Habakkuk Waits for God’s Response
1I will stand at my guard post
and station myself on the lookout tower. j
I will watch to see what he will say to me k
and what I should reply about my complaint.
God’s Second Answer
2 The LORD answered me:
Write down this vision; l
clearly inscribe it on tablets
so one may easily read it.
3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time; m
it testifies about the end and will not lie.
Though it delays, wait for it,
since it will certainly come and not be late. n
4 Look, his ego is inflated;
he is without integrity.
But the righteous one will live by his faith. ,o
5 Moreover, wine betrays;
an arrogant man is never at rest.
He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
and like Death he is never satisfied. p
He gathers all the nations to himself; q
he collects all the peoples for himself.
The Five Woe Oracles
6 Won’t all of these take up a taunt against him, r
with mockery and riddles about him?
They will say:
Woe to him who amasses what is not his—
how much longer? s—
and loads himself with goods taken in pledge. t
7 Won’t your creditors suddenly arise,
and those who disturb you wake up?
Then you will become spoil for them. u
8 Since you have plundered many nations, v
all the peoples who remain will plunder you w—
because of human bloodshed
and violence x against lands, cities,
and all who live in them. y
9 Woe to him who dishonestly makes
wealth for his house ,z
to place his nest on high,
to escape the grasp of disaster! a
10 You have planned shame for your house
by wiping out many peoples
and sinning against your own self.
11 For the stones will cry out b from the wall,
and the rafters will answer them
from the woodwork.
12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
and founds a town with injustice! c
13 Is it not from the LORD of Armies
that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire
and countries exhaust themselves for nothing? d
14 For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the LORD’S glory,
as the water covers the sea. e
15 Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink,
pouring out your wrath
and even making them drunk,
in order to look at their nakedness!
16 You will be filled with disgrace instead of glory.
You also—drink,
and expose your uncircumcision!
The cup in the LORD’S right hand
will come around to you,
and utter disgrace will cover your glory. f
17 For your violence against Lebanon
will overwhelm you;
the destruction of animals will terrify you
because of your human bloodshed and violence
against lands, cities, and all who live in them.
18 What use is a carved idol
after its craftsman carves it?
It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies.
For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it
and makes idols that cannot speak.
19 Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up!
or to mute stone: Come alive!
Can it teach?
Look! It may be plated with gold and silver,
yet there is no breath g in it at all.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; h
let the whole earth
be silent in his presence. i
D. Second explanation (2:1–20). 2:1–3. Having protested God’s explanation, Habakkuk assumes the position of a prophetic watchman (cf. Is 21:8; Jr 6:17; Ezk 3:17; 33:2–3). Habakkuk will wait in earnest anticipation for God’s second response (2:1). As a watchman stands ready at his post to receive news from afar, so Habakkuk will prepare his soul for God’s message.
2:4–5. God now discloses a great and hidden purpose in his ordered government. God is superintending the issues of the day, thereby allowing the righteous and the unrighteous to be clearly distinguished. Though God permits unrighteous people to thrive and may even use them to execute his mysterious purposes, the arrogance and self-will of the wicked will ultimately carry them to destruction. Habakkuk should see that the Babylonians fit into this category. As is so often the case with the wicked, their success will produce an intellectual giddiness that will only be fed by the wine of their drink (2:5). The Babylonians’ riotous lifestyle will bring about an insatiable lust for power and plunder that will be as seemingly unquenchable as the thirst of death and the grave. Unlike the wicked, the righteous are consumed by neither power nor greed nor pride. Rather, “the righteous one will live by his faith” (2:4). [“The Righteous One Will Live by His Faith”]
2:6–8. Having made clear the reasons for his patience with humanity over the long course of history, God now tells Habakkuk that the Babylonians will nevertheless reap the fruit of their unrighteousness (2:6–20). God presents the self-destruction of the Babylonians in a series of pithy taunt songs in the mouth of those they have oppressed. Five woes are pronounced. Prophetic woe oracles consisted of three elements: invective (or strong denunciation), threat, and reason(s) for the judgment.
2:9–11. In the second woe God reports that the Babylonians will be dishonored. Those who build their kingdoms by unjust gain will be brought to shame. The once-mighty Babylon would become a heap of ruins whose very stones bewail its former grandeur.
2:12–14. In the third woe God states that the Babylonians will be devastated. The Babylonians had built their proud city with the blood-bought spoils of other nations that would all be used eventually for their enemies’ siege fires. Surely all nations who oppose God will one day be destroyed by the Lord.
2:15–17. In the fourth woe God announces that the Babylonians will be disgraced. Here Babylon is likened to a man who gives his neighbors intoxicating wine in order to make sport of them by denuding them (2:15). Yet Babylon, the ones who have caused disgrace, will be disgraced (2:16). The picture here is of one who is so overcome with drink that in his stupor he lies naked in his own vomit.
2:18–20. In the fifth woe God proclaims that the Babylonians will be deserted. What little spiritual consciousness the Babylonians had resulted largely from thousands of years of pagan polytheism. Worst of all, in the hour of God’s judgment, Babylon will be forsaken by its idols.