Habakkuk 2 commentary

When tossed and perplexed with doubts about the methods of Providence, we must watch against temptations to be impatient. When we have poured out complaints and requests before God, we must observe the answers God gives by his word, his Spirit, and providences; what the Lord will say to our case. God will not disappoint the believing expectations of those who wait to hear what he will say unto them. All are concerned in the truths of God's word. Though the promised favour be deferred long, it will come at last, and abundantly recompense us for waiting. The humble, broken-hearted, repenting sinner, alone seeks to obtain an interest in this salvation. He will rest his soul on the promise, and on Christ, in and through whom it is given. Thus he walks and works, as well as lives by faith, perseveres to the end, and is exalted to glory; while those who distrust or despise God's all-sufficiency will not walk uprightly with him. The just shall live by faith in these precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. Only those made just by faith, shall live, shall be happy here and for ever.

The prophet reads the doom of all proud and oppressive powers that bear hard upon God's people. The lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, are the entangling snares of men; and we find him that led Israel captive, himself led captive by each of these. No more of what we have is to be reckoned ours, than what we come honestly by. Riches are but clay, thick clay; what are gold and silver but white and yellow earth? Those who travel through thick clay, are hindered and dirtied in their journey; so are those who go through the world in the midst of abundance of wealth. And what fools are those that burden themselves with continual care about it; with a great deal of guilt in getting, saving, and spending it, and with a heavy account which they must give another day! They overload themselves with this thick clay, and so sink themselves down into destruction and perdition. See what will be the end hereof; what is gotten by violence from others, others shall take away by violence. Covetousness brings disquiet and uneasiness into a family; he that is greedy of gain troubles his own house; what is worse, it brings the curse of God upon all the affairs of it. There is a lawful gain, which, by the blessing of God, may be a comfort to a house; but what is got by fraud and injustice, will bring poverty and ruin upon a family. Yet that is not the worst; Thou hast sinned against thine own soul, hast endangered it. Those who wrong their neighbours, do much greater wrong to their own souls. If the sinner thinks he has managed his frauds and violence with art and contrivance, the riches and possessions he heaped together will witness against him. There are not greater drudges in the world than those who are slaves to mere wordly pursuits. And what comes of it? They find themselves disappointed of it, and disappointed in it; they will own it is worse than vanity, it is vexation of spirit. By staining and sinking earthly glory, God manifests and magnifies his own glory, and fills the earth with the knowledge of it, as plentifully as waters cover the sea, which are deep, and spread far and wide.

A severe woe is pronounced against drunkenness; it is very fearful against all who are guilty of drunkenness at any time, and in any place, from the stately palace to the paltry ale-house. To give one drink who is in want, who is thirsty and poor, or a weary traveller, or ready to perish, is charity; but to give a neighbour drink, that he may expose himself, may disclose secret concerns, or be drawn into a bad bargain, or for any such purpose, this is wickedness. To be guilty of this sin, to take pleasure in it, is to do what we can towards the murder both of soul and body. There is woe to him, and punishment answering to the sin. The folly of worshipping idols is exposed. The Lord is in his holy temple in heaven, where we have access to him in the way he has appointed. May we welcome his salvation, and worship him in his earthly temples, through Christ Jesus, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit.

We have seen in the first chapter Habakkuk 1:2-3 that the Prophet said in the name of all the faithful. It was indeed a hard struggle, when all things were in a perplexed state and no outlet appeared. The faithful might have thought that all things happened by chance, that there was no divine providence; and even the Prophet uttered complaints of this kind. He now begins to recover himself from his perplexities; and he ever speaks in the person of the godly, or of the whole Church. For what is done by some interpreters, who confine what is said to the prophetic office, I do not approve; and it may be easy from the contempt to learn, that the Prophet does not speak according to his private feeling, but that he represents the feelings of all the godly. So then we ought to collect this verse with the complaints, which we have before noticed; for the Prophet, finding himself sinking, and as it were overwhelmed in the deepest abyss, raises himself up above the judgement and reason of men, and comes nearer to God, that he might see from on high the things which take place on earth, and not judge according to the understanding of his own flesh, but by the light of the Holy Spirit. For the tower of which he speaks is patience arising from hope. If indeed we would struggle perseveringly to the last, and at length obtain the victory over all trials and conflicts, we must rise above the world.

Some understand by tower and citadel the Word of God: and this may in some measure be allowed, though not in every respect suitable. If we more fully weigh the reason for the metaphor, we shall be at no loss to know that the tower is the recess of the mind, where we withdraw ourselves from the world; for we find how disposed we are all to entertain distrust. When, therefore, we follow our own inclination, various temptations immediately lay hold on us; nor can we even for a moment exercise hope in God: and many things are also suggested to us, which take away and deprive us of all confidence: we become also involved in variety of thoughts, for when Satan finds men wandering in their imaginations and blending many things together, he so entangles them that they cannot by any means come nigh to God. If then we would cherish faith in our hearts, we must rise above all these difficulties and hindrances. And the Prophet by tower means this, that he extricated himself from the thoughts of the flesh; for there would have been no end nor termination to his doubts, had he tried to form a judgement according to his own understanding; I will stand, he says, on my tower, On my watch-tower, [משמרתי]; the word means commonly the office, or the act of watching, but here it means evidently the place; the verb "stand” and the corresponding word [מצור] fortress, or citadel, in the next line, prove clearly that this is its meaning here. The metaphor is taken from the practice of ascending a high tower, when any messenger was expected with news. That any locality is meant here is supported by nothing in the passage. The Prophet puts himself in an attitude of waiting for an answer from God to the complaints which he had made: and the metaphor of “tower and citadel” is most beautifully applied by Calvin, and in a very instructive and striking manner. I give this version —

On my watch-tower will I stand, And I will set myself on a citadel; That I may look out to see what he will say to me, And what I shall answer to the reproof given to me; Literally, to my reproof.

— Ed. I and I will set myself on the citadel. In short, the sentence carries this meaning — that the Prophet renounced the judgement of men, and broke through all those snares by which Satan entangles us and prevents us to rise above the earth.

He then adds, I will watch to see what he may say to me, that is, I will be there vigilant; for by watching he means vigilance and waiting, as though he had said, “Though no hope should soon appear, I shall not despond; nor shall I forsake my station; but I shall remain constantly in that tower, to which I wish now to ascend: I will watch then to see what he may say to me.” The reference is evidently to God; for the opinion of those is not probable, who apply this “saying” to the ministers of Satan. For the Prophet says first, ‘I will see what he may say to me,’ and then he adds, ‘and what I shall answer.’ They who explain the words ‘what he may say,’ as referring to the wicked who might oppose him for the purpose of shaking his faith, overlook the words of the Prophet, for he speaks here in the singular number; and as there is no name expressed, the Prophet no doubt meant God. But were the words capable of admitting this explanation, yet the very drift of the argument shows, that the passage has the meaning which I have attached to it. For how could the faithful answer the calumnies by which their faith was assailed, when the profane opprobriously mocked and derided them — how could they satisfactorily disprove such blasphemies, did they not first attend to what God might say to them? For we cannot confute the devil and his ministers, except we be instructed by the word of God. We hence see that the Prophet observes the best order in what he states, when he says in the first place, ‘I will see what God may say to me;’ and in the second place, ‘I shall then be taught to answer to my chiding;’ That is, to the chiding, rebuke, or reproof, given to me. Both Newcome and Henderson give a version of this line, which is nearly the same, but seems incongruous, though Grotius agrees with them. The version of the former is as follows: —

And what I should reply to my arguing with him. The latter renders the line thus: — And what I shall reply in regard to my argument.

The phrase is, [על-תוכחתי] upon, (to, says Drusius) my reproof, or rebuke, or chiding. This is the current meaning of the word, see 2 Kings 19:3; Proverbs 10:17; 12:1; Isaiah 37:3. He calls it “my,” because given him, either by his enemies, as Calvin thinks, or by God, as some others suppose. The view of Piscator and Junius is, that it is the reproof or correction he administered to the people in chapter 1:2-12. He was waiting to know what he might have to give as a reply in defense of that reproof. “And what I may reply as to my reproof,” i.e., the reproof given by him. In this case, the preceding clause, “What he may or will say to me,” refers to his complaint respecting the Chaldeans. This is altogether consistent with the mode in which the Prophets usually write: reversing the order, they take up first the last subject, and then refer to the first. He then waited to know two things, how to solve his difficulties respecting the conduct of the Chaldeans, and how to reply to his own people for the severe rebuke he gave them. There is much in this view to recommend it. — Ed. that is, “If the wicked deride my faith, I shall be able boldly to confute them; for the Lord will suggest to me such things as may enable me to give a full answer.” We now perceive the simple and real meaning of this verse. It remains for us to accommodate the doctrine to our own use.

It must be first observed, that there is no remedy, when such trials as those mentioned by the Prophet in the first chapter Habakkuk 1:4-17 meet us, except we learn to raise up our minds above the world. For if we contend with Satan, according to our own view of things, he will a hundred times overwhelm us, and we can never be able to resist him. Let us therefore know, that here is shown to us the right way of fighting with him, when our minds are agitated with unbelief, when doubts respecting God’s providence creep in, when things are so confused in this world as to involve us in darkness, so that no light appears: we must bid adieu to our own reason; for all our thoughts are nothing worth, when we seek, according to our own reason, to form a judgement. Until then the faithful ascend to their tower and stand in their citadel, of which the Prophet here speaks, their temptations will drive them here and there, and sink them as it were in a bottomless gulf. But that we may more fully understand the meaning, we must know, that there is here an implied contrast between the tower and the citadel, which the Prophet mentions, and a station on earth. As long then as we judge according to our own perceptions, we walk on the earth; and while we do so, many clouds arise, and Satan scatters ashes in our eyes, and wholly darkens our judgement, and thus it happens, that we lie down altogether confounded. It is hence wholly necessary, as we have before said, that we should tread our reason under foot, and come nigh to God himself.

We have said, that the tower is the recess of the mind; but how can we ascend to it? even by following the word of the Lord. For we creep on the earth; nay, we find that our flesh ever draws us downward: except then the truth from above becomes to us as it were wings, or a ladder, or a vehicle, we cannot rise up one foot; but, on the contrary, we shall seek refuges on the earth rather than ascend into heaven. But let the word of God become our ladder, or our vehicle, or our wings, and, however difficult the ascent may be, we shall yet be able to fly upward, provided God’s word be allowed to have its own authority. We hence see how unsuitable is the view of those interpreters, who think that the tower and the citadel is the word of God; for it is by God’s word, as I have already said, that we are raised up to this citadel, that is, to the safeguard of hope; where we may remain safe and secure while looking down from this eminence on those things which disturb us and darken all our senses as long as we lie on the earth. This is one thing.

