false animation, which, if it is considered 
 real, is deceptive, and only nourishes superstition. 
 W. Hoffman : On chap. i. ver. 12 (comp. Schmie- 
 der on chap. ii. ver. 1 ) : Among us of the evangel- 
 ical church faith is not even yet the possession of 
 every one. There is certainly need, in the Church, 
 of the venerable form of father Abraham to cast 
 us down ; of the man who never lost sight of what 
 had been revealed in grace and truth, who contin- 
 ually comforted himself with the fact, that the eter- 
 nal God, who made heaven and earth, and who 
 held with the first man a fellowship of peace, still 
 lived, because he had continued to reveal himself 
 during two thousand years previous. 
 
 BuRCK : It is something to know the final pur- 
 poses of the words of God, and to be able properly 
 to apply this knowledge in public and private af- 
 fairs. 
 
 HiEROM. : Ver. 13. He says this in the anguish 
 of his heart, as if he did not know that gold ia 
 purified in the fire, and that the three men came 
 out of the fiery furnace purer than they were when 
 they were thrown in ; as if he did not know that 
 God, in the riches of his wisdom, sees otherwise 
 than we do. 
 
 BuRCK : Ver. 14. That God watches over the 
 smallest animals, he neither denies nor declares ; 
 but he says only that God has a particular care for 
 men, especially for his own people. 
 
 Hengstenb. makes an effective application of 
 ver. 13 ff. to gambling hells (Vorw. z. Ev. K. Z. 
 [Preface to the Evangelical Church Gazette] 1867), 
 
 Capito : Chap. ii. ver. 1 : While the righteous 
 man wrestles with God by faith, he conquers at last 
 by his indefatigable perseverance. The prophet is 
 perplexed to the highest degree, wl"le he considers 
 the success of the Chaldaean and the misery of his 
 own people, but he stands not the less constantly 
 upon his guard, i. e., upon the Word of God, which 
 promises reward and punishment, and he leans upon 
 God, as upon a rock, in order that his feet may not 
 slip upon the slippery soil of temptation. Whom 
 does God answer 1 One who is almost broken un 
 der daily struggles with bitter anguisa of soul, to 
 whom nothing remains, after every protection ia 
 lost, but to stand fast upon his watch, i. e., upon th« 
 Word of God. Trial teaches such perseverance. 
 Only the answer of God, if it is heard with the eai 
 
CHAPTER 111. 
 
 3: 
 
 of the neart, leads to an unwavering hope, for it, 
 ■comes when man despairs of everything else. 
 
 Ver. 3. Philo : Every word of (jiod is an oath. 
 
 BuRCK : those deplorable ones, who, under 
 whatever pretext, or self-delusion, shun trial. O 
 the happiness of those who obtain the end of 
 faith, and who are to be gathered to Him to be with 
 Him. He will come, yea, certainly He will come. 
 Yea, come. Lord Jesus ! Amen ! 
 
 Ver. 4. CoccEius: The soul stands right upon 
 that which is promised, i. e., Jesus Christ, if it loves 
 Him. If it does not love Him, it is perverse. 
 
 BcRCK : On every point, article, accent, on every 
 turn and even collocation of words, which may 
 seem to be entirely accidental, the Word of God 
 has laid its especial emphasis. We acknowledge 
 with humility that it is a word from God. 
 
 Talmud : In this one sentence. The just shall 
 live by his emunak [faith], the six hundred and 
 thirteen precepts, which God once delivered from 
 Sinai, are collected into a compendium. 
 
 Ver. 5. ScHLiER : The Babylonians were a 
 voluptuous people, notorious for their drunken- 
 ness; but this voluptuous propensity is usually 
 with the prophet an image of the insatiable desire, 
 by which in their pride they destroyed one nation 
 
 after another. And yet it is just so with wine 
 which is sweet to the taste and seems delicious, 
 and nevertheless it robs the most powerful of his 
 senses, makes him helpless and an object of uni- 
 versal derision. So shall it happen also to the 
 Chaldceans with their insatiable greed: it will only 
 plunge them [by their own agency] into destruc- 
 tion and make them objects of general contempt. 
 
 H. MuLLER : Many treasures, many nets. 
 Whom does not the miser injure ? He defrauds 
 his neighbor of his property : he is like a thorn- 
 bush ; he grabs and holds on to whatever comes 
 too near to him ; he seeks everywhere his advan- 
 tage to the disadvantage of others ; he deprives him- 
 self of God's favor and blessing, suffers shipwreck 
 of his conscience and good name, loses the favor 
 and love of men. Lightly won, lightly gone. 
 
 Stumpf : Ver. 11. So in Euripides, Phaedra, 
 the wife of Theseus, breaks out vehemently against 
 adulteresses, that they should fear the very dark- 
 ness and the houses lest they might even raise their 
 voice and bring the abominable deeds which they 
 had witnessed to light.i 
 
 ScHLiER : The scourge of the Lord will perform 
 its service, then it will be thrown away. 
 
 1 [See the Hippolytus of Euripides, line 416 f. — 0. B.] 
 
 THE THEOPHANY. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 [^Title and Introduction (vers. 1, 2). The Prophet represents Jehovah at appearing 
 in glorious Majesty on Sinai (vers. 3, 4). He describes the Ravages of the Plague 
 in the Desert (ver. 5). The Consternation of the Nations (vers. 6-10). Refer- 
 ence to the Miracle at Gibeon (ver. 11). Results of the Interposition of God on 
 Behalf of his People (vers. 12-15). Subject of the Introduction resumed (ver. 
 16). The Prophet asserts his Confidence in God in the midst of anticipated 
 Calamity. Parallels to this Ode : Deut. xxxiii. 2-5 ; Judges v. 4, 5 ; Pg. Ixviii. 7, 
 8; Ixxvii. 13-20; cxiv. ; Is. Ixiii. 11-14. — C E.] 
 
 1 A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet : with triumphal music^ 
 
 2 O Jehovah ! I have heard the report of thee, I am afraid ; 
 O Jehovah ! revive thy work in the midst of the years ; 
 In the midst of the years make it known : 
 
 In wrath remember mercy. 
 
 3 God ^ comes from Teman,^ 
 
 And the Holy One from mount Paran.* 
 His splendor covers the heavens, 
 And the earth is fiill of his glory. 
 
 4 And the brightness is like the sun ; 
 Rays ^ stream from his hand ; 
 
 And there is the hiding ^ of his power. 
 
 5 Before him goes the plague ; 
 
 And burning pestilence follows his feet. 
 
 Selah 
 
 6 He stands and measures '' the earth : 
 He looks, and makes nations tremble . 
 The everlasting mountains are broken in pieces 
 
82 HABAKKUK 
 
 The eternal hills sink down : 
 His ways * are everlasting. 
 
 7 I saw the tents of Cnshan ^ in trouble : 
 
 The tent-curtains of the land of Midian tremble 
 
 8 Was it against the rivers it burned, O Jehovah ? 
 Was thine anger against the rivers ? 
 
 Was thy fury against the sea? 
 
 That thou didst lide upon thy horses. 
 
 In thy cliariots of victory. 
 
 9 Thy bow is made cutii'ely bare: 
 
 Rods '" [of chastisement] are sworn by the word. Selah. 
 Thou cleavest the earth into rivers. 
 
 10 The mountains saw thee, they writhe ; 
 A flood oi' water passes over : 
 
 The abyss utters its voice ; 
 It lifts up its hands on high. 
 
 11 Sun. moon, stood back in their habitation," 
 At the light of tliine arrows, which flew, 
 
 At the shining of the lightning of thy spear. 
 
 12 In anger thou marchest through the earth ; 
 In wratli thou treadest down the nations. 
 
 13 Thou goest forth fur the salvation of thy people ; 
 For the salvation of thine anointed : 
 
 Thou dashest in pieces the head from the house of the wicked, 
 Laying bare the foundation even to the neck. Selah. 
 
 14 Thou piercest with his own spears the chief of his captains, 
 That rush on like a tempest to scatter me \ 
 
 Their rejoicing is to devour, as it were, the poor in secret. 
 
 15 Thou ti'eadest upon the sea with tliy horses. 
 Upon tlie foaming of many waters. 
 
 16 I heard, and my bowels trembled ; 
 At the sound my lips quivered ; 
 Rottenness entered my bones ; 
 
 I treml)le in my lower '^ parts, 
 
 That I am to wait ''' (juietly for the day of distress, 
 
 When lie that approaches the nation shall press upon i^ 
 
 17 For '^ the fig tree will not blossom ; 
 And there is no produce on tlie vines ; 
 The fruit of the olive tree fails, 
 
 And the fields bear no food : 
 
 The flock is cut oft' from the fold ; 
 
 And there are no cattle in the stalls: 
 
 18 But I will exult in Jehovah, 
 
 And rejoice in the God of my salvation. 
 
