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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
1:12-2:20 Second Cycle. This expresses the age-old dilemma concerning God's justice: "Why does evil seem to go unpunished?" God's vindicating answer is, "I will see to it that all those who are wicked will be punished, but the righteous ones must live by faith."
1:12-2:1 Habakkuk's Lament. Habakkuk wonders how God can use a wicked nation to punish a less wicked one.
1:12 Are you not from everlasting? Habakkuk has good theology and knows that God lives forever (see Ps. 90:2). We shall not die. Several translations have "You shall not die" at this point, reflecting a later rabbinic tradition. This makes an easier reading than the abrupt change from "you" to "we," but it finds no support in the Hebrew manuscripts or the Septuagint, and should not be considered original. Habakkuk grounds his confidence in God's future for his people in the eternal nature of God. you . . . have established them. Habakkuk understands that God has ordained Babylon to be his agent of punishment.
1:13 purer eyes than to see evil. This is a classic statement of the puzzle of how an all-powerful God can allow sin to continue unchecked. Habakkuk cannot understand the justice of allowing wicked Babylon to punish a less wicked nation such as Judah. (He can call Judah more righteous because, even though most of its people were unfaithful to God's covenants, some of them actually were faithful.) Habakkuk thinks that God's holiness should have prohibited him from using the corrupt Babylonians.
1:14 Habakkuk's charge against God is that he allows mankind to act like lower creatures (fish and crawling things) with no rulers or judges, so that wickedness goes unchecked.
1:15 He. That is, the "wicked" one in v. 13, a personification of the nation of Babylon. hook. See Amos 4:2. Captives were sometimes taken away with hooks in their noses--an intentionally painful and humiliating treatment. drags them out with his net. The image is that of a fish helplessly caught in a fishing net; Mesopotamian rock reliefs portray prisoners in nets being hauled off to captivity.
1:16 he sacrifices to his net. See note on v. 11. The Babylonians appear quite proud of their weapons of destruction.
1:17 mercilessly killing nations forever? If a righteous God does not step in to end the Babylonians' wicked plan, who will? Where is God's justice, and how can he tolerate this?
2:1 I will take my stand at my watchpost. Similar to a lookout who awaits a coming enemy, Habakkuk waits in the city's watchtower for God to rebuke his direct challenge. tower. Probably part of a wall and tower system to protect the city.