Then the repetition is not without its use; for the Prophet says, On my tower will I stand, on the citadel will I set myself. He does not repeat in other words the same thing, because it is obscure; but in order to remind the faithful, that though they are inclined to sloth, they must yet strive to extricate themselves. And we soon find how slothful we become, except each of us stirs up himself. For when any perplexity takes hold on our minds, we soon succumb to despair. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet, after having spoken of the tower, again mentions the citadel.

But when he says, I will watch to see, he refers to perseverance; for it is not enough to open our eyes once, and by one look to observe what happens to us; but it is necessary to continue our attention. This constant attention is, then, what the Prophet means by watching; for we are not so clear-sighted as immediately to comprehend what is useful to be known. And then, though we may once see what is necessary, yet a new temptation can obliterate that view. It thus happens, that all our observations become evanescent, except we continue to watch, that is, except we persevere in our attention, so that we may ever return to God, whenever the devil raises new storms, and whenever he darkens the heavens with clouds to prevent us to see God. We hence see how emphatical is what the Prophet says here, I will watch to see. The Prophet evidently compares the faithful to watchmen, who, though they hear nothing, yet do not sleep; and if they hear any noise once or twice, they do not immediately sound an alarm, but wait and attend. As, then, they who keep watch ought to remain quiet, that they may not disturb others, and that they may duly perform their office; so it behaves the faithful to be also tranquil and quiet, and wait patiently for God during times of perplexity and confusion.

Let us now inquire what is the purpose of this watching: I will watch to see, he says, what he may say to me. There seems to be an impropriety in the expression; for we do not properly see what is said. But the Prophet connects together here two metaphors. To speak strictly correct, he ought to have said, “I will continue attentive to hear what he may say;” but he says, I will watch to see what he may say. The metaphor is found correctly used in Psalm 85:8,

“I will hear what God may say; for he will speak peace to his people.”

There also it is a metaphor, for the Prophet speaks not of natural hearing: “I will hear what God may speak,” what does that hearing mean? It means this, “I will quietly wait until God shows his favor, which is now hid; for he will speak peace to his people;” that is, the Lord will never forget his own Church. But the Prophet, as I have said, joins together here two metaphors; for to speak, or to say, means no other thing than that God testifies to our hearts, that though the reason for his purpose does not immediately appear to us, yet all things are wisely ruled, and that nothing is better than to submit to his will. But when he says, “I will see, and I will watch what he may say,” the metaphor seems incongruous, and yet there appears a reason for it; for the Prophet intended to remind us, that we ought to employ all our senses for this end, — to be wholly attentive to God’s word. For though one may be resolved to hear God, we yet find that many temptations immediately distract us. It is not then enough to become teachable, and to apply our ears to hear his voice, except also our eyes be connected with them, so that we may be altogether attentive.

We hence see the object of the Prophet; for he meant to express the greatest attention, as though he had said, that the faithful would ever wander in their thoughts, except they carefully concentrated both their eyes and their ears, and all their senses, on God, and continually restrained themselves, lest vagrant speculations or imaginations should lead them astray. And further, the Prophet teaches us, that we ought to have such reverence for God’s word as to deem it sufficient for us to hear his voice. Let this, then, be our understanding, to obey God speaking to us, and reverently to embrace his word, so that he may deliver us from all troubles, and also keep our minds in peace and tranquillity.

God’s speaking, then, is opposed to all the obstreperous clamours of Satan, which he never ceases to sound in our ears. For as soon as any temptation takes place, Satan suggests many things to us, and those of various kinds: — “What will you do? what advice will you take? see whether God is propitious to you from whom you expect help. How can you dare to trust that God will assist you? How can he extricate you? What will be the issue?” As Satan then disturbs us in various ways, the Prophet shows that the word of God alone is sufficient for us all, then, who indulge themselves in their own counsels, deserve to be forsaken by God, and to be left by him to be driven up and down, and here and there, by Satan; for the only unfailing security for the faithful is to acquiesce in God’s word.

But this appears still more clear from what is expressed at the close of the verse, when the Prophet adds, and what I may answer to the reproof given me; for he shows that he would be furnished with the best weapons to sustain and repel all assaults, provided he patiently attended to God speaking to him, and fully embraced his word: “Then,” he says, “I shall have what I may answer to all reproofs, when the Lord shall speak to me”. By “reproofs,” he means not only the blasphemies by which the wicked shake his faith, but also all those turbulent feelings by which Satan secretly labors to subvert his faith. For not only the ungodly deride us and mock at our simplicity, as though we presumptuously and foolishly trusted in God, and were thus over-credulous; but we also reprove ourselves inwardly, and disturb ourselves by various internal contentions; for whatever comes to our mind that is in opposition to God’s word, is properly a chiding or a reproof, as it is the same thing as if one accused himself, as though he had not found God to be faithful. We now, then see that the word “reproof” extends farther than to those outward blasphemies by which the unbelieving are wont to assail the children of God; for, as we have already said, though no one attempted to try our faith, yet every one is a tempter to himself; for the devil never ceases to agitate our minds. When, therefore, the Prophet says, what I may answer to reproof, he means, that he would be sufficiently fortified against all the assaults of Satan, both secret and external, when he heard what God might say to him.

We may also gather from the whole verse, that we can form no judgement of God’s providence, except by the light of celestial truth. It is hence no wonder that many fall away under trials, yea, almost the whole world; for few there are who ascend into the citadel of which the Prophet speaks, and who are willing to hear God speaking to them. Hence, presumption and arrogance blind the minds of men, so that they either speak evil of God who addresses them, or accuse fortune, or maintain that there is nothing certain: thus they murmur within themselves, and arrogate to themselves more than they ought, and never submit to God’s word. Let us proceed, -

Habakkuk 2:2, 3

2. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

2. Et respondit mihi Jehova et dixit, Scribe visionem, et explana super tabulas, ut currat legens in ea:

3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

3. Quia adhue visio ad tempus statutum, et loquetur ad finem, et non mentietur; si moram fecerit, expecta eam; quia veniendo veniet, et non tardabit.

The Prophet now shows by his own example that there is no fear but that God will give help in time, provided we bring our minds to a state of spiritual tranquillity, and constantly look up to him: for the event which the Prophet relates, proves that there is no danger that God will frustrate their hope and patience, who lift up their minds to heaven, and continue steadily in that attitude. Answer me, he says, did Jehovah, and said. There is no doubt but that the Prophet accommodates here his own example to the common instruction of the whole Church. Hence, by testifying that an answer was given him by God, he intimates that we ought to entertain a cheerful hope, that the Lord, when he finds us stationed in our watch-tower, will in due season convey to us the consolation which he sees we need.

But he afterwards comes to the discharge of his prophetic office; for he was bid to write the vision on tables, and to write it in large letters, that it might be read, and that any one, passing by quickly, might be able by one glance to see what was written: and by this second part he shows still more clearly that he treated of a common truth, which belonged to the whole body of the Church; for it was not for his own sake that he was bid to write, but for the edification of all.

Write, then, the vision, and make it plain; for באר, bar properly means, to declare plainly. The word means, to open, or make open. It was to be written in open and plain letters, and on tables or tablets. These were either of wood or stone, made smooth. The Septuagint render the word πυξιον, a smooth plank of boxwood, and give the whole sentence thus: “Write the vision and openly (or plainly — σαφῶς,) on boxwood.” See Deuteronomy 27:8. So Junius takes the word as an adverb, perspicue, perspicuously. — Ed. Unfold it then, he says, on tables, that he may run who reads it; that is, that the writing may not cause the readers to stop. Write it in large characters, that any one, in running by, may see what is written. Then he adds, for the vision shall be for an appointed time

This is a remarkable passage; for we are taught here that we are not to deal with God in too limited a manner, but room must be given for hope; for the Lord does not immediately execute what he declares by his mouth; but his purpose is to prove our patience, and the obedience of our faith. Hence he says, the vision, is for a time, and a fixed time: for מועד, muod means a time which has been determined by agreement. But as it is God who fore appoints the time, the constituted time, of which the Prophet speaks, depends on his will and power. The vision, then, shall be for a time. He reproves here that immoderate ardor which takes hold on us, when we are anxious that God should immediately accomplish what he promises. The Prophet then shows that God so speaks as to be at liberty to defer the execution of his promise until it seems good to him.

At the end, he says, it will speak It is not a common word that is used: [יפח], “it will breathe.” When transitively, it signifies, to breathe out or forth, and is rendered often in our version, to speak; see Proverbs 6:19; 12:17. The idea here seems to be the restoration, as it were, of a suspended life. The vision was to be for a time like a body without any symptom of life: but “it will breathe,” he says, “at last,” or at the end; that is, it will live, and manifest life and vigor. This breathing, or this life, would be its accomplishment. Corresponding with this idea is ἀνατελι, “it will rise,” by the Septuagint. — Ed. In a word, the Prophet intimates, that honor is to be given to God’s word, that we ought to be fully persuaded that God speaks what is true, and be so satisfied with his promises as though what is promised were really possessed by us. At the end, then, it will speak and it will not lie [כזב], its primary meaning, is to fail, Isaiah 63:11; and to fail, in a moral sense, is to lie, and also to deceive; and the latter meaning is attached to it here by Drusius, Piscator, and Grotius, non fallet, it will not deceive, i.e., disappoint. — Ed. Here the Prophet means, that fulfillment would take place, so that experience would at length prove, that God had not spoken in vain, nor for the sake of deceiving; but yet that there was need of patience; for, as it has been said, God intends not to indulge our fervid and importunate desires by an immediate fulfillment, but his design is to hold us in suspense. And this is the true sacrifice of praise, when we restrain ourselves, and remain firm in the persuasion that God cannot deceive nor lie, though he may seem for a time to trifle with us. It will not, then, lie

He afterwards adds, If it will delay, wait for it. He again expresses still more clearly the true character of faith, that it does not break forth immediately into complaints, when God connives at things, when he suffers us to be oppressed by the wicked, when he does not immediately succor us; in a word, when he does not without delay fulfill what he has promised in his word. If, then, it delays, wait for it. He again repeats the same thing, coming it will come; that is, however it may be, God, who is not only true, but truth itself, will accomplish his own promises. The fulfillment, then, of the promise will take place in due time.