 19 Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength, 
 
CHAPTER III. 33 
 
 And makes my feet like the hinds, 
 
 And causes me to walk upon my high places. 
 
 To the precentor,^^ with my stringed instruments. 
 
 TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 
 
 [1 Ver. 1. — ni3^5^ ^^1 "P"" shigyonoth. Keil derives it from HJli?, to etr, then to reel to *nd /ro, a r«eUll| 
 long, t. «., a Bong delivered in the greatest excitement, dithyrambus ; ajler dtchyrambs, or after the manner of a martia, 
 and triumphal ode. Kleinert ; nach Dtlhyrambenioeise. 
 
 Oesenius derives it from HStt^, perhaps i. q. S2tt?, H^tt?, to be great, the letters 27 and W being interchanged. 
 
 [2 Ver. 3. — "i vS, not used by any of the minor prophets except Habakkuk, in this verse and in chap. i. 11. II 
 is most frequently used iu the book of Job. 
 
 [3 Ver. 3. — 7Q"^n, at, or on the right hand, hence the south, the quarter on the right hand, when the face is toward 
 Che east. 
 
 Teraan was a country probably named after the grandson of Esau (Gen. zxxvi. 11) ; perhaps a southern portion of th« 
 land of Edom, or, in a wider sense, that of the sons of the East, Beni-Kedem. Eusebius and Jerome mention Teman aj 
 a town in their day distant fifteen miles (according to Eusebius) from Petra, and a Roman post. Smith's Diet. Bib. 
 
 [1 Vei'. 3. — ^^S-""!!"^, Deut. xxxiii. 2. See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, art. " Paran," and Robinson's Bid. 
 Res. in Put., etc... vol. i., pp. 186 and 552. 
 [5 Ver. 4. — D^2"lp, in the dual, poetical for rays of light. Arabic poets compare the first rays of the rising sun 
 
 to horns, and hence give to the sun the poetical name of gazelle. Compare i~l7|'*_S. Qesen., Lex. Kleinert : Strahlem 
 stud ihm zur Seite. 
 
 [6 Ver. 4, etc. — li^SH Dti71, and there — in the sun-like splendor, with the rays emanating from it — is the hid- 
 ing of his omnipotence, i. e., the place where his omnipotence hides itself. The splendor forms the covering of the Al- 
 mighty God. Keil. 
 
 [7 Ver. 6. — ^^Z2^^, derived by some from ^^J2, to measure, and by others from Tltt, to be rrwed, to be agitated 
 
 The LXX. read : Kai io-aXevQi) rj yrj ; the Vulgate has : mensus est terram. Luther renders it : und mass das Land , 
 Keil : sets the earth reeling ; Kleinert : und misst die Erde. 
 
 [8 Ver. 6. — ir? C/"i37 iTi3^7n. Henderson considers these words as epexegetical of the preceding, and trana- 
 lates them : His ancient ways. Keil understands it as a substantive clause, and to be taken by itself : everlasting courses^ 
 ar goings are to him, i. e. He now goes along as he went along in the olden time. Kleinert : Die Pfade der Vorzeit seAldgt 
 er ein. 
 
 [9 Ver. 7 — Itt^^D, a lengthened form for li7^^. Whether it is intended to designate the African or the Arabian 
 Cush is disputed. Qesenius, Maurer, Delitzsch, and others contend for the former ; but the connection of the nam* 
 with that of 1"*"1Q, is decidedly in favor of the latter. Henderson. 
 
 [10 Ver. 9. — "I^S n*112^ iT^I^I}!^ is a very obscure clause, and has not been satisfactorily explained. Hender- 
 ton renders it : " Ssveus of spear.s was the word." LXX. : 'EvTeivuv eyrevels to to^ov <rou eirl rd oKqirrpa, Aeyei Kvp40«; 
 the Vulgate : juramenta tribiihus qucE locutus es : Luther : wie du geschworen hottest den Stdmmen ; Kleinert : die durMi 
 Wort beschworenen Zur htm then. 
 
 ril Ver 11. — n^HT, the T\ in this word indicates direction. The sun and moon withdrew to their habitation. 
 '■ T ■.. : ' 
 
 [12 Ver. 16. — r^rjJ^, ''''f lower part, iv/iat is underneath. '^Pt7ir\, what is underneath me, i. e., my lower parts. 
 
 [18 Ver. 16. — This clause explains the great fear that fell upon him. Vulgate : ut reguiescam in die tribulationit. TlM 
 LXX. do not translate "Itt'S — 'Ai/aTrauo-ofiai iv rnxepct 0Kiifi(j-em ixov. Luther : O dass ich ruhen mbchte zur Zeit dm 
 Triibsal. Kleinert : dass ich ruhig entgegenharren soil dem Tage der Angst. 
 
 [14 Ver. 17. — "^3 may be rendered although, as in the A. V., or though, as by Henderson : or it may be translated 
 vckat time, when ; but it can also be rendered like the Greek yap, or the Latin enim. The LXX. render it in this verse by 
 iioTi ; the Vulgate translates it enim ; Luther, denn ; and Kleinert, dtnn *a. The sense is substantially the same in 
 either case. 
 
 [16 Ver. 19.— HSSPP, from the Piel of n^3. signifying, to be oi-er anything, to be chief, to superintend — Dem 
 Qesanemeister. — C. E.]' 
 
 EXEQETICAL. 
 
 The prophecy of the judgment of the world, 
 under the form of a theophanv, and already pre- 
 
 ?ared by ii. 14, immediately follows, like Zeph. i. 
 (comp. Zech. ii. 13), the emphatic /«yete Unquis : 
 let all the world be silent before the Lord. That 
 its contents are evidently just as much prophetic 
 KS the previous is evident from their entirelv oriir- 
 
 nished by the prophet himself (comp. Introd.) with 
 the liturgical heading, subscription, and interme- 
 diate sign (Selah, vers. 3, 9, 13), for the reason that 
 it is, in fact, by its rhythm, diction, and formal 
 finish, conformed to the hymns and psalms adapted 
 to performance [in the public service] It is solely 
 the application of a subjective notion of a psalm on 
 the ])art of Delitzsch and Keil, when they make 
 the entire song a mere lyrical jffusion of subjective 
 emotions, an echo of cha])s. i. and ii. in the soul 
 
 mal character and from their having reference ' of the jmet inspired with p«tic feeling. 'ompare 
 throughout to the future; and it ha.s been fur , on ver. 2. It can be saic! at the most that the 
 
o4 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 tlosing lyrical verses, 16-19, sustain a relation to 
 the prophecy proper similar to that of Nah. ii. 12 
 ff. to Nah. ii. 1-1 1 ; hut they do not cease thereby 
 jO belong to the prophecy. That the poetic form 
 is selected has its reason in the fact, that as all 
 prophecy involuntarily utters itself poetically in 
 consequence of the elevation of the soul freed from 
 the earth, so also the hi^^hest degree of the prophet- 
 ical inspiration includes, at the same time, the high- 
 est degree of the poetical. We have examples of 
 this in the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah, which, 
 in their greatest height, strike up the key of the 
 Psalms. It entirely contradicts the thoroughly 
 original and grand character of the hymn, when 
 Delitzsch does not even allow it to pass as original, 
 but brings it down to an imitation of Ps. Ixxvii. 
 [ The reasons for this opinion,which Delitzsch brings 
 together with great pains, and the most plausible 
 of" which he repeats in the Commentary/ on the 
 PsaJins, are only of a subjective demonstrative 
 power ; a more exact examination is not in place 
 here, since the question for the understanding [of 
 the hymn] is an equivalent one. Hupfeld gives 
 the positive counter proof. Ps. iii. p. 345, Observ. 
 69.) 
 
 According to the contents the hymn is composed 
 of the following constituent parts : — 
 
 I. The prophecy of the theophany itself; vers. 
 2-15. 
 
 n. The application of this prophecy j vers. 16- 
 19. 
 
 The prophecy itself (vers. 2-15) is divided in to — 
 
 (a) The introitus, ver. 2, five lines. 
 
 (6) First chief part: the approach of God, vers. 
 3-7, sixteen lines. 
 
 (c) Transitus, ver. 8, five lines. 
 
 \d) Second chief part : the operations of the 
 judgment, vers. 9-13, sixteen lines. 
 
 (e) The concluding strophe, vers. 14, 15, seven 
 lines. 
 
 The application is divided into two strophes of 
 six lines each, and a concluding strophe [Abgesang, 
 Collect] of five lines. [The rhythmical structure 
 is determined somewhat differently, to wit, by the 
 recurring Selak, which, in the second place, where 
 it might be expected on account of the symmetry, 
 is substituted in the text by a very old intermediate 
 space ; the theme of the hymn is divided into the 
 following symmetrical groups : (1) seven lines (2- 
 3 b); (2) "fourteen lines (3c-7); (3) seven lines 
 (8-9 b); (4) fourteen lines (9c-13); (5) seven 
 lines (14, 15). The symmetry of the structure ex- 
 tends even (as is frequently the case in the Prov- 
 erbs of Solomon) to the separate members, which 
 generally (only with the exception of vers. 7, 8 c, 
 13 c-14, 16 d") consist of three words. [This of 
 course refers to the Hebrew text. — C. E.] The 
 knowledge of this is not unimportant for the inter- 
 pretation. Comp. on ver. 15.] 
 
 The form of the theophany, /. e. of an appear- 
 ance of God for judgment accompanied with the 
 agitation of all the powers of nature and elements, 
 is quite peculiar to the hymnology of the Old Tes- 
 tament and entirely born of its [0. T.] spirit. It 
 is, namely, the correlate of the first appearance of 
 the kind at the giving of the law upon Mt. Sinai 
 (Ex. xix. 16 fF. ), which in its turn refers back to 
 the first appearances of God manifesting himself 
 to the patriarchs : coinj>are particularly. Gen. xv. 
 From tha/. appearance the hymns, which refer to a 
 nistorical theophany, take their start. Dent, xxxiii.; 
 Judges V. (comp. Ps. Ixviii. 8 ff'. ; Ixxvii. 10 ft'.) ; 
 Psalm xviii., which sums up the battles of God for 
 iis anointed, in the form of the theophany (comj). 
 
 2 Kings vi. 17), is included with these. But the 
 use [of the O. T. hymns] is not restricted to this 
 [a historical theophany]. For as God gave his law 
 with such a proof of his glory, so also will the ful- 
 fillment and execution of the law, the judgment, be 
 accompanied by such an appearance of God, com- 
 ing cither as then from the south out of the wilder 
 ness, or down from heaven. Of this the yrophiik 
 psalms 1., xcvii. treat; furthermore Is. xxx. 27 if. • 
 Ixiv. I ff. (with Ixiii. 19 b) [19 b begins chap. Ixiv 
 in the A. V. ; but in the Hebrew Onginal, LXX., 
 Vulgate, and Luther's Version, it closes chap. 
 Ixiii. — C. E.] ; and most fully this prophecy. It 
 lies in the nature of the subject, that in prophecies 
 of this kind pro.phetic vision, poetic intuition, sym- 
 bolism, and reality, are interwoven in a manner 
 that cannot be fully explained by the finite under- 
 standing. 
 
 Heading. A Prayer, a general name of a song 
 that can be sung in worship, hence also a collective 
 name of the Psalms (Ixxii. 20), of Habakkuk, — 
 this passage shows plainly that the 7 in the head- 
 ings of the Psalms also is intended to indicate the 
 author — the prophet (comp. chap. i. ver. 1 ) after 
 the manner of the dithyramb. This liturgical 
 definition is, like almost all preserved in the O. T., 
 obscure ; and its signification, since tradition is en- 
 tirely unreliable in these things, can only be con- 
 jectured. Probably it is to be traced, like TT^^IT, 
 Ps. vii. 1 (comp. Claass on the passage), to the 
 root n2l27, to err, reel, and accordingly signifies, as 
 a plur. abstr., the mode of the reeling song, the 
 cantio erratica, the Dithyramb. [The Dithyramb 
 (Epich., p. 72, Herod., i. 23, and Pindar) was a 
 kind of poetry chiefly cultivated in Athens, of a 
 lofty but usually inflated style, originally in honor 
 of Bacchus, afterwards also of the other gods. 
 It was always set in the Phrygian mode, and 
 was at first antistrophic, but later usually mono- 
 strophic. It was the germ of the choral element 
 in the Attic tragedy. It was sung to the flute, 
 whilst the rest of the chorus danced in a circle 
 round the altar of the god. From this circum- 
 stance the dithyrambic choruses were called Cyc- 
 lian. — C. E.] It has no connection with the con- 
 tents of the prophecy. 
 
 [Keil : As shdgdh, to err, then to reel to and fro, 
 is applied to the giddiness both of intoxication and 
 of love (Is. xxviii. 7 ; Prov. xx. 1 ; v. 20), shig- 
 gdyon signifies reeling, and in the termination of 
 poetry a reeling song, i. e., a song delivered in the 
 greatest e.Kcitement, or with a rapid change of 
 emotion, dithyrambus. — C. E.] 
 
 Introitus. Ver. 2. Jehovah, I have heard thy 
 report [rather the report of thee : the genitive is 
 that of the object — C. E.j ; not that mentioned i 
 5 ff. ; ii. 2 ff. ; for he had not only heard that, but 
 also written it down, and published it ; but the re- 
 port which he is just about to announce (comp. 
 the retrospective reference, ver. 16; Ob. 1 ; Jer 
 xlix. 14 ; Jon. i.) ; the report of the grand appear- 
 ance of Jehovah, in the impending judgment, 
 which is drawing near, for the purpose of visiting 
 with punishment the Holy Land, and that with a 
 twofold power of execution (comp. Am. i. 2) ; so 
 that in the Holy Land laid waste and purified L 
 the judgment, God by means of the judgment ovei 
 throws the s]ioilers. The separate acts meet in » 
 picture, as in Ps. x-iii., before the vision of the 
 seer. Before the ])0T«er of this theophany rising 
 upon his vision, and because the first moment ^ en- 
 
 1 [Moment, ;iiiiong (itlier meanings, lias that of es^entM 
 
CIlArTKU 111. 
 
 Ob 
 
 .ers into his consciousness as a fellow sufferer with 
 others (Mieah i. 8) the prophet recoils : There- 
 fore 1 tremble, I am afraid. This is the result of 
 the manifestation of the mighty deeds of God (Ex. 
 XV. 14 ; Ps. xviii. 45). Jehovah revive thy work 
 in the midst of the years. What work is meant '. 
 Chap. i. 5 spoke of a work which was to be accom- 
 plished in a wonderful manner, and under that was 
 understood the desolation of the earth by the Chal- 
 dtean. That work cannot be meant here ; for al- 
 though the prophet, without human weakness, has 
 to Lumuiunicate the severe chastisements of God, 
 yet he cannot directly pray for them. That work, 
 moreover, was not called ^"^ 727D, but it was a 
 work by itself, whose distinguishing feature was 
 the fact, that, although ordained of God, it never- 
 theless wrought out itself, it had its power and en- 
 ergy in itself (i. 7). A work of grace must be in- 
 tended by which Jehovah proves Himself, in his 
 peculiar, well-known way, the Holy One of Israel 
 (i. 12), a work by means of which the impending 
 
 calamities are endurable (comp. ^^^ -'T-i?-? 
 ^3f.nri, Ps. cxxxviii. 7). And certainly the mean- 
 mg is here ; quicken it in the midst of the years ; 
 n*i7 has the meaning of revivifying, of quicken- 
 ing anew (Ps. Ixxx. 19 ; Ixxxv. 7 [6]), a work of 
 grace, which had occurred once already in the be- 
 ginning of the years, and whose recurrence Israel 
 now needs, in order to be joyful again. And this 
 consists with no other act of God than the deliver- 
 ance from Egypt, which is described, Ps. xliv. 2, in 
 entirely similar words, and so this passage under- 
 stands Ps. Ixxvii. 13. It stands in fact at the be- 
 ginning of the years, namely, at the beginning of 
 the national existence (Hos. xi. 1). Then do thy 
 work anew in the midst of the years ; in the midst 
 of the years make known ; the imperative con- 
 tinued by the imperfect as in Ps. xxxi. 2 ff. ; to 
 make known is the same as to accomplish before 
 all eyes (Ps. ciii. 7). The explanation of the work, 
 which has been given, agrees well not only with the 
 circumstance that in fact in the following context 
 (corap. namely, the "old paths," ver. 6) a return 
 of the wonderful works, that were performed at the 
 time of that deliverance, is predicted, but also with 
 the concluding clause : in wrath (comp. Is. xxviii. 
 21) remember mercy, which, according to what 
 has been said, evidently means, if thou intendest 
 to humble us again, do thou also again deliver us. 
 The announcement follows the exclamation of 
 feeling : vers. 3-7. The approach of Jehovah from 
 the South. Eloah (poetic archaism instead of 
 QTlvS, comp. Dcut. xxxii. 15) comes from Te- 
 man, and the Holy One (comp. on i. 12) from 
 the moiintains of Paran. The southern country, 
 
 as in Judges v. and Ps. Ixviii. (ptt"^ip^), the point 
 from which God sets out, because He approaches 
 from Sinai (Ps. Ixviii. 9 [8]), is introduced (com- 
 pare Deut. xxxiii.) by the enumeration of two 
 divisions, namely, Teman, which is the same as 
 Edom, and forms the East division (comp. Ob. 9 
 with Jer. xlix. 22) ; and the mountainous region 
 of Paran, between Edom and Egypt (1 Kings xi. 
 18), forming the West division. Compare the peri- 
 phrase, Gilead and Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah 
 (Ps. Ix. 9), for Canaan. In regard to the Selah, 
 compare Sommer, Bib. Essays, i. 1 if., Delitzsch, 
 