But we must notice the contrariety, If it will delay, it will come, it will not delay. The two clauses seem to be contrary the one to the other. But delay, mentioned first, has a reference to our haste. It is a common proverb, “Even quickness is delay to desire.” We indeed make such haste in all our desires, that the Lord, when he delays one moment, seems to be too slow. Thus it may come easily to our mind to expostulate with him on the ground of slowness. God, then, is said on this account to delay in his promises; and his promises also as to their accomplishment may be said to be delayed. But if we have regard to the counsel of God, there is never any delay; for he knows all the points of time, and in slowness itself he always hastens, however this may be not comprehended by the flesh. We now, then, apprehend what the Prophet means. What is here said is very true; but the words are not the same in Hebrew. The first signifies delay, [יתמהמה] rendered “linger” in Genesis 19:16; 43:10. The other verb, [יאחר], means, to put off, to postpone: and the sense is, that the vision will not be after the appointed time. So the two lines may be thus rendered:

If it will delay, wait for it, For coming it will come, it will not be postponed;

or, be after, i.e., the appointed time.

Dr. Wheeler, quoted by Newcome, give the right idea, by the following paraphrase:

It shall not be later than its season.

Both Jerome and Marckius have found a grammatical difficulty in this verse from a mistake as to the gender of [חזון], vision; and they had been evidently led astray by the Septuagint; in which the gender is changed, and the phrase, “wait for it,” is rendered, “wait for him,” ὑπομεινον αὐτον; and so as to what follows, “for he that cometh (ἐρχομενος) shall come.” But [חזון] is the masculine gender; it is elsewhere connected with verbs in that gender. See 1 Samuel 3:1; Ezekiel 12:22. Indeed the whole tenor of the passage admits not of any other construction. It is probable that this mistake made Eusebius and Augustine to apply this verse to Christ, and some to Nebuchadnezzar, in a typical sense. — Ed.

He is now bidden to write the vision, and to explain it on tables. Many confine this to the coming of Christ; but I rather think that the Prophet ascribes the name of vision to the doctrine or admonition, which he immediately subjoins. It is indeed true, that the faithful under the law could not have cherished hope in God without having their eyes and their minds directed to Christ: but it is one thing to take a passage in a restricted sense as applying to Christ himself, and another thing to set forth those promises which refer to the preservation of the Church. As far then as the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen, no vision could have been given to the Fathers, which could have raised their minds, and supported them in the hope of salvation, without Christ having been brought before them. But the Prophet here intimates generally, that a command was given to him to supply the hearts of the godly with this support, that they were, as we shall hereafter more clearly see, to wait for God. The vision, then, is nothing else than an admonition, which will be found in the next and the following verses.

He uses two words, to write and to explain; which some pervert rather than rightly distinguish: for as the Prophets were wont to write, and also to set forth the summaries or the heads of their discourses, they think that it was a command to Habakkuk to write, that he might leave on record to posterity what he had said; and then to publish what he taught as an edict, that it might be seen by the people passing by, not only for a day or for a few days. But I do not think that the Prophet speaks with so much refinement: I therefore consider that to write and to explain on tables mean the same thing. And what is added, that he may run who reads it, is to be understood as I have already explained it; for God intended to set forth this declaration as memorable and worthy of special notice. It was not usual with the Prophets to write in long and large characters; but the Prophet mentions here something peculiar, because the declaration was worthy of being especially observed. What is similar to this is said in Isaiah 8:1, ‘Write on at table with a man’s pen.’ By a man’s pen is to be understood common writing, such as is comprehended by the rudest and the most ignorant. To the same purpose is what God bids here his servant Habakkuk to do. Write, he says how? Not as Prophecies are wont to be written, for the Prophets set before the people the heads of their discourses; but write, he says, so that he who runs may read, and that though he may be inattentive, he may yet see what is written; for the table itself will plainly show what it contains.

We now see that the Prophet commends, by a peculiar eulogy, what he immediately subjoins. Hence this passage ought to awaken all our powers, as God himself testifies that he announces what is worthy of being remembered: for he speaks not of a common truth; but his purpose was to reveal something great and unusually excellent; as he bids it, as I have already said, to be written in large characters, so that those who run might read it.

And by saying that the vision is yet for a time, he shows, as I have briefly explained, what great reverence is due to heavenly truth. For to wish God to conform to our rule is extremely preposterous and unreasonable: and there is no place for faith, if we expect God to fulfill immediately what he promises. It is hence the trial of faith to acquiesce in God’s word, when its accomplishment does in no way appear. As then the Prophet teaches us, that the vision is yet for a time, he reminds us that we have no faith, except we are satisfied with God’s word alone, and suspend our desires until the seasonable time comes, that which God himself has appointed. The vision, then, yet shall be. But we are inclined to reduce, as it were, to nothing the power of God, except he accomplishes what he has said: “Yet, yet,” says the Prophet, “the vision shall be;” that is, “Though God does not stretch forth his hand, still let what he has spoken be sufficient for you: let then the vision itself be enough for you; let it be deemed worthy of credit, so that the word of God may on its own account be believed; and let it not be tried according to the common rule; for men charge God with falsehood, except he immediately yields to their desires. Let then the vision itself be counted sufficiently solid and firm, until the suitable time shall come.” And the word מועד, muod, ought to be noticed; for the Prophet does not speak simply of time, but, as I have already said, he points out a certain and a preordained time. When men make an agreement, they on both sides fix the day: but it would be the highest presumption in us to require that God should appoint the day according to our will. It belongs, then, to him to appoint the times, and so to govern all things, that we may approve of whatever he does.

He afterwards says, And it will speak at the end, and it will not lie. The same is the import of the expression, it will speak at the end; that is, men are very perverse, if they wish God to close his mouth, and if they wish to deny faith to his word, except he instantly fulfill what he speaks. It will then speak; that is, let this liberty of speaking be allowed to God. And there is always an implied contrast between the voice of God and its accomplishment; for we are to acquiesce in God’s word, though he may conceal his hand: though he may afford no proof of his power, yet the Prophet commands this honor to be given to his word. The vision, then, will speak at the end

He now expresses more clearly what he had before said of the preordained time; and thus he meets the objections which Satan is wont to suggest to us: “How long will that time be delayed? Thou indeed namest it as the preordained time; but when will that day come?” “The Lord,” he says, “will speak at the end;” that is, “Though the Lord protracts time, and though day after day we seem to live on vain promises, yet let God speak, that is, let him have this honor from you, and be ye persuaded that he is true, that he cannot disappoint you; and in the meantime wait for his power; wait, so that ye may yet remain quiet, resting on his word, and let all your thoughts be confined within this stronghold — that it is enough that God has spoken. The rest we shall defer until to-morrow.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou sees us laboring under so much weakness, yea, with our minds so blinded that our faith falters at the smallest perplexities, and almost fails altogether, — O grant that by the power of thy Spirit we may be raised up above this world, and learn more and more to renounce our own counsels, and so to come to thee, that we may stand fixed in our watch tower, ever hoping, through thy power, for whatever thou hast promised to us, though thou shouldst not immediately make it manifest to us that thou hast faithfully spoken; and may we thus give full proof of our faith and patience, and proceed in the course of our warfare, until at length we ascend, above all watch towers, into that blessed rest, where we shall no more watch with an attentive mind, but see, face to face, in thine image, whatever can be wished, and whatever is needful for our perfect happiness, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and Tenth

The Prophet taught us yesterday, that we ought to allow God his right of speaking to us, and of sustaining us by his own word, until the ripe time shall come, when he shall really fulfill what he has promised. Then an exhortation follows, added at the close of the verse — that we are to exercise patience; and the Apostle also, referring to this passage in Hebrews 10:38, makes a similar application. He indeed quotes what we shall find in the next verse, ‘The just by his faith shall live;’ but he had in view the whole context; and at the same time he reminds us of the Prophet’s object here in exalting the authority of God’s word. The exhortation, then, is briefly this — that though God may keep us in suspense, we yet ought not to cast away hope, for he knows when it is expedient for us that he should stretch forth his hand. And as there are two clauses, as I said yesterday, which seem at first sight to be inconsistent the one with the other, the Prophet very fitly joins them together, and considers them to be in perfect harmony; for though God may appear to delay, yet he is not slower than what is necessary and expedient. Let us then be fully persuaded that there is in God prudence and wisdom enough to assist us as soon as it may be needful. The Prophet now reminds us that it is no wonder if God seems to us to delay, for we are too hasty in our desires. Let therefore this fervor be restrained, so that we may subject our feelings to the providence and purpose of God. Let us now proceed —

Habakkuk 2:4

4. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

4. Ecce exaltatio, (vel, qui se munit, ut alii vertunt,) non recta est anima ejus in ipso: justus autem in fide sua vivet.

This verse stands connected with the last, for the Prophet means to show that nothing is better than to rely on God’s word, how much soever may various temptations assault our souls. We hence see that nothing new is said here, hut that the former doctrine is confirmed — that our salvation is rendered safe and certain through God’s promise alone, and that therefore we ought not to seek any other haven, where we might securely sustain all the onsets of Satan and of the world. But he sets the two clauses the one opposed to the other: every man who would fortify himself would ever be subject to various changes, and never attain a quiet mind; then comes the other clause — that man cannot otherwise obtain rest than by faith.

But the former part is variously explained. Some interpreters think the word עפלה, ophle, to be a noun, and render it elevation, which is not unsuitable; and indeed I hesitate not to regard this as its real meaning, for the Hebrews call a citadel עופל, ouphel, rightly deriving it from עפל, ophle, to ascend. What some others maintain, that it signifies to strengthen, is not well founded. Some again give this explanation — that the unbelieving seek a stronghold for themselves, that they may fortify themselves; and this makes but little difference as to the thing itself. But interpreters vary, and differ as to the meaning of the sentence; for some substitute the predicate for the subject, and the subject for the predicate, and elicit this meaning from the Prophet’s words — "Every one whose mind is not at ease seeks a fortress, where he may safely rest and strengthens himself;” and others give this view — “He who is proud, or who thinks himself well fortified, shall ever be of an unquiet mind.” And this latter meaning is what I approve, only that I retain the import of the word עפלה, ophle, as though it was said — “where there is an elation of mind there is no tranquillity.”

Let us see first what their view is who give the other explanation. They say that the unbelieving, being obstinate and perverted in their minds, ever seek where they may be in safety, for they are full of suspicions, and having no regard to God they resort to the world for those remedies, by which they may escape evils and dangers. This is their view. But the Prophet, as I have already said, does here, on the contrary, denounce punishment on the unbelieving, as though he had said — “This reward, which they have deserved, shall be repaid to them — that they shall always torment themselves.” The contrast will thus be more obvious; and when we say that God punishes the unbelieving, when he suffers them to be driven here and there, and also harasses their minds with various tormenting thoughts, a more fruitful doctrine is elicited. When therefore the Prophet says that there is no calmness of mind possessed by those who deem themselves well fortified, he intimates that they are their own executioners, for they seek for themselves many troubles, many sorrows, many anxieties, and contrive and mingle together many designs and purposes; now they think of one thing, then they turn to another; for the Hebrews say that the soul is made right when we acquiesce in a thing and continue in a tranquil state of mind; but when confused thoughts distract us, then they say that our soul is not right in us. We now perceive the real meaning of the Prophet.

Behold, he says: by this demonstrative particle he intimates that what he teaches us may be clearly seen if we attend to daily events. The meaning then is, that a proof of this fact exists evidently in the common life of men — that he who fortifies himself, and is also elated with self confidence, never finds a tranquil haven, for some new suspicion or fear ever disturbs his mind. Hence it comes that the soul entangles itself in various cares and anxieties. This is the reward, as I have said, which is allotted by God’s just judgement to the unbelieving; for God, as he testifies by Isaiah, offers to us rest; and they who reject this invaluable benefit, freely offered to them by God, deserve that they should not only be tormented in one way, but be also harassed by endless agitations, and that they should also vex and torment themselves. It is indeed true that he who is fortified may also acquiesce in God’s word; but the word עפלה, ophle, refers to the state of the mind. Whosoever, then, swells with vain confidence, when he finds that he has many auxiliaries according to the flesh, shall ever be agitated, and will at length find that there is nowhere rest, except the mind recumbs on God’s grace alone. We now understand the import of this clause. Most authors agree in the main with Calvin in his exposition of this clause. The whole verse is quoted by Paul in Hebrews 10:39, nearly verbatim from the Scriptures; only he inverts the clauses, and leaves out the pronoun, “my,” connected with “faith.” But this clause, as quoted by him, is materially different from the Hebrew text, as it now exists, though the chief difference relates to the word [עפלה], rendered elation, or pride, by Calvin and many others. Two MSS. give another reading; one has [עולפה], and the other, [עלפה], which means to swoon, or to faint, or to fail.

This reading would essentially harmonize the passage, and the context evidently favors it, as well as the antithesis in the verse itself. As to the rest of the clause the meaning is same with the Septuagint version, as cited by Paul, though the words are different; and there are other examples in which the apostle did not alter that version, though varying in words, when the sense was preserved. To say that man’s soul is not right in him amounts to the same thing as to say that God is not pleased with him. There is indeed one MS. which has [נפשי], “my soul,” and not “his soul;” and then [ישרה] is often rendered ἀρεσκειν, to please, by the Septuagint. See Numbers 23:27; 2 Chronicles 30:4. There would in this case be a complete identity of words as well as of meaning.

What especially countenances these readings is, that the alteration would agree better with the preceding verse. There is an exhortation to wait for the vision, i.e., its fulfillment. To refer to pride in this connection seems not suitable; but to mention fainting or failing through unbelief is quite appropriate; and then as a contrast to this state of mind, the latter clause is added. Adopting the main alteration, [עלפה] instead of [עפלה], (only a transposition of two letters,) I would render the verse thus —

Behold the fainting! not right is his soul within him; But the righteous, by his faith shall he live.

The word for “fainting” is in the feminine gender, either on account of the word “soul” in what follows, or [איש] is understood, the “man of fainting,” instances of which are adduced by Henderson on this verse, though he retains the word of the present text; as [אני תפלה], “I am prayer,” instead of “I am a man of prayer.” — Psalms 109:4; see Jeremiah 50:31, 32; Daniel 9:23

Now not only the antithesis is here complete, but the order also in which it occurs corresponds with what is often the style of the Prophets; the first part of the first clause corresponds with the last part of the second, and the last of the former with the first of the latter; and not according to Dr. Henderson, who represents the clauses as regularly antithetic. See a similar instance in chapter 1:13, and also in the first verse of this chapter. The man who faints, and he who lives by faith, form the contrast; and the addition “by faith” in the latter clause implies the fainting to be through want of faith, or through unbelief. Then the soul that is not right stands in contrast with the righteous, or the just in the second line. Thus every thing in the verse itself, and in its connection with what precedes it, is in favor of what has been proposed. And Grotius and Newcome seemed disposed to adopt this reading. — Ed.

It follows, but the just shall live by his faith. The Prophet, I have no doubt, does here place faith in opposition to all those defences by which men so blind themselves as to neglect God, and to seek no aid from him. As men therefore rely on what the earth affords, depending on their fallacious supports, the Prophet here ascribes life to faith. But faith, as it is well known, and as we shall presently show more at large, depends on God alone. That we may then live by faith, the Prophet intimates that we must willingly give up all those defences which are wont to disappoint us. He then who finds that he is deprived of all protections, will live by his faith, provided he seeks in God alone what he wants, and leaving the world, fixes his mind on heaven.

As אמוגת, amunat, is in Hebrew truth, so some regard it as meaning integrity; as though the Prophet had said, that the just man has more safety in his faithfulness and pure conscience, than there is to the children of this world in all those munitions in which they glory. But in this case they frigidly extenuate the Prophet’s declaration; for they understand not what that righteousness of faith is from which our salvation proceeds. It is indeed certain that the Prophet understands by the word אמוגת, amunat, that faith which strips us of all arrogance, and leads us naked and needy to God, that we may seek salvation from him alone, which would otherwise be far removed from us.

Now many confine the first part to Nebuchadnezzar, but this is not suitable. The Prophet indeed speaks to the end of the chapter of Babylon and its ruin; but here he makes a distinction between the children of God, who cast all their cares on him, and the unbelieving, who cannot go forth beyond the world, where they seek to be made secure, and gather hence their defences in which they confide. And this is especially worthy of being observed, for it helps us much to understand the meaning of the Prophet; if this part — “Behold the proud, his soul is not right in him,” be applied to Nebuchadnezzar, the other part will lose much of its import; but if we consider that the Prophet, as it were, in these two tablets, shows what it is to glory in our own powers or in earthly aids, then what it is to repose on God alone will appear much more clear, and this truth will with more force penetrate into our minds; for we know how much such comparisons illustrate a subject which would be otherwise obscure or less evident. For if the Prophet had only declared that our faith is the cause of life and salvation, it might indeed be understood; but as we are disposed to entertain worldly hopes, the former truth would not have been sufficient to correct this evil, and to free our minds from all vain confidence. But when he affirms that all the unbelieving are deceived, while they fortify or elate themselves, be cause God will ever confound them, and that though no one disturbs them outwardly, they will yet be their own tormentors, as they have nothing that is right, nothing that is certain; when therefore all this is said to us, it is as though God drew us forcibly to himself, while seeing us deluded by the allurements of Satan, and seeing us too inclined to be taken with deceptions, which would at length lead us to destruction.

We now, then, perceive why Habakkuk has put these two things in opposition the one to the other — that the defences of this world are not only evanescent, but also bring always with them many tormenting fears — and then, that the just lives by his faith. And hence also is found a confirmation of what I have already touched upon, that faith is not to be taken here for man’s integrity, but for that faith which sets man before God emptied of all good things, so that he seeks what he needs from his gratuitous goodness: for all the unbelieving try to fortify themselves; and thus they strengthen themselves, thinking that anything in which they trust is sufficient for them. But what does the just do? He brings nothing before God except faith: then he brings nothing of his own, because faith borrows, as it were, through favor, what is not in man’s possession. He, then, who lives by faith, has no life in himself; but because he wants it, he flies for it to God alone. The Prophet also puts the verb in the future tense, in order to show the perpetuity of this life: for the unbelieving glory in a shadowy life; but the Lord will at last discover their folly, and they themselves shall really know that they have been deceived. But as God never disappoints the hope of his people, the Prophet promises here a perpetual life to the faithful.

Let us now come to Paul, who has applied the Prophet’s testimony for the purpose of teaching us that salvation is not by works, but by the mercy of God alone, and therefore by faith. Paul seems to have misapplied the Prophet’s words, and to have used them beyond what they import; for the Prophet speaks here of the state of the present life, and he has not previously spoken of the celestial life, but exhorted, as we have seen, the faithful to patience, and at the same time testified that God would be their deliverer; and now he adds, the just shall live by faith, though he may be destitute of all help, and though he may be exposed to all the assaults of fortune, and of the wicked, and of the devil. What has this to do, some one may say, with the eternal salvation of the soul? It seems, then, that Paul has with too much refinement introduced this testimony into his discussion respecting gratuitous justification by faith. But this principle ought ever to be remembered — that whatever benefits the Lord confers on the faithful in this life, are intended to confirm them in the hope of the eternal inheritance; for however liberally God may deal with us, our condition would yet be indeed miserable, were our hope confined to this earthly life. As God then would raise up our minds to the hopes of eternal salvation whenever he aids us in this world, and declares himself to be our Father; hence, when the Prophet says that the faithful shall live, he certainly does not confine this life to so narrow limits, that God will only defend us for a day or two, or for a few years; but he proceeds much farther, and says, that we shall be made really and truly happy; for though this whole world may perish or be exposed to various changes, yet the faithful shall continue in permanent and real safety. Hence, when Habakkuk promises life in future to the faithful, he no doubt overleaps the boundaries of this world, and sets before the faithful a better life than that which they have here, which is accompanied with many sorrows, and proves itself by its shortness to be unworthy of being much desired.

We now perceive that Paul wisely and suitably accommodates to his subject the Prophet’s words — that the just lives by faith; for there is no salvation for the soul except through God’s mercy.

Quoting this place in Romans 1:17, he says that the righteousness of God is in the gospel revealed from faith to faith, and then adds,

“As it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

Paul very rightly connects these things together that righteousness is made known in the Gospel — and that it comes to us by faith only; for he there contends that men cannot obtain righteousness by the law, or by the works of the law; it follows that it is revealed in the Gospel alone: how does he prove this? By the testimony of the Prophet Habakkuk —

“If by faith the just lives, then he is just by faith; if he is just by faith, then he is not so by the works of the law.”

And Paul assumes this principle, to which I have before referred — that men are emptied of all works, when they produce their faith before God: for as long as man possesses anything of his own, he does not please God by faith alone, but also by his own worthiness.

If then faith alone obtains grace, the law must necessarily be relinquished, as the apostle also explains more clearly in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians Galatians 3:11:

‘That righteousness,’ he says, ‘is not by the works of the law, is evident; for it is written, The just shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith.’