 Nement, part of a whole. The two momenta, that make up 
 the prophetic viaion here, are de.struction and purification. 
 It is the first which causes the prophet to recoil. — C. E] 
 
 Psalter (1867), p. 70 ff. While God approaches, 
 his splendor covers the heavens (comp. Ps. fiiL 
 1 ), the clear brightness of his glory making its ap- 
 pearance (Ps. civ. 1 f. ; Luke i. 78), which like the 
 purple light of the morning (Hos. vi. 3) covers the 
 heavens, and like a sea of fire sinks on the earth ; 
 and the earth is filled with his glory (comp. ii. 
 14 ; Is. vi. 3 f. ). nbnn, properly praise, here by 
 metonymy the object of praise, is synonymous with 
 "Tins, as in Ps. Ixvi. 2. The flaming glory of 
 Jehovah filling everything, is a vision of such ex- 
 cessive sublimity, that one scarcely dares to follow 
 the pro]jhct in spirit to meditate upon it. 
 
 Ver. 4. Out of this glory — the veil of God — 
 bursting upon the view, shoot forth lightnings like 
 rays (comp. Ps. xviii. 13; Matt. xxiv. 27), like 
 the rays of the rising sun through the morning 
 sky : a brightness bursts forth like sunlight ( Is. 
 V.30), and horns, i. e. rays (Ex. xxxiv. 29 f.) are 
 at his side [hand]. The' Arabic poetry and pop- 
 ular language also call the first rays of the rising 
 sun horns, antlers, and conformably with this they 
 call the sun himself a gazelle (comp. Ps. xxii. 1). 
 Hence also the dual, 11""^ is used in a general 
 sense : at the side, equivalent to " on both sides " ; 
 compare the expression, " before and behind " [at 
 his presence, at his feet — C. E.], in the following 
 
 verse (Delitzsch). LiT'tt signifies literally "from 
 his hand," but since the hand is by the side, it ia 
 equivalent to " at his side." "As the disc of the sun 
 is surrounded by a splendid radiance, so the com- 
 ing of God is inclosed by rays on both sides." The 
 suffix in ib refers to God. — C. E.] And there, 
 in this radiant splendor, is the veil, properly the 
 hiding of his omnipotence (comp. Ez. i. 27). He 
 is so resplendent himself, that even the light is only 
 his garment (Ps. civ. 2). The garment of his om- 
 nipotence, by virtue of which He is judge of the 
 world, and at the service of which are the satellites 
 of the judgment. 
 
 Ver. 5. Before Him goes the plague, and 
 burning pestilence follows his feet. So had Hos. 
 xiii. 14 predicted it : I will be thy plague, O death 
 (the plague, which provides for thee the victim), I 
 will be thy pestilence, grave. With these angels 
 of death he had, approaching fi"om the south, de- 
 stroyed also the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings xix. 
 35). 
 
 Ver. 6. Then He stands (He alone is calm 
 amidst all the violent commotion, comp. Micah 
 V. iii.) and measures the earth. The measuring, 
 1112 is a function of God as the judge of the 
 world ; also in Ps. Ix. 8 (Kal is employed to sig- 
 nify parcelling out tracts of land, comp. Micah ii. 
 4), and Is. Ixv. 7 (requiting with the right meas- 
 ure), comp. 2 Sam. viii. 2. He measures the earth, 
 I. e.. He measures the countries and their practices, 
 in order to execute a right judgment. [Delitzsch 
 and others more conformably to the parallelism, fol- 
 lowing the Targum : He sets [the earth] reeling ; 
 however, the signification (^!1D=!2^!2) cannot be 
 verified.] He looks, examines with a scrutinizing 
 look (Ps. x. 14), and makes the heathen tremble. 
 
 ["iri^ is the Hiphil of "^O^, and means to cause to 
 shake or tremble. — C. E.] God is a spirit, and 
 his spiritual acts are of complete energy and eflS- 
 ciency ; his hearing is granting ; his seeing, help- 
 ing or judging; his rebuking, annihilation. Then 
 the primeval mountains, the unchangeable 
 [mountains] (Micah vi. 2 ; comp. Deut. xxxiii. 15) 
 burst asunder ; the hills of the eany world 
 
f)t) 
 
 IIABAKKUK. 
 
 jink down. His are the paths of olden time, 
 I. e.. He follows them : the ])atlis in which He 
 then eonducte<l liis {ioo))lc from Eo;ypt into the 
 land [of Cannanj (l.wiii. 25 [-4]). 
 
 Hence also now, as then (comp. Ex. xv. 14 ff.) 
 the nations on both sides of the way fall into fear 
 and confusion. It is quite plain that ver. 7, in 
 which the borderers on tlie Red Sea, on the east 
 and west, are mentioned as the tremiiling nations, 
 refrrs to that event [the deliverance from I']fjypt] 
 of the ancient time. I, the prophet, see, in vision, 
 the tents of Cushan, /. p., Cush, Ethiopia, west, 
 on the sea, in aflBiction (comp. Jer. Iv. 15). (So 
 Luther, Gesenii s, Maurer, Delitzseh, Keil, Hitzig,. 
 and others. Aceordinu' to the Targum, Talmud, 
 Cushan of Mesopo;aniia is meant (Judges iii. 8 if.) 
 [which I let pass, (. does not agree with the ar- 
 rangement, Luth.] , Ewald considers it the same 
 as Jokshan). [Smith, Did. of the Bible, art. " Chu- 
 shan," thinks that Cushan is possibly the same as 
 Cushan-rishathaim (A. V. Chushan-) King of Mes- 
 opotamia (Judges iii. 8, 10). See article, "Cushan." 
 
 — C. E.] The curtains of the land of Midian, 
 on the east of the Red Sea, tremble. 
 
 Ver. 8. A lyrical intermediate strophe, which, 
 at the same time, sei-ves as a connecting link with 
 what follows : the poet stops in the description, in 
 order to take a new start (compare similar pauses, 
 Gen. xlix. 14; Judges v. 12; Ps. Ixviii. 20 ff. ; 
 xviii. 21 ff.). He inquires after the purpose of the 
 approaching God. The question is evidently not 
 put for an answer ; but it is a poetical form. Was 
 it against the rivers, O Jehovah, against the 
 rivers that thy wrath was kindled ? Jehovah is 
 in the vocative, because it would [otherwise] be 
 connected with mn by 7- [The Hebrew idiom 
 s V mn, to burn to one (scil., anger), to feel angry, 
 he wroth. See Nordheimer's Heb. Gram., vol. ii. p. 
 227 — C. E.] Or was thy fury against the 
 sea? The sea and rivers also retire before the ap- 
 
 ))roaching glory of God (Ps. cxiv. 3, 5). DS con- 
 nects cumulative questions, even when they have 
 nothing disjunctive in them (Gen. xxxvii. 8). 
 That thou didst ride upon thy horses, the cherub 
 w ings of the wind (Ps. xviii. 1 1 ) upon thy chariot 
 of salvation? The elements, clouds and winds, 
 here as everywhere, servants, messengers, media of 
 the manifestation of God (Ps. civ. 4), are symbol- 
 ized as horses and chariots, because the judgment 
 is a warlike act of the Lord of Hosts, and chariots 
 and horses are the instruments of war (Micah v. 
 9 [10]). [When complex terms receive a suflBx, 
 they can stand, according to Hebrew idiom, in 
 the Stat, constr., Ewald, sec. 291 b.] [This con- 
 struction is poetical. — C. E,] The signification 
 oi victory for n371l27^» denied by some, is evidently 
 implied in that of " salvation," both here and in 
 Is. lix. 17, and in the passages, where the noun oc- 
 curs in the plural (Ps. xviii. 51, and other places). 
 [Keil : " By describing the chariots of God as 
 chariots of salvation, the prophet points at the 
 outset to the fact, that the riding of God has for 
 its object the salvation or deliverance of his people. 
 