Paul assumes that these, even faith and law, are contrary, the one to the other; contrary as to the work of justifying. The law indeed agrees with the gospel; nay, it contains in itself the gospel. And Paul has solved this question in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Romans 1:1-32 by saying, that the law cannot assist us to attain righteousness, but that it is offered to us in the gospel, and that it receives a testimony from the law and the Prophets. Though then there is a complete concord between the law and the gospel, as God, who is not inconsistent with himself, is the author of both; yet as to justification, the law accords not with the gospel, any more than light with darkness: for the law promises life to those who serve God; and the promise is conditional, dependent on the merits of works. The gospel also does indeed promise righteousness under condition; but it has no respect to the merits of works. What then? It is only this, that they who are condemned and lost are to embrace the favor offered to them in Christ.

We now then see how, by the testimony of our Prophet, Paul rightly confirms his own doctrine, that eternal salvation is to be attained by faith only; for we are destitute of all merits by works, and are constrained to stand naked and needy before God; and then the Lord justifies us freely.

But that this may be more evident, let us first consider why men must come altogether naked before God; for were there any worthiness in them, the Lord would by no means deprive them of such an honor. Why then does the Lord justify us freely, except that he may thereby appear just? He has indeed no need of this glory, as though he could not himself be glorified except by doing wrong to men. But we obtain righteousness by faith alone for this reason, because God finds nothing in us which he can approve, or what may avail to obtain righteousness. Since it is so, we then see that to be true which the Holy Spirit everywhere declares respecting the character of men. Men indeed glory in a foolish conceit as to their own righteousness: but all philosophic virtues, as they call them, which men think they possess through free-will, are mere fumes; nay, they are the delusions of the devil, by which he bewitches the minds of men, so that they come not to God, but, on the contrary, precipitate themselves into the lowest deep, where they seek to exalt themselves beyond measure. However this may be, let us be fully convinced, that in man there is not even a particle either of rectitude or of righteousness; and that whatever men may try to do of themselves, is an abomination before God. This is one thing.

Now after God has stretched forth his hand to his elect, it is still necessary that they should confess their own want and nakedness, as to justification; for though they have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, yet in many things they are deficient, and thus in innumerable ways they become exposed to eternal death in the sight of God; so that they have in themselves no righteousness. The Papists differ from us in the first place, imagining as they do, that there are certain preparations necessary; for that false notion about free-will cannot be eradicated from their hearts. As then they will have man to be endued with free- will, they always connect with it some power, as though they could obtain grace by their own doings. They indeed confess that man of himself can do nothing, except by the helping grace of God; but in the meantime they blend, as I have said, their own fictitious preparations. Others confess, that until God anticipates us by his grace, there is no power whatever in free-will; but afterwards they suppose that free-will concurs with God’s grace, as it would be by itself inefficient, except received by our consent. Thus they always reserve for men some worthiness; but a greater difference exists as to the second subject: for after we have been regenerated through God’s grace, the Papists imagine that we are justified by the merits of works. They confess, that until God anticipates us by his grace, we are condemned and cannot attain salvation except through the assisting grace of God; but as soon as God works in us, we are then, they say, able to attain righteousness by our own works.

But we object and say, that the faithful, after having been regenerated by the Spirit of God, do not fulfill the law: they allow this to be true, but say that they might if they would, for that God has commanded nothing which is above what men are capable of doing. And this also is a most pernicious error. They are at the same time forced to confess, that experience itself teaches us that no man is wholly free from sin: then some guilt always remains. But they say, that if we kept half the law, we could obtain righteousness by that half. Hence, if one by adultery offended God and thus becomes exposed to eternal death, and yet abstains from theft, he is just, they say, because he is no thief. He is an adulterer, it is true; but he is yet just in part, because he keeps a part of the law; and they call this partial righteousness. But God has not promised salvation to men, except they fully and really fulfill whatever he has commanded in his law. For it is not said, “He that fulfill a part of the law shall live;” but he who shall do these things shall live in them. Moses does not point out two or three commandments, but includes the whole law (Leviticus 18:5.) There is also a declaration made by James,

‘He who has forbidden to commit adultery, has also forbidden to steal: whosoever then transgresses the law in one particular, is a transgressor of the whole law’ (James 2:8,11):

he is then excluded from any hope of righteousness. We hence see that the papists are most grossly mistaken, who imagine, that men, when they keep the law only in part, are just.

Were there indeed any one found who strictly kept God’s law, he could not be counted just, except by virtue of a promise. And here also the Papists stumble, and are at the same time inconsistent with themselves; for they confess that merits do not obtain righteousness for men by their own intrinsic worth, but only by the covenant of the law. But as soon as they have said this, they immediately forget themselves, and say what is contrary, like men carried away by passion. Were then the Papists to join together these two things — that there is no righteousness except by covenant, and that there is a partial righteousness they would see that they are inconsistent: for where is this partial righteousness? If we are not righteous except according to the covenant of the law, then we are not righteous except through a full and perfect observance of the law. This is certain.

They go astray still more grievously as to the remission of sins; for as it is well known, they obtrude their own satisfactions, and thus seek to expiate the sins of men by their own merits, as though the sacrifice of Christ was not sufficient for that purpose. Hence it is that they will not allow that we are gratuitously justified by faith; for they cannot be brought to acknowledge a free remission of sins; and except the remission of sins be gratuitous, we must confess that righteousness is not by faith alone, but also by merits. But the whole Scripture proves that expiation is nowhere else to be sought, except through the sacrifice of Christ alone. This error, then, of the Papists is extremely gross and false. They further err in pleading for the merits of works; for they boast of their own inventions, the works of supererogation, or as they call them, satisfactions. And these meritorious works, under the Papacy, are gross errors and worthless superstitions, and yet they toil in them and lacerate themselves, nay, they almost wear out themselves. If they mutter many short prayers, if they run to altars and to various churches, if they buy masses, in a word, if they accumulate all these fictitious acts of worship, they think that they merit righteousness before God. Thus they forget their own saying, that righteousness is by covenant; for if it be by covenant, it is certain that God does not promise it to fictitious works, which men of themselves invent and contrive. It then follows, that what men bring to God, devised by themselves, cannot do anything towards the attainment of righteousness.

There is also another error which must be noticed, for in good works they perceive not those blemishes which justly displease God, so that our works might be deservedly condemned were they strictly examined and tried. The Papists rightly say, that we are not justified by the intrinsic worthiness of works, but afterwards they do not consider how imperfect our works are, for no work proceeds from mortal man which can fully answer to what God’s covenant requires. How so? For no work proceeds from the perfect love of God, and where the perfect love of God does not exist, there is corruption there. It hence follows, that all our works are polluted before God; for they flow not except from the impure fountain of the heart. Were any to object and say, that the hearts of men are cleansed by the regeneration of the Spirit, we allow this; but at the same time much filth always remains in our hearts, and it ought to be sufficient for us to know that nothing is pure and genuine before God except where the perfect love of him exists.

As, then, the Papists are blind to all these things, it is no wonder that they with so much hostility contend with us about righteousness, and can by no means allow that the righteousness of faith is gratuitous, for from the beginning this figment about free- will has been resorted to — “if men of themselves come to God, then they are not freely justified.” They, then, as I have said, imagine a partial righteousness, they suppose the deficiency to be made up by satisfactions, they have also, as they say, their devotions, that is, their own contrived modes of worship. Thus it comes, that they ever persuade themselves that the righteousness of man, at least in part, is made up by himself or by works. They indeed allow that we are justified by faith, but when it is added, by faith alone, then they begin to be furious; but they consider not that righteousness, if obtained by faith, cannot be by works, for Paul, as I have shown above, reasons from the contrary, when he says, that righteousness, if it be by the works of the law, is not by faith, for faith, as it has been said, strips man of everything, that he may seek of God what he needs. But the Papists, though they think that man has not enough for himself, do not yet acknowledge that he is so needy and miserable, that righteousness must be sought in God alone. But yet sufficiently clear is the doctrine of Paul, and if Paul had never spoken, reason itself is sufficient to convince us that men cannot be justified by faith until they cast away every confidence in their own works, for if righteousness be of faith, then it is of grace alone, and if by grace alone, then it cannot be by works. It is wholly puerile in the Papists to think, that it is partly by grace and partly by the merits of works; for as salvation cannot be divided, so righteousness cannot be divided, by which we attain salvation itself. As, then, faith acquires for us favor before God, and by this favor we are counted just, so all works must necessarily fall to the ground, when righteousness is ascribed to faith.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as the corruption of our flesh ever leads us to pride and vain confidence, we may be illuminated by thy word, so as to understand how great and how grievous is our poverty, and be thus taught wholly to deny ourselves, and so to present ourselves naked before thee, that we may not hope for righteousness or for salvation from any other source than from thy mercy alone, nor seek any rest but only in Christ; and may we cleave to thee by the sacred and inviolable bond of faith, that we may boldly despise all those empty boastings by which the ungodly exult over us, and that we may also so cast ourselves down in true humility, that thereby we may be carried upward above all heavens, and become partakers of that eternal life which thine only begotten Son has purchased for us by his own blood. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and Eleventh

We yesterday compared this passage of Habakkuk with the interpretation of Paul, who draws this inference, that we are justified by faith without the works of the law, because the Prophet teaches us that we are to live by faith, for the way of life and of righteousness is the same, inasmuch as life is not to be otherwise sought by us than through the paternal favor of God. This then is our life — to be united to God; but this union with God cannot be hoped for by us while he imputes sins to us; for as he is just and cannot deny himself, iniquity must be ever hated by him. Then as long as he regards us as sinners, he must necessarily hold us as hateful to him. Where the hatred of God is, there is death and ruin. It then follows, that we can have no hope of life until we be reconciled to God, and there is no other way by which God can restore us to favor, but by regarding and counting us as just. It hence follows, that Paul reasons correctly, when he leads us from life to righteousness; for they are two things which are connected and inseparable.

Hence the error of the Papists comes to light, who think that to be justified is nothing else but to be renewed in righteousness, in order that we may lead a pious and a holy life. Hence their righteousness is a quality. But Paul’s view is very different, for he connects our justification and salvation together, inasmuch as God cannot be propitious to us without being reconciled to us. And how is this done even by not imputing to us our sins. Hence they speak correctly and truly express what the Holy Spirit everywhere teaches us, who call it imputative righteousness, for they thus show that it is not a quality, but, on the contrary, a relative righteousness, and therefore we said yesterday that he who lives by faith derives life from another, and that every one who is just by faith, is just through what is not in himself, even through the gratuitous mercy of God.

We now then see how suitably Paul joins righteousness with life, and adduces the Prophet’s testimony to prove gratuitous justification, who affirms that we are to live by faith. But it is no wonder that the Papists go in so many ways astray in this instance, for they even differ with us in the meaning of the word faith. Hence it is that they so obstinately deny that we are justified by faith alone. They are forced, as we have said yesterday, to admit the righteousness of faith; but the exclusive particle they cannot endure; for they imagine that it is a moulded faith that justifies, and this moulded or formed faith is piety, or the fear of God. And by calling faith unformed they seem to think that we can embrace the promises of God without the fruit of regeneration, which is very absurd, as though faith were not the peculiar gift of the Spirit, and a pledge of our adoption. But these are principles of which the Papists are wholly ignorant; for they are given up to a reprobate mind, so that they stumble at the very first elements of religion.

But it is sufficient for us, in order to understand this passage, to know that we live by faith; for our life is a shadow or a passing cloud; and hence our only remedy is to seek life from God alone. And how does God communicate this life to us? even by gratuitous promises which we embrace by faith; hence salvation is by faith. Now, salvation cannot be ascribed to faith and to works too; for faith refers the praise for life and salvation to God alone, and works show that something is due to man. Faith, then, as to justification, entirely excludes all works, so that they come to no account before God; and hence I have said that salvation is by faith; for we are accepted of God by gratuitous remission of sins. The union of God with us is true and real salvation; but no one can be united to God without righteousness, and there is found in us no righteousness; hence God himself freely imputes it to us; and as we are justified freely, so our salvation is said to be gratuitous.

I will not now repeat what may be said of justification by faith; for it is better to proceed with the Prophet’s subject, only it may be necessary to add two things to what has been said. The Prophet testified to the men of his age that salvation is by faith; it then follows that they had regard to Christ; for without relying on a mediator they could not have trusted in God. For as our righteousness is said to be the remission of sins, so a sacrifice must necessarily intervene, by which God is pacified, so as not to impute our sins. They had indeed their sacrifices according to the law; but these were to direct their minds to Christ; for they were by no means acceptable to God, except through that Mediator on whom our faith at this day is founded. There is also another thing: the Prophet, by distinctly expressing that the just live by faith, clearly shows, that through the whole course of this life we cannot be deemed just in any other way than by a gratuitous imputation. He does not say that the children of Adam, born in a state exposed to eternal death, do recover life by faith; but that the just, who are now endued with the true fear of God, live by faith; and thus refuted is the romance about initial justification. Let us now then proceed -

Habakkuk 2:5

5. Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people.

5. Quanto magis (vel, etiam certe) vino transgrediens vir superbus, et non habitabit, quid dilatat quasi sepulchrum animam suam, et est similis morti, (ipse quasi mors, ad verbum,) et non satiabitur (non satiatur, significat actum continuum,) et colliget ad se omnes gentes, et coacervabit ad se omnes populos.

The Prophet has taught us that a tranquil state of mind cannot be otherwise had than by recumbing on the grace of God alone; and that they who elate themselves, and fly in the air, and feed on the wind, procure for themselves many sorrows and inquietudes. But he now comes to the king of Babylon, and also to his kingdom; for in my judgement he speaks not only of the king, but includes also that tyrannical empire with its people, and represents them as a great company of robbers. He then says in short, that though the Babylonians, like drunken men, hurried here and there without any control, yet God’s vengeance, by which they were to be brought to nothing, was nigh at hand. What ever therefore the Prophet subjoins to the end of the chapter tends to confirm his doctrine, which we have already explained — that the just shall live by faith. We cannot indeed be fully convinced of this except we hold firmly this principle — that God cares for us, and that the whole world is governed by his providence; so that it cannot be but that he will at length check the wicked, and punish their sins, and deliver the innocent who call upon him. Unless this be our conviction, there can be no benefit derived from our faith; we might indeed be a hundred times deceived; for experience teaches us that the hopes of men, as long as they are fixed on the earth, are vain and delusive, as they are only mere imaginations. Except then God governs the world there is no salvation to the faithful; for God in that case would delude them with vain promises, and they would flatter themselves with an empty prospect, or hope for that which is not. Hence the Prophet shows how it is that the just shall live by faith; and that is because the Lord will defend all who call upon him, and that inasmuch as he is the just Judge of all the world, he will finally execute judgement on all the wicked, though for a time they act wantonly, and think that they shall escape punishment, because God does not execute upon them immediate vengeance. We now perceive the design of the Prophet.

As to the words, these two particles, אף כי, aph ki, when joined together, amplify the meaning; and some render them — "how much more;” others take them as a simple affirmative, and render them “truly.” I approve of a middle course, and render them “yea, truly;” (Etiam certe;) and they are so taken as I think, in Genesis 3:1, Satan thus asked the woman — yea, truly! Est-ce pour vrai? for the question is that of one doubting, and yet it refers to what is certain, — “How comes it that God should interdict the eating of the fruit? yea, is it so truly? can it be so? So it is in this place, yea, truly, says the Prophet. That it is an amplification may be gathered from the context. He had said before that they who elevate themselves, or seem to themselves to be well fortified, are fearful in their minds, and driven backwards and forwards. He now advances another step — that when men are borne along by unrestrained wantonness, and promise themselves all things, as though there was no God, they surpass even the drunken, being hurried on by blind cupidity. When therefore men thus abandon themselves, can they escape the judgement of God? Far less bearable is such a madness than that simple arrogance of which he had spoken in the last verse. Thus then are the two verses connected together, — “Yea, truly, he who in his pride is like a drunken man, and restrains not himself, and who is even like to wild beasts or to the grave, devouring whatever meets them — he surely will not at length be endured by God.” Vengeance, then, is nigh to all the proud, who are cruelly furious, passing all bounds and without any fear.

But interpreters differ as to the import of the words which follow. Some render בוגד, bugad, to deceive, and it means so in some places; and they render the clause thus — “Wine deceives a proud man, and he will not dwell.” This is indeed true, but the meaning is strained; I therefore prefer to follow the commonly received interpretation — that the proud man transgresses as it were through wine. At the same time I do not agree with others as to the expression “transgressing as through wine.” Some give this version — “Man addicted to wine or to drunkenness transgresses;” and then they add — “a proud man will not inhabit;” but they pervert the sentence, and mangle the words of the Prophet; for his words are — By wine transgressing the proud man: he does not say that a man addicted to wine transgresses; but he compares the proud to drunken men, who, forgetting all reason and shame, abandon themselves unto all that is disgraceful; for the drunken distinguishes nothing, and becomes like a brute animal, so that he shuns nothing that is base and unbecoming. This is the reason why the Prophet compares proud men to the drunken, who transgress through wine, that is, who observe no moderation, but indulge themselves in excesses. We now then understand the real meaning of the Prophet, which many have not perceived. Though the general meaning of the beginning of this verse is what most critics agree in, yet the construction is difficult. The only difference as to the meaning is, whether the proud man is said to be given to wine, or is compared to such an one, or to wine itself. Newcome takes the first, and gives this version —

Moreover, as a mighty man transgresseth through wine, He is proud, and remaineth not at rest.

Henderson, agreeing with Grotius and Mede, takes the latter sense, and renders the line as follows: —

Moreoever wine is treacherous; The haughty man stayeth not at home.

This is rather a paraphrase than a version; but this is the meaning of which the words are most capable. The two first participles need not be connected according to what Calvin proposes. Then the distich may be thus rendered —

And truly, as wine is treacherous, So is the proud man, and he will not rest.

Then follows a delineation of his character —

Because he enlarges as the grave his desire, And he is like death and cannot be satisfied; For he gathers to himself all the nations, And collects to himself all the people.

As to wine being treacherous, see Proverbs 30:1. Wine is pleasant to the taste and inviting in its color, but degrading, when taken immoderately, in its effects; so a proud and arrogant man is at first glittering and plausible, and splendid in his appearance, but afterwards cruel and oppressive. This seems to be the most obvious similitude, as contained in the passage.

Parkhurst renders the two first lines as follows —

Yea, as when wine deceiveth a man, So he is proud, and is not at rest.

He interprets “proud,” as meaning “intoxicated with power and dominion,” and refers to Daniel 4:30. — Ed.

As to the word inhabiting I take it in a metaphorical sense, as signifying to rest or to continue in the same place. The drunken are borne along by a certain excitement; so they do not restrain themselves, for they have no power over their feet or their hands: but as wine excites them, so they ramble here and there like insane persons. As then such an unruly temper lays hold on and bewilders drunken men, so the Prophet very aptly says that the proud man never rests.

And the reason follows, (provided the meaning be approved,) because he enlarges as the grave his soul he is like to death. This is then the insatiableness which he had mentioned — that the proud cannot be satisfied, and therefore include heaven and earth and sea within the compass of their desires. Since then they thus run here and there, it is no wonder that the Prophet says that they do not rest. He enlarges then as the grave his soul; and then he adds — he heaps together, or congregates, or collects to himself all nations, and accumulates to himself all people; that is, the proud man keeps within no moderate limits; for though he were able to make one heap of all nations, he would yet think that not enough, like Alexander, who wept because he had not then enjoyed the empire of the whole world; and had he enjoyed it his tears would not have been dried; for he had heard that, according to the opinion of Democritus, there were many worlds. What did he mean? even this “Were I to obtain the empire of the world, I should still be poor; for if there are more worlds I should still wish to devour them all.” These proud men surpass every kind of drunkenness.

We now apprehend the meaning of the words; and though they contain a general truth, yet the Prophet no doubt applies them to the king of Babylon and to all the Chaldeans; for as it has been said, he includes the whole nation. He shows then here, that the Chaldeans were much worse and less excusable than those who with great fierceness elated themselves, for their rage carried them farther, as they wished to swallow up the whole world. But in order to express this more fully, he says that they were like drunken men; and he no doubt indirectly derides here the counsels of princes, who think themselves to be very wise, when either by deceit they oppress their neighbors, or by artful means seize for themselves on the lands of others, or by some contrivance, or even by force of arms, take possession of them. As princes take wonderful delight in their iniquities, so the Prophet says that they are like drunken men who transgress by wine, that is, who are completely overcome by excessive drinking; and at the same time he shows the cause of this drunkenness by mentioning the words גבר יהיר, “proud man.” As then they are proud, so all their crafts are like the freaks of drunkenness, that is, furious, as when a man is deprived of reason by wine. Having thus spoken of the Babylonians he immediately adds —

Habakkuk 2:6

6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!

6. Annon ipsi omnes super eum parabolam (vel apophthegma) tollent? et dicterium aenigmaticum (vel aenigmatum; alii [הצילמ] vertunt interpretationem; sed dicemus de vocibus) ei (vel super eum,) et dicet, Vae qui mutiplicat non sua (vel ex non suis, qui sese locupletat ex alieno); quousque? et qui accumulat (vel aggravat) super se densum lutum.