 — C. E.] With this warlike turn the transition is 
 immediately made to — 
 
 The second principal part, vers. 9-13, which de- 
 Bcribca how the judgment is put in execution. 
 Ver. 9 a, b, continues the picture of God as the 
 warrior, begun in ver. 8. Thy bow is made quite 
 bare. [It is unnecessary to invent, with the inter- 
 preters, for "TlVn, the stem ^"^3? nudare, which 
 has no exi tence, of wliich the form [in question] 
 
 would be the 3 fem. imp. Nijih. ; it ia the 3 imp 
 Kal from "1"^^ (Is. xxxii. 11), comp. V'l^ from 
 
 372?"1 (Prov. xi. 15). '^*~'?! is an anomalous fem- 
 inine form of the infin. absolute from the cognate 
 stem r\'y^ (comp. Ewald, sec. 240 d. ; 312 b, 2) , 
 and so the words are closely connected : it would 
 have Ijceii prosaic and according to rule to have 
 said "li^^ri "li-127.] [Gesenms.Fiirst, and Keil take 
 
 "liyri from ~l^l?, and ^^^'^ as a noun.— C. E.] 
 God's judgment is represented as an arrow upon 
 the string also in Ps. xxi. 13 [12] comp. Lam. iii. 
 12). But the bow, and in general God's weapons 
 of war, are not to be taken in the strictest literal 
 sense, but they are, as the prophet adds in explan- 
 atory apposition, the scourges sworn by the 
 word. niOTS has nowhere the signification of ar- 
 row, which would suit excellently the bow, and 
 which is held by some interpreters (e. g., Meier, 
 ^tud. u. Krit., 1842, 1031 f.) ; even in ver. iv. it can 
 at the most, as in 2 Sam. xiv. 1 7, signify spears. 
 Were it to be actually taken in this sense, then, 
 since it introduces a new figure, it must be joined 
 to nV2\) by 1, But certainly the ~)^S indicates 
 that here the figure passes over into the thing [re- 
 ality] ; hence we understand, as we have said, the 
 clause rather as an explanatory adjunct, and ac- 
 cordingly mt2X3 as scourges, calamities ; compare 
 this usage of the language for the chastisements 
 threatened by the prophets : Micah vi. 9 (hear the 
 rod !) ; Ez. vii. 11 ; Is. x. 5 ; ix. 3 ; xiv. 5. They 
 are sworn to by the word, i. e. the Word of God ; 
 comp. Micah vi. 9 ; Deut. xxxii. 40 f ; and as to 
 the absolute use of IDS for the omnipotent Word 
 of God, which opens a way for his great deeds in 
 the world, compare Ps. Ixviii. 34 [33]; 11 [12]. 
 
 ~)ttS is in the ace. instr. like "^2nn, Ps. xvii. 13. 
 
 The participle m!713tt7 (comp. Ez. xxi. 23 [28] 
 is separated from this mstrumentalis belonging to 
 it, because it should stand emphatically at the be- 
 ginning, and for the same reason it is also placed 
 before its substantive ; consequently it is to be 
 considered as the stat. constr., miiJS nTyiStT, 
 like 2^S '^D'^D3, Micah v. 4 (5). Delitzseh gives 
 a synopsis of more than a hundred explanations of 
 this difficult passage). After tlie Selah the prophet 
 turns again, ver. 9 c-12, to the description of the 
 powerful catastrophe of Nature which, according 
 to the parallelism pervading the Holy Scriptures 
 between the mikrokosmos and makrokosmos, man 
 and visible nature, accompanies the judgment. 
 With streams thou dividest the earth. [Del- 
 itzseh, Baumlein, Keil : into rivers thou dividest 
 the earth ; without sense ; Hitzig : Thou dividest 
 rivers to earth ; Ewald : "Thou dividest streams to 
 land, etc.]. Our translation [rmn3, ace. instr. 
 like "l^S] is justified by Micah i. 4, where the 
 surface of the earth is cleft into gulleys by the 
 masses of water rushing from the mountains. 
 
 Ver. 10. Whence the torrents ? The moun- 
 tains saw thee and trembled, the water-flood 
 rushes on. Thunder-storm and violent rains, as 
 a representation of the most powerful agitation of 
 the elements, accompany the theophanv, comp. on 
 Micah, at the place cited. From thi mountains 
 the prophet turns to the extreme o><posite, the 
 depths of the sea: the abyss raises its voice - ■ 
 the deep water, that surrounds the main-land (Jon. 
 ii. 6' and lies spread out under the niain-lanc 
 
CHAPTER 111. 
 
 '61 
 
 (Gen. xlix. 25) is here, like the mountains, poet- 
 ically personified. The voice of the abyss is the 
 -oarinir of the waters shut up underneath (Job 
 xxviii. 14). It raises its hands on high. Oi"! 
 is not the subject-nominative, which would yield 
 no sense, since the height cannot stretch out its 
 hands over itself; but it is the accusative of direc- 
 tion (2 Kings xix. 22). The archaic form ^m"^~T'* 
 is selected for pictorial effect, instead of the current 
 
 form ^"'^t" ^y '''^^ hands of the abyss one will 
 properly understand the waves of water thrown 
 visibly on high, which, as at the Deluge, break 
 through the flood-gates of the earth (Nah. ii. 7), 
 and unite with the gushing rains from heaven 
 (comp. Gen. vii. 11). 
 
 Ver. 11. The svm, the moon, either, enter into 
 their dwelling, i. e., withdraw so that one sees them 
 no more, and darkness comes on (Delitzsch, Hitzig, 
 Keil) ; or, stand still, continue standing terrified 
 in their place, just where they were standing at 
 the beginning of the judgment. The latter, on 
 account of 1T2V and the reference to Jos. x. is the 
 more probable, 7l3T is a place of abode (comp. 
 Ps. xlix. 25 with ciii. 16) ; the precise idea of 
 dwelling arises only from the addition of n'll (1 
 Kings vi. 13; 2 Chron. vi. 2). 
 
 At the light of thine arrows, which flew, at 
 the shining of thy spear. The holy majesty of 
 God manifesting itself is turned to the majesty of 
 a judge executing justice; the holy light into the 
 devouring fire (Is. x. 17). 
 
 The discourse, vers. 12, 13, turns directly to the 
 acts of judgment connected with the salvation of 
 Israel : In anger thou marchest (poetical expres- 
 sion, as in Judges v. 4 ; Ps. Ixviii. 8) the land, 
 first of all the Holy Land, since He comes from 
 Sinai (comp. Micah i. 2). In indignation thou 
 thrashest the heathen, as of old (Ps. Ixviii. 22 
 [211). 
 
 Ver, 13. Thou wentest forth for the salva- 
 tion of thy people — "SW^, as a nom. verb, is con- 
 strued with the Ace. (Ewald, sec. 239 a) — for the 
 salvation of thy anointed, hy whom, according 
 to the parallelism, is to be understood not so 
 much the unworthy Jehoiakim as the nation itself 
 (Ps. Ixxxiv. 10 [9] ; cv. 15). (LXX., Rosenmul- 
 ler, Ewald, Hitzig.) 
 
 Thou crushest the head (Ps. ex. 6) of the 
 house of the wicked, laying bare the founda- 
 tion even to the neck. The house of the wicked 
 is the Chaldaean nation viewed as a family ; com- 
 pare the house of Israel, Ps. cxv. 12, and above. 
 Whilst it is compared to a human body (compare 
 the inverted comparison. Job xxii. 16 ; Eccles. xii. 
 3 f.) its entire destruction (iravoXedpia, Jo. Schmid) 
 is represented by the enumeration of the separate 
 parts, head, lower extremities, and neck. The in- 
 
 fin. abs. rmV, to lay bare, i. e., from the founda- 
 tion, to raze to the ground (Ps. cxxxvii. 7) stands 
 as the abl. gerundii, Ges., sec. 131, 2. 
 
 1 he concluding portion [of the description of 
 Ji* tbeophany — C. E.], vers. 14, 15, carries out 
 tL thought still further. It differs irom what 
 precedes by beginning with shorter rhythms. 
 Thiu piercest through with his spear (comp. 
 5n ver. 9), with the weapons of the wicked one 
 ,'comp. Ps. vii. 17 (16), the head of his princes, 
 
 comp. Tl^~'3, Judges v. 7-11 ; LXX. on the same 
 pMsage. and Ges., s. v. in Thea. The signification 
 
 of hordes (Delitzsch, Keil) cannot be evolved fron 
 the circumstance that ''T'^p designates an inhabi- 
 tant of the niTH^p, the plain : the passage treats of 
 warriors, who have entered by force, not of peace- 
 ful settlers. His princes, they rush in (comp. i. 
 11) to disperse me, properly to scatter me: the 
 prophet speaks in the name of the people ; and 
 they rejoice as if they were allowed to devour 
 the poor in secret ; literally, whose rejoicing is, 
 as it were, in devouring, etc. (comp. Ps. x. 5 ff.). 
 
 The 7 concomitantise as in ver. 11. 
 