Now at length the Prophet denounces punishment on the Babylonian king and the Chaldeans; for the Lord would render them a sport to all. But some think that a punishment is also expressed in the preceding verse, such as awaits violent robbers, who devour the whole world. But I, on the contrary, think that the Prophet spoke before of proud cruelty, and simply showed what a destructive evil it is, being an insatiable cupidity; and now, as I have stated, he comes to its punishment; and he says first, that all the people who had been collected as it were into a heap, would take up a parable or a taunt, in order to scoff at the king of Babylon. When therefore the Chaldeans should possess the empire of almost the whole world, and subject to their power all their neighboring nations, all these would at length take up against them parables and taunts; and what would be said everywhere would be this — Woe to him who increases and enriches himself by things not his own. How long? that is, Is this to be perpetual? All then who thus increase themselves heap on themselves thick clay, by which they shall at last be overthrown.

With regard to the words, משל, meshil is a short saying or a pithy sentence, and worthy to be remembered, as we have noticed elsewhere. Some render it parable. As to the word מליצה, melitse, it probably signifies a scoff or a taunt, by which any one is reproved; for it comes from לוף, luts, which means to laugh at one or to deride him. It is indeed true, that the Hebrews call a rhetorician or an interpreter מליף, melits; and hence some render מליצה, melitse, interpretation; but it is not suitable to this passage; for the Prophet speaks here of taunts that would be cast against the king of Babylon. For as he had as with an open mouth swallowed up all, so also all would eagerly prick him with their goads, and disdainfully deride him. The word he afterwards adds חידות, chidut, is to be read, I have no doubt, in the genitive case. This can hardly be allowed; for in this case the final letter of the previous word must have been [ת] and not [ה]. It is a word evidently in appostion, designing the character of the proverb and the taunt, they being enigmas, conveyed in a highly figurative language. The whole verse may be thus rendered —

Shall not these, all of them, Raise against him a proverb and a taunt — Enigmas for him; Yea, say will every one — “Woe to him who multiplies what is not his own! how long! “And to him who accumulates on himself thick clay!”

To render the last word [עבטיט], (or [עב טיט], apart, as given by ten MSS.,) “pledges,” as it is done by Newcome and Henderson, does not comport at all with the rest of the passage. The Septuagint favor the common explanation, and also the Vulgate, and most commentators. — Ed. I therefore do not approve of adding a copulative, as many do, and read thus — “a taunt and an enigma.” This word comes from the verb חוד, chud, which is to speak enigmatically; hence חידות, chidut, are enigmas, or metaphors, or obscure sentences; and we know that when we wish to touch a man to the quick, there is more sharpness when we use an obscure word, which contains a metaphor or ambiguity, or something of this kind. It is not therefore without reason that the Prophet calls taunts, enigmas, חידות, chidut, that is, obscure words, which bite or prick men sharply, as it were with goads. Hence in all scoffs a figurative language ought to be used; and except the expression be ambiguous or alliterative, or, in short, contain such metaphors as it is not necessary to recite here, there would be in it no beauty, no aptness. When therefore men wish to form biting taunts, they obscure what might be plainly said by some indirect metaphor; and this is the reason why the Prophet speaks here of a taunt that is enigmatical, for it is on that account more severe.

And he shall say. There is a change of number in this verb, but it does not obscure the sense. It is rendered impersonally by Jerome “et dicetur — and it shall be said.” Junius introduces a question, and supposed the just, who lives by faith to be referred to — “And shall not he, i.e., the just, say?” But Marckius considers that God is the speaker — “And he, i.e., God, shall say.” But the most obvious construction is, that each one of the nations previously mentioned is introduced as speaking — “Unusquisque illorum — every one of them,” is understood, says Piscator. — Ed. The particle הוי may be rendered “woe”; or it may be an exclamation, as when one is attracted by some particular sight, caca or sus; and so it is taken often by the Hebrews, and the context seems to favor this meaning, for “woe” would be frigid. When the Prophets pronounce a curse on the wicked, it is no doubt a dreadful threat; but what is found here is a taunt, by which the whole world would deride those haughty tyrants who thought that they ought to have been worshipped as gods. He! they say, where is he who multiplies himself by what belongs to another? and then, How long is this to be? even such accumulate on themselves thick clay; that is, they sink themselves in deep caverns, and heap on themselves mountains, by which they become overwhelmed. We now understand the meaning of the Prophet’s words.

What seems here to be the singing of triumph before the victory is no matter of wonder; for our faith, as it is well known, depends not on the judgement of the flesh, nor regards what is openly evident; but it is a vision of hidden things, as it is called in Hebrews 11:1, and the substance of things not seen. As then the firmness of faith is the same, though what it apprehends is remote, and as faith ceases not to see things hidden, — for through the mirror of God’s word it ascends above heaven and earth, and penetrates into the spiritual kingdom of God, — as faith, then, possesses a view so distant, it is not to be wondered that the Prophet here boldly triumphs over the Babylonians, and now prescribes a derisive song for all nations, that the proud, who had previously with so much cruelty exalted themselves, might be scoffed at and derided.

But were any to ask, whether it be right to assail even the wicked with scoffs and railleries, the question is unsuitable here; for the Prophet does not here refer to what is lawful for the faithful to do, but speaks only of what is commonly done by men: and we know that it is almost natural to men, that when those whom they had feared and dared not to blame as long as they were in power, are overthrown, they break forth against them not only with many complaints and accusations, but also with wanton rudeness. As, then, it usually happens, that all triumph over fallen tyrants, and throw forth their taunts, and all seek in this way to bite, the Prophet describes this regular course of things. It is not, however, to be doubted, but that he composed this song according to the nature of the case, when he says, that they were men who multiplied their own by what belonged to others; that is, that they gathered the wealth of others. It is indeed true, that many things are commonly spread abroad, for which there is no reason nor justice; but as some principles of equity and justice remain in the hearts of men, the consent of all nations is as it were the voice of nature, or the testimony of that equity which is engraven on the hearts of men, and which they can never obliterate. Such is the reason for this saying; for Habakkuk, by introducing the people as the speakers, propounded, as it were, the common law of nature, in which all agree; and that is, — that whosoever enriches himself by another’s wealth, shall at length fall, and that when one accumulates great riches, these will become like a heap to cover and overwhelm him. And if any one of us will consult his own mind, he will find that this is engraven on his very nature.

How, then, does it happen, that many should yet labor to get for themselves the wealth of others, and strive for nothing else through their whole life, but to spoil others that they may enrich themselves? It hence appears that men’s minds are deprived of reason by sottishness, whenever they thus addict themselves to unjust gain, or when they give themselves loose reins to commit frauds, robberies, and plunders. And thus we perceive that the Prophet had not without reason represented all the proud and the cruel as drunken.

Then follow the words, עד-מתי, od-mati, how long? This also is the dictate of nature; that is, that an end will some time be to unjust plunders, though God may not immediately check plunderers and wicked men, who proceed and effect their purposes by force and slaughters, and frauds and evil-doings. In the mean time the Prophet also intimates, that tyrants and their cruelty cannot be endured without great weariness and sorrow; for indignity on account of evil deeds kindles within the breasts of all, so that they become wearied when they see that wicked men are not soon restrained. Hence almost the whole world sound forth these words, How long, how long? When any one disturbs the whole world by his ambition and avarice, or everywhere commits plunders, or oppresses miserable nations, — when he distresses the innocent, all cry out, How long? And this cry, proceeding as it does from the feeling of nature and the dictate of justice, is at length heard by the Lord. For how comes it that all, being touched with weariness, cry out, How long? except that they know that this confusion of order and justice is not to be endured? And this feeling, is it not implanted in us by the Lord? It is then the same as though God heard himself, when he hears the cries and greenings of those who cannot bear injustice.

But let us in the meantime see that no one of us should have to say the same thing to himself, which he brings forward against others. For when any avaricious man proceeds through right or wrong, as they say, when an ambitious man, by unfair means, advances himself, we instantly cry, How long? and when any tyrant violently oppresses helpless men, we always say, How long? Though every one says this as to others, yet no one as to himself. Let us therefore take heed that, when we reprove injustice in others, we come without delay to ourselves, and be impartial judges. Self love so blinds us, that we seek to absolve ourselves from that fault which we freely condemn in others. In general things men are always more correct in their judgement, that is, in matters in which they themselves are not concerned; but as soon as they come to themselves, they become blind, and all rectitude vanishes, and all judgement is gone. Let us then know, that this song is set forth here by the Prophet, drawn, as it were, from the common feeling of nature, in order that every one of us may put a restraint on himself when he discharges the office of a judge in condemning others, and that he may also condemn himself, and restrain his desires, when he finds them advancing beyond just bounds.

We must also observe what he subjoins, — that the avaricious accumulate on themselves thick clay. This at first may appear incredible; but the subject itself plainly shows what the Prophet teaches here, provided our minds are not so blinded as not to see plain things. Hardly indeed an avaricious man can be found who is not a burden to himself, and to whom his wealth is not a source of trouble. Every one who has accumulated much, when he comes to old age, is afraid to use what he has got, being ever solicitous lest he should lose any thing; and then, as he thinks nothing is sufficient, the more he possesses the more grasping he becomes, and frugality is the name given to that sordid, and, so to speak, that servile restraint within which the rich confine themselves. In short, when any one forms a judgement of all the avaricious of this world, and is himself free from all avarice, having a free and unblessed mind, he will easily apprehend what the Prophet says here, — that all the wealth of this world is nothing else but a heap of clay, as when any one puts himself of his own accord under a great heap which he had collected together.

Some refer this to the walls of Babylon, which were built of baked bricks, as it is well known; but this is too farfetched. Others think that the Prophet speaks of the last end of us all; for they who possess the greatest riches, being at last thrown into the grave, are covered with earth: but this also is not suitable here, any more than when they apply it to Nebuchadnezzar, that is, to that sottishness by which he had inebriated himself almost through his whole life; or when others apply it to Belshazzar, his grandson, because when he drank from the sacred vessels of the temple, he uttered slanders and blasphemies against God. These explanations are by no means suitable; for the Prophet does not here speak of the person of the king alone, but, as it has been solid, he, on the contrary, summons to judgement the whole nation, which had given itself up to plunders and frauds and other evil deeds.