 Ver. 15. Thou treadest upon the sea, Thy 
 horses upon the billows of great waters. Usu- 
 ally, Thou walkeston the sea (Umbreit, Hitzig) or 
 Thou walkest through the sea (Delitzsch, Keil) with 
 thy horses. The exposition has its origin in the 
 Masoretic interpunction, which, in following the 
 rhythmical structure of the hymn, unites the first 
 three words. But already in the preceding verse 
 the rhythmical unity does' not consist of three, but 
 of two words ; and "even if in ver. 15 we take the 
 number three as a foundation [of rhythmical 
 unity] the rhythmical arrangement indicated by 
 the Masorites would still not involve the logical 
 (comp. Ps. XXX. 8). Our exposition is much 
 simpler, by which the last four words, with the 
 verb Tf^iT, which is naturally to be supplied, form 
 a sentence. In this way the dragging occasioned 
 by the following ace. instr. "T'DID as well as the 
 still more pompous conception of the second mem- 
 ber disappears, and the clause [156] stands in ap- 
 position. I'n has then both constructions, with 
 2 as in Deut. xi. 24, and vnth. the Ace. as in Job 
 XX. 15. Following Ps. Ixxvii. 20 (19) Delitzsch 
 finds in the passage a reminiscence of the Red 
 Sea ; Hitzig understands by the sea the host of 
 the enemy. The latter on account of the connec- 
 tion with what immediately precedes, is the more 
 probable (comp. Is. xvii. 12 ff.). And it appears 
 to me nearest the truth according to the joint con- 
 nection of the combined thoughts : As thou didst 
 once lead thy people through the Red Sea, and 
 marching before didst cast down the waters, so 
 wilt thou now march through, renewing thy 
 work (ver. 2) and treading down the surging mass 
 of the enemy's host. 
 
 The Subjective Application of the Prophecy follows, 
 with trembling, but confident faith, in the third 
 principal part, vers. 16-19. After the vast picture 
 has rolled past his eyes, the prophet looks back to 
 the beginning. I have heard this, — this divine 
 judgment just described, which depends upon the 
 sad condition of the land's being overrun by the 
 Chaldaeans ; — my beUy trembled (comp. Is. xvi. 
 11). At the cry, crying aloud, my lips quivered, 
 Gew. : At the sound my lips quivered (Delitzsch, 
 
 chattered), bb^ cannot mean to chatter, for the 
 lips do not chatter, but the teeth. We translate it 
 according to the analogy of ^^It^v and nD"ip7, 
 
 Ex. XX. 7 ; Ps. xxiv. 4 ; comp. Is. xv. 5. Rotten- 
 ness, the feeling of complete weakness (Prov. xii. 
 4) comes into my bones, and under me, down 
 to my feet (Ewald, sec. 217 k), I tremble : that I 
 
 (*"1irS, quod, as in 1 Sam. ii. 23; Ps. Ixxxix. 52) 
 
 am to wait quietly (n^3, of sileni submission, as 
 in Lam. iii. 26) for the day of distress (comp. on 
 ver. 2 and on Ob. 12), for the approach of him 
 
•dS 
 
 IlAliAKKUK. 
 
 ligainst the people, who is about to oppress 
 them. 7? sensu infenso, as in Job xx. 27. After 
 the grand consolatory picture, the prophet once 
 more indulges, for himself and his hearers, in this 
 gloomy view, which he draws of the nearest fu- 
 ture. 
 
 Ver. 17. For the fis tree will not blossom, 
 and no yield will be on the vine — the fruit of 
 the olive tree fails: it shrivels up. [Kleinert 
 
 translates •n^l"ntt717Q, das Ansetzen, die Frucht- 
 ansdtse des Oelbaums ; it is literally fruit of the 
 olive tree. Compare the phrase """^P ^^^ to 
 bear fruit. — C. E.] Figs, wine, olive tree are 
 mentiuncd as the noblest products of the land 
 (Micah iv. 4 ; vi. 15). And the corn-field yields 
 
 no food. n"1Q7B?, fields, is plurale tantuin, with 
 
 a singular signification, equivalent to "^"^^ hence 
 construed with the singular (Ges., sec. 146, 2). 
 The flock is away, literally cut off from the fold, 
 and there are no cattle in the stalls. As in 
 Joel 1 f. the desolation caused by the enemy (e. f.) 
 seems to be summed up with the natural calam- 
 ities that befall the land (a-d). 
 
 But out of the distress the prophet, and with 
 him the people, raises his eye to the object of faith, 
 gathering words of hope and confidence from the 
 Psalms, as in Micah vi. 7. Ver. 18. But I — 
 used emphatically to express the antithesis : not- 
 withstanding all that, just as in Micah vii. 7 — 
 will rejoice upon Jehovah. 3, not in God, but 
 as in the verbs expressing delight generally, indi- 
 cating the ground of the joy, comp. irri, Luke i. 
 47. I will exult in the God of my salvation, 
 who procures my salvation, and upon whom my 
 salvation rests (ver. 13 ; Micah vii. 7). For — 
 
 Ver. 19. Jehovah, the Lord, the God of Israel, 
 whom other nations do not have, nor know (Micah 
 iv. 5; comp. Gen. ix. 25 (26)), is my strength 
 (Ps. xxvii. 1 ), and He makes my feet like hinds ; 
 a concise comparison, equivalent to the feet of 
 hinds, borrowed from Ps. xviii. 34 (33). This is 
 not merely a figure for warlike activity in pur- 
 suing, but more commonly for the irresistible 
 strength, which springs from confidence in God 
 (comp. Is. xl. 29 ff.y, (Delitzsch). He makes 
 me to walk on my high places (from Ps. xviii. 
 34 (33); comp. Deut. xxxiii. 29), — upon the 
 heights of salvation, which stand at the end of the 
 way of tribulation, and which only the righteous 
 man climbs by the confidence of faith (ii.4). With 
 this p -ospect of faith resulting from vers. 4-15, the 
 hymn .iloses naturally and beautifully. 
 
 The Liturgical Subscription, — to the chief singer 
 on my stringed instruments, — corresponds to 
 the heading, ver. 1 (compare the Introduction, 3). 
 21 cannot, as Hitzig thinks, represent the stat. 
 abs. ; but it is, as in these musical expressions gen- 
 erally, the 2 of accompaniment (Ps. xxxiii. 2, 3). 
 Habakkuk accordingly dispatched his hymn to the 
 director of the temple-music (comp. the Comm. on 
 Ps. iv. 1), and stipulated for the accompaniment 
 of the performance. To accompany the hymn lor 
 the praise of God with stringed instruments was 
 customary among those skilled in music (Ps. 
 Lxxvii. 7 (6)). Not merely the Lcvites, but also 
 other prominent members of the congregation and 
 •noved by the Spirit, as, e. g., the king, had the 
 right and were accustomed to do this in the tem- 
 ple (1*1. xxxviii. 20). 
 
 [Keil: '■The last words, Nri'i3"'2:?2 n:^*3pb 
 do not form part of the contents of tlie supplica- 
 tory ode, but are a subscription answering to thi 
 heading in ver. 1, and refer to the use of the ode 
 in the worship of God, and simply difter from the 
 
 headings n-^2pb ni2'>3?2 in Ps. iv., vi., liv., 
 Iv., Ixvii., and Ixxvi. through the use of the suf- 
 fix in \n'i3'^353." Through the words, " to the 
 president (of the temiile-music, or the conductor) 
 in accompaniment of my stringed playing," the 
 prophet appoints his psalm for use in the public 
 worship of God accompanied by his stringed play- 
 ing. Hitzig's rendering is grammatically false, 
 
 " to the conductor of my pieces of music ; " for 5 
 cannot be used as a periphrasis for the genitive, 
 but when connected with a musical expression, 
 
 only means with or i?i the accompaniment of (3 in- 
 
 strumenti or concomitantioe.) . Moreover, ni2^Zl3 
 does not mean pieces of music, but simply a song, 
 and the playing upon stringed instruments, or the 
 stringed instrument itself (see at Ps. iv. ). The 
 first of these renderings gives no suitable sense 
 here, so that there only remains the second, viz. : 
 " playing upon stringed instruments." But if the 
 prophet, by using this formula, stipulates that the 
 ode is to be used in the temple, accompanied by 
 stringed instruments, the expression binglnothaif 
 with my stringed playing, affirms that he himself 
 will accompany it with his own playing, from 
 which it has been justly inferred that he was qual- 
 ified, according to the arrangements of the Israel- 
 itish worship, to take part in the public perform- 
 ance of such pieces of music as were suited for 
 public worship, and therefore belonged to the Le- 
 vites, who were entrusted with the conduct of the 
 musical performance of the temple. 
 
 Alexander on Is. xxxviii. 20 : " The singular 
 form, my songs, refers to Hezekiah as the author 
 of this composition ; the plurals, we will sing and 
 our lices, to the multitude who might be expected 
 to join in liis public thanksgiving, not only at first, 
 but in after ages." 
 
 Kleinert has adduced no proof, except the single 
 case of Hezekiah, which does not seem to be con- 
 clusive, that others besides Levites were accus- 
 tomed to take part in the performance of the Tem- 
 ple-music. David divided four thousand Levites 
 into twenty-four classes, who sang psalms and ac- 
 companied them with music. Each of these classes 
 
 was superintended by a leader, n?55P placed over 
 it ; and they performed the duties, which devolved 
 upon them, each class a week at a time in succes- 
 sion, 1 Chron. xvi. 5 ; xxiii. 4, 5 ; xxv. 1-31 ; comp. 
 2 Chron. v. 12, 13. This arrangement was con- 
 tinued with occasional interruptions. 2 Chron. v. 
 12-14; xxix. 27; xxxv. 15; Ezra iii. 10; Neh. 
 xii. 45-47 ; 1 Mace. iv. 54 ; xiii. 51. — C. E.] 
 
 DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 
 
 Concerning the nature of the theophany see the 
 Exegetical Exposition. 
 
 'J'he works of God are all profoundly connected 
 with one another. The soul of this connection if 
 the revelation-principle, the light. With the shin- 
 ing of the light the physical creation begins, and 
 each day is a copy of it [the physical creation] (Ps 
 civ., comp. Herder, IFFT. zur Rel. n. 'Iheol., i 56 
 flF. ; v. 70 fF.) ; from a fresh shining ir [upon us 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Sh 
 
 of the light the prophets expect the removal of the 
 disturbance in the moral world (Hos. vi. 3 ; Is. ix., 
 and this hymn) ; and every j;overning act from 
 the spirit of God is a pretiguration of this future 
 [renovation] (2 Sam. xxiii. 4). A shining of the 
 light into the darkness, is the fulfillment of these 
 expectations (John i. 5). The connection between 
 the economy of the Old Testament and that of the 
 New is this, that the spiritual meaning is evolved, 
 with increasing clearness, from the physical ground- 
 work. But this is in tlie midst of the years. At 
 the end of the years the entire physical nature will 
 be restored to the sphere of the s/tiritaal light. 
 
 For between these two spheres there exists also 
 an indissoluble connection. As the destruction of 
 the original moral unity between God and man- 
 kind reflected itself on nature (Gen. iii.), (and 
 hence the prophets e.xpect the removal of terrors 
 and discord from the time of the salvation [the 
 last time, or time of the Messiah], Is. xi.), so the 
 last consequence of sin, the judgment, is accom- 
 panied by the fearful commotion of the elements ; 
 before the avenging God march the mosi terrible 
 judgments : the sighing of nature (Rom. viii.) be- 
 comes groaning and shrieking ; but these again 
 are only the travail-throes of the pure and glori- 
 ous new birth. After the darkness and terror at 
 the death of Jesus follows the resurrection of the 
 dead. 
 
 On the other hand the coming of God to the 
 judgment is organically connected with the issue 
 of the document, according to which the judgment 
 is to take place. It is a coming from Sinai. And 
 as a coming to the relief and deliverance of captive 
 Israel, it is associated with the prototype of their 
 deliverances, — their emancipation from Egypt. It 
 is indeed always something new, which Jehovah 
 does, and yet always onl}' a revival of the old ; He 
 is a steadfast and unchangeable G.id, and perfectly 
 uniform in his manifestations, and always ac- 
 knowledges the beginnings of his actions. How- 
 ever strange his works and revelations appear, con- 
 sidered a priori, so strange that the view of them 
 is unsupportable ; yet when He goes forth. He goes 
 forth for the salvation of his people. He is a faith- 
 ful and concealed God. 
 
 Every renewal of the wrath and pity of God is 
 one of the gradual fulfillments of the protevan- 
 gelium (Gen. iii.), that the serpent is indeed per- 
 mitted to bruise the holy seed on the heel, on ac- 
 count of sin, but that again and again its head is 
 crushed (ver. 14) ; and it is a gradual revival of 
 the proto-prophecy (1 Kings xix.), according to 
 which, the still small voice, in which God is, comes, 
 after the wild agitations of the terrible judgment 
 which goes before Him. 
 
 In this all-embracing unity of the work of God 
 lies the key to the understanding of intuitive 
 prophecy. Standing upon its watch-tower (ii. 1) 
 it sees, over the scene of confusion, the work of 
 God in its unity and entireness, as if its parts 
 were placed side by side, and it leaves to the suc- 
 cession of time to carry into effect successively the 
 parts of that [work], which it sees as one. Thus 
 the individual fulfillments are like coverings, which 
 drawn over the picture and transparent, fall off 
 one after the other, until the substance, which lies 
 in the nature of God Himself, the Cabodh [glory] of 
 Jehovah, shall arrive at its perfect manifestation. 
 In the mean time it finds in the combined view 
 ground enough to rejoice on \uber, see on ver. 18 
 — C. E.] God, for the certainty of salvation is the 
 true central feature of the picture. God is neither 
 In the storm, and tempest, and earthquake, which 
 
 go before Him, neither is He in the fiery chariot! 
 and horsemen ; but behind all these in the still 
 small voice. When those events going before have 
 purified the high places, God sets his people like- 
 wise purified upon them. Then Mount Zion is 
 higher than all mountains (Micah v.). 
 
 Ckusius: The things, which the prophets an- 
 nounce, are exhibited (complexe) in a comprehen- 
 sive picture, so that they are taken into tiie eye 
 all at once in their whole extent, or /card rh airo- 
 Ti\e(Tfj.a, i. e., according to the form, which tlip 
 thing will have at the time of its full accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
 ScHMiEDER (on ver. 13) : The picture might 
 be still more comprehensive, if, iii accordance with 
 Dan. ii. 31 ft'., we conceive the entire succession of 
 hostile empires as the image of one man or house, 
 whose colossal size falls under the judgments of 
 God, after its head is broken off. 
 
 Eeck : The promise enters upon a new active 
 development, when corruption of morals and dis- 
 tress reached with rapid steps their culminating 
 point in the Pjxile. As on the one side the char- 
 acter of guilt and penal liability impressed itself 
 always more generally and more perceptibly upon 
 the life, soon the other side, particularly among the 
 better sort, a despair of the means of delivery ly- 
 ing within their own reach, and a longing for rec- 
 onciliation and redemption, directed to help from 
 another source, must always have increased the 
 more, but without being able to find thoroughly 
 its true development and satisfaction otherwise 
 than in the ground of Divine grace. For from it 
 proceeds the consolation of deliverance and recon- 
 ciliation, in such a manner, however, that the fu- 
 ture salvation is never to be expected in a human 
 way, but only from the Word and Arm and Spirit 
 of Jehovah. 
 
 HOMILETICAL. 
 
 The consolation of prophecy in the last tribulations 
 of the people of God. 
 
 1 . These tribulations must and will come (ver. 
 2 a, 16, 17). 
 
 2. But the same God, who decrees them, will 
 also turn them away and put down all his enemie.'' 
 (Is. liv. 10) (ver. 2 b-15). 
 
 3. And the final salvation is certain, therefore 
 the Church can already, in the midst of troubles, 
 maintain a joyful heart (vers. 18, 19). 
 
 Ver. 2. It is enjoined in the kingdom of God to 
 rejoice with trembling. That easy indifference, 
 which relies upon the forbearance and promises of 
 God, without considering, with profound earnest- 
 ness, his powerful wrath and the severity of his 
 judgments, is a disposition of heart not well pleas- 
 ing to Him. Rather from the knowledge that no 
 one can stand before Him, if he will only consider 
 (ver. 6) what sin and wrong are done, ought the 
 prayer for mercy to come from every lip. If some 
 are saved, yet no one has any claim to it ; for it is 
 alone his work. — Ver. 3. The eye of the prophet 
 standing upon his watch-tower tixms to the south. 
 In that direction lay Bethlehem, whence, accord 
 ing to Micah, the Messiah was to come. — Vers. 
 4, 5. The hand of God is also in that, which ap- 
 pears to us the most hostile and the least consist- 
 ent with his nature full of life and light If men 
 do not prepare a way for Him, then He must pre- 
 pare it for Himself — Ver. 6. The judgment pro- 
 ceeds according to strict justice, not in precipitate,, 
 but in holy, rigorously distributive wrath ; with- 
 out respect of persons, but with strict regard U 
 
4U 
 
 HABAKKUK. 
 
 the facts. The highest things in the world, which 
 appear to the eye of man altogether unassailable 
 and indestrnctihle, sink liefore the glance of God's 
 sye into dust and nothing. The Word is every- 
 where God's weapon and instrument. By the 
 Word of his mouth all things were created ; be- 
 fore the Word they perish ; the Word is a ham- 
 mer, which breaks the rocks. Wind and sea are 
 obedient to Him ; what will men oppose ? They 
 raise tiieir wenjions (ver. 14) in order to destroy 
 themselves mutually ; they do not hurt Him. If 
 He cuts off the head of wickedness, then the re- 
 mainder of it, though it flow like a sea, will not 
 be able to continue, but it will be crushed. — Ver. 
 10 f. It is a great matter, that we have the power 
 to be tranquil in the time of tribulation, but it is 
 not easy (Matt. xx\'i. 37 ff.). And it is the less 
 easy since the affliction is not caused merely by 
 the wickedness and pi'ovocation of the enemy, but 
 by the presence of God's hand besides In this 
 lies the smarting sting of the chastisement. — Ver. 
 18. But yet this sorrow is not worthy to be com- 
 pared with the glory, which is to be revealed in 
 us 1 If we are of good cheer when cast down, 
 then we are the moi'e certain that He will place us 
 upon the high places. It is this alone that can 
 banish from us what is not God's power, and what 
 is unworthy of his salvation ; what troubles us. 
 Hard as it is for us to bring ourselves to this, we 
 will then nevertheless be tranquil and free. The 
 lighter the burden the swifter the course to salva- 
 tion (ii. 3). 
 
 Luther : Ver. 2. The prophet says : History 
 says this of thee, that thou art such a wonderful 
 God as to afford help in the midst of trouble ; 
 thou castest down and raisest up ; thou destroyest 
 when thou intendest to build, and killest him to 
 whom thou givest life (1 Sam. ii. 6 ff.) ; thou doest 
 not as the world does, which at the very begin- 
 ning attempts to prevent misfortune and continues 
 involved in it, but thou bringest us into the midst 
 of it, and drawest us out again. In the. midst of 
 the years means just at the right time : He knows 
 well how to find the means to render help neither 
 too soon, nor too late. For in case He brought 
 help too soon we would not learn to despair of 
 ourselves and would continue presumptuous ; in 
 case He brought it too late, we would not learn to 
 believe. To revive and to make known are nearly 
 the same thing, only that to revive is to perform 
 the miracle and bring relief; but to make known 
 means that we should be sensible of and delight 
 in it. He who desires to be saved must learn so 
 to know God. It is consolatory to believers, but 
 intolerable to the ungodly. — Ver. 6. At the Red 
 Sea He stood between Israel and the Egyptians, 
 and measured off the land so that the Egyptians 
 could not proceed farther than He had allotted to 
 them. — Ver. 16. A joyful heart is half the man, 
 a sorrowful heart makes even the bones weak. — 
 Ver. 19. The Lord is still my God. Of this we will 
 be so glad, that we will run and spring like hinds, 
 80 nimble are our feet to become ; and we will no 
 longer wade and creep in mire, but for perfect de- 
 light we will soar and fly in the high places and 
 do nothing but sing joyfully and pursue all kinds 
 of delightful employment. This is to take place 
 when the Babylonian sceptre is cursed and de- 
 Btroyed, and we are redeemed and the kingdom 
 oomes. 
 
 Starke : Ver. 1. Preachers must pray eamest- 
 •y for the welfare of their hearers and of the whole 
 ihurch. — Ver. 2. The remembrance of God is 
 not an in.ictive, but an active and busy remem- 
 
 brance, since He actually increases faith, and causes 
 the faithful to taste his sweetness, presence, and 
 assistance. Even if He scourges his children. He 
 does not cease to be their father, and to remembei 
 his mercy (Lam. iii. 33). — Ver. 3. The reason 
 that God causes the great deeds which He ha? 
 done of old to be written down, is that such deeds 
 may be made known to all men upon earth, and 
 that men may thence learn his majesty and glory. 
 — Ver. 7. We should ascribe to God the brave 
 deeds of great heroes, by which they have assisted 
 the Church of the Lord. — Ver. 9. God bends, as 
 it were, his bow, when He would warn impenitent 
 people of coming calamity. — Ver. 12. When God 
 intends to execute penal judgments, He proceeds 
 by degrees. — Ver. 15. The ungodly man is like 
 a tempest, which passes by and vanishes ; but the 
 righteous man continues forever. — Ver. 16. The 
 pious, as well as the godless, are terrified at the 
 divine threatenings, but with a great difference. — 
 Ver. 1 8. In tribulation we ought not to look only 
 upon the blows which we suffer, but also upon 
 the gracious deliverance which ensues. — Ver. 19. 
 Servants of God do not despise music, but only 
 give directions how it should be properly used in 
 the praise of God. 
 
 Pfaff : Ver. 2. Behold how merciful and kind 
 God is. In the midst of tribulation He remembers 
 mercy, yes, in the midst of tribulation He causes 
 his children to feel the strongest consolations. — 
 Ver. 3. How great is the majesty of our God, proof 
 of which He has given in the giving of his law and 
 in the destruction of his enemies. — Ver. 8 ff. As 
 God formerly led his Israel gloriously into the land 
 of Canaan and protected them against his enemies, 
 so will He also gloriously protect the spiritual Israel 
 of the New Covenant against all enemies. 
 
 RiEGER : Ver. 1. So can contemplation and 
 prayer even at this day alternate in the treatment 
 of the prophetic Word. — Ver. 2. The prophet 
 shows in the very beginning what was in the bot- 
 tom of his heart, namely, a calm, holy fear of God 
 occasioned by the past, and a good confidence ac- 
 quired for the future. God's work in Christ Jesus, 
 and the making of it known to the whole world, 
 fell in the middle of the world's age, as it was fit- 
 ting for the light of the world. If at the same time 
 confusion may seem to exist on the earth, and judg- 
 ments, of whatever kind they may be, may press 
 upon a people, yet on account of this grace, which 
 is through Christ Jesus, mercy is conspicuous far 
 above judgment. — Ver. 3-15. The prophet recalls 
 in his memory how God had judged from the be- 
 ginning of the world, and how all former proofs in 
 the midst of Israel give a ground of hope and con- 
 fidence for the future ; because all the works and 
 ways of God in their great diversity have neverthe 
 less a coherent relation, and always meet In this, 
 that in tribulation God yet remembej-s mercy, and 
 that from the most terrible commotions still some- 
 thing gracious comes forth. — Ver. 1 6 ff. But in- 
 deed if one discovers a view of the kingdom of God, 
 be it ever so beautiful, behind the judgments, yet 
 it fills him with dread that room is to be made for 
 the good only thus, and we are reminded of what 
 will still thereby be stripped from us and ours. 
 Nevertheless the mind gains relief: leave me only, 
 when all is gone, thyself, and Jesus and thy Word , 
 then the mind remains contented and humble, ai.d 
 one is preserved from all vexation at the ways of 
 God. 
 
 ScHMiBDER : On ver. 3 The prophet is here a 
 poet, who soars by separate images easily under 
 stood to the mental vision of the 'nexpressible ira' 
 
CHAPTER m. 
 
 41 
 
 esty of the holy God in his active character of judge 
 and deliverer. All his powerful operations in na- 
 ture, the power of the sun, storm, earthquake, and 
 flood, all the recollections of former divine judg- 
 ments, he employs as insufficient images in order 
 to indicate how everything lofty in nature, all the 
 power of the nations, must vanish before the power 
 of God. The impending judgment upon the em- 
 pire of the Chaldaeans and the deliverance of Israel 
 from Babylon serve him only as a suggestion, in 
 order to announce in the midst of the years of the 
 world's course the great deeds of God, which lead 
 in the very last time to the full revelation of God 
 and of his kingdom. 
 
 Schliek: Ver. 10 ff. The head of the enemy 
 was broken. Pharaoh and his entire host were 
 drowned in the depths of the sea. So will it be 
 
 also hereafter, when the new enemies oppress th» 
 Lord's people ; their head, a second Pharaoh, shall 
 perish with all his people ; as certainly as the hand 
 of the Lord then smote the enemy upon the head, 
 so certainly will it happen to them on every day ol 
 affliction. 
 
 Tarnov: ver. 16 ff. The pious are terrified at 
 God's threatenings ; the wicked, on the contrary, 
 despise them at first in proud t-ecurity ; but after- 
 ward, when calamity afflicts them, they entirely 
 lose their courage and perijsh. 
 
 L. Osiander: Ver. 19. When we are assailed 
 on all sides we find a lasting and firm consolation 
 within, that our God, the God of our salvation, is 
 our Saviour and Redeemer. For after recoacilia 
 tion and forgiveness of sins, what harm can exter 
 nal attacks do to us f Comp. Is. xxxiii 24. 
 
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