Then a general truth is to be drawn from this expression that all the avaricious, the more they heap together, the more they lade themselves, and, as it were, bury themselves under a great load. Whence is this? Because riches, acquired by frauds and plunders, are nothing else than a heavy and cumbrous lump of earth: for God returns on the heads of those who thus seek to enrich themselves, whatever they have plundered from others. Had they been contented with some moderate portion, they might have lived cheerfully and happily, as we see to be the case with all the godly; who though they possess but little, are yet cheerful, for they live in hope, and know that their supplies are in God’s hand, and expect everything from his blessing. Hence, then, their cheerfulness, because they have no anxious fears. But they who inebriate themselves with riches, find that they carry a useless burden, under which they lie down, as it were, sunk and buried.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou deignest so far to condescend as to sustain the care of this life, and to supply us with whatever is needful for our pilgrimage — O grant that we may learn to rely on thee, and so to trust to thy blessing, as to abstain not only from all plunder and other evil deeds, but also from every unlawful coveting; and to continue in thy fear, and so to learn also to bear our poverty on the earth, that being content with those spiritual riches which thou offerest to us in thy gospel, and of which thou makes us now partakers, we may ever cheerfully aspire after that fullness of all blessings which we shall enjoin when at length we shall reach the celestial kingdom, and be perfectly united to thee, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and Twelfth

Habakkuk 2:7

7. Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?

7. Annon repente consurgent qui te mordeant, et evigilabunt qui te exagitent, et eris in conculcationes ipsis?

The Prophet proceeds with the subject which we have already begun to explain; for he introduces here the common taunts against the king of Babylon and the whole tyrannical empire, by which many nations had been cruelly oppressed. He therefore says that enemies, who should bite him, This is rendered by Henderson, "that have lent thee on usury;” but incorrectly, as the corresponding clause is found in the following, and not, as he ays, in the preceding line. The literal version is as follows, —

Shall not suddenly arise thy biters, And awake thy tormentors, And thou become for spoils to them?

Now, the two corresponding words are “biters” and “tormentors;” and the idea of lending on usury cannot be admitted; and the common meaning of the word [נשך], is to bite, and means lending on usury only in Hiphil. What the Septuagint gives is δακνοντες — biters.

Here is an instance of the peculiar manner of the Prophets, and also of the writers of the New Testament; the most obvious act is mentioned first “arise,” and then what is previous to it, “awake.” There is also a similar difference in “biters” and “tormentors,” or those who vex and harass: to torment or vex is not so great an evil as to bite, as it were, like a serpent; for such is the biting meant here. — Ed. would suddenly and unexpectedly rise up. Some expound this of worms, but not rightly: for God not only inflicted punishment on the king when dead, but he intended also that there should be on earth an evident and a memorable proof of his vengeance on the Babylonians, by which it might be made known to all that their cruelty could not be suffered to go unpunished.

The words, Shall not they rise suddenly, are emphatical, both as to the question and as to the word, פתע, peto, suddenly. We indeed know that interrogations are more common in Hebrew than in Greek and Latin, and that they are stronger and more forcible. Our Prophet then speaks of what was indubitable. He adds, suddenly; for the Babylonians, relying on their own power, did not think that any evil was nigh them; and if any one dared to rise up against them, this could not have been so sudden, but they could have in time resisted and driven far away every danger. They indeed ruled far and wide; and we know that the wicked often sleep when they find themselves fortified on all sides. But the Prophet declares here that evil was nigh them, which would suddenly overwhelm them. It now follows —

Habakkuk 2:8

8. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

8. Quia tu spoliasti gentes multas, spoliabunt te omnes reliquiae populorum propter sanguines hominis et violentiam terrae, urbis et omnium habitantium in ea.

The Prophet here expresses more clearly why the Babylonians were to be so severely dealt with by God. He shows that it would be a just reward that they should be plundered in their turn, who had previously given themselves up to plunder, violence, and cruelty. Since, then, they had exercised so much inhumanity towards all people, the Prophet intimates here that God could not be deemed as treating them cruelly, by inflicting on them so severe a punishment: he also confirms the former truth, and recalls the attention of the faithful to the judgement of God, as a main principle to be remembered; for when things in the world are in a state of confusion, we despond, and all hope vanishes, except this comes to our mind — that as God is the judge of the world it cannot be otherwise but that at length all the wicked must appear before his tribunal, and give there an account of all their deeds; and Scripture, also, is wont to set God before us as a judge, whenever the purpose is to allay our troubles. The Prophet now does the same thing: for he says, that robbers should soon come upon the Babylonians, who would plunder them; for God, the judge of the world, would not at last suffer so many plunders to be unpunished.

But it was everywhere known that the Babylonians had, beyond all bounds and moderation, given themselves up to plunder, so that they spared no nations. Hence he says, because thou hast plundered many nations; and on this he enlarges; because the Babylonians had not only done wrongs to a few men, or to one people, but had marched through many countries. As, then, they had taken to themselves so much liberty in doing evil, the Prophet draws this conclusion — that they could not escape the hand of God, but that they were at length to find by experience that there was a God in heaven, who would repay them for their wrongs.

He says also, Spoil thee shall the remnant of all people. This admits of two expositions; it may mean, that the people, who had been plundered by the Chaldeans, would take revenge on them: and he calls them a remnant, because they were not entire; but yet he intimates that they would be sufficient to take vengeance on the Babylonians. This view may be admitted, and yet we may suppose, that the Prophet takes in other nations, who had never been plundered; as though he had said — “Thou hast indeed spoiled many nations; but there are other nations in the world whom thy cruelty could not have reached. All the people then who remain in the world shall strive to outdo one another in attacking thee; and canst thou be strong enough to resist so great a power?” Either of these views may be admitted; that is, that in the wasted and plundered countries there would be still a remnant who would take vengeance, — or that the world contained other people who would willingly undertake this cause and execute vengeance on the Babylonians; for God would by his secret influence fulfill by their means his purpose of punishing them.

He then adds, on account of man’s blood; that is, because thou hast shed innocent blood, and because thou hast committed many plunders; for thou hast not only injured a few men, but thy daringness and cruelty have also extended to many nations. He indeed mentions the earth, and also the city. Some confine these words to the land of Judea and to Jerusalem, but not rightly; for the Prophet speaks here generally; and to the land, he joins cities and their inhabitants. So Grotius, Drusius, and Henderson regard the passage: the land, and the city, are supposed to have been used poetically for lands and cities. The word rendered “violence,” [חמס], means an unjust or wrong act done by force, an outrage, a violent injustice: hence Grotius rightly renders it here, “direptionem — robbing, pillaging, or plundering.” While Newcome and others apply the passage to Judea and Jerusalem, the Septuagint version would lead us to suppose that Babylon was intended. The view taken here would be the most probable, were it not that the words are repeated at the end of verse 17; and there clearly they refer to the land of Judea and Jerusalem. — Ed.

But this verse contains a truth which applies to all times. Let us then learn, during the licentious success of tyrants, to raise up our minds to heaven’s tribunal, and to nourish our patience with this confidence, that the Lord, who is the judge of the world, will recompense these cruel and bloody robbers, and that the more licentious they are, the heavier judgement is nigh them; for the Lord will awaken and raise up as many to execute vengeance as there are men in the world, who by shedding blood will inflict punishment, though they may not intend to fulfill his purpose. God can indeed (as it has been often observed) execute his judgements in a wonderful and sudden manner. Let us hence also learn to restrain our evil desires; for none shall go unpunished who will allow themselves to injure their brethren; though they may seem to be unpunished for a time, yet God, who is ever the same, will at length return on their heads whatever they have devised against others, as we shall presently see again. He now adds —

Habakkuk 2:9

9. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

9. Vae concupiscenti concupiscentiam malam domui suae, ut ponat in excelso nidum suum, quo se eripiat e manu (id est, e potestate) infortunii (mali, ad verbum.)

Habakkuk proceeds in exciting the king of Babylon by taunts; which were not scurrilous jests, but contained serious threatening; for, as it has been already said, the Prophet here introduces indeed the common people, but in that multitude we are to recognize the innumerable heralds of God’s vengeance: and hence he says, Woe to him who coveteth, etc.; or we may say, He! for it is a particle of exclamation, as it has been said: He! thou, he says, who covetest an evil covetousness to thy house, and settest on high thy nest: but what shall happen? The next verse declares the punishment.

The clause, Woe to him who covets an evil covetousness to his house, may be read by itself, — that this cupidity shall be injurious to his house; as though he had said, “Thou indeed wouldest provide for thy house by accumulating great riches; but thy house shall find this to be evil and ruinous. So the word רעה, roe, evil, might be referred to the house; but the verse is best connected by reading the whole together; that is, that the Babylonians not only provided for themselves, while they with avidity plundered and collected much wealth from all quarters; but that they wished also to make provisions for their sons and grandsons: and we also see, that avarice has this object in view; for they who are anxiously bent on the accumulation of riches do not only regard what is needful for themselves to pass through life, but also wish to leave their heirs rich. Since then the avaricious are desirous of enriching for ever their houses, the prophet, deriding this madness, says, Woe to him who covets an evil covetousness to his house; that is, who wishes not only to abound and be satiated himself, but also to supply his posterity with abundance.

He adds another vice, which is almost ever connected with the former — that he may set, he says, his nest on high; for the avaricious have a regard to this — to fortify themselves; for as an evil conscience is always fearful, many dangers come across their minds — “This may happen to me,” and then, “My wealth will procure for me the hatred and envy of many. If then some danger be at hand, I shall be able to redeem my life many times;” and he also adds, “Were I satisfied with a moderate portion, many would become my rivals; but when my treasures surpass what is common, then I shall be as it were beyond the reach of men; and when others envy one another, I shall escape.” So the avaricious think within themselves when they are ardently bent on accumulating riches, and form for themselves a great heap like a nest; for they think that they are raised above the world, and are exempt from the common lot of men, when surrounded by their riches.

We now then see what the Prophet means: Woe, he says, to him who wickedly and intemperately covets. And why does he so do? To enrich his posterity. And then he adds, to him who covets that he may set his nest on high; that is, that he may by wealth fortify himself, that he may be able to drive away every danger, and be thus exempt from every evil and trouble. And he adds, that he may deliver himself from the power of evil; he expresses now more clearly what I have said — that the rich are inebriated with false confidence, when they surpass all others; for they think not themselves to be mortals, but imagine that they have another life, as though they had a world of their own, free from all dangers. But while the avaricious thus elevate themselves by a proud confidence, the Prophet derides their madness. He then subjoins their punishment —

Habakkuk 2:10

10. Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.

10. Consultasti in ignominiam domui tuae (vel, conflasti tuo consilio probrum et dedecus domui tuae) exidendo populos multos; et peccasti in animam tuam.

The Prophet again confirms the truth, that those who count themselves happy, imagining that they are like God, busy themselves in vain; for God will turn to shame whatever they think to be their glory, derived from their riches. The avaricious indeed wish, as it appears from the last verse, to prepare splendor for their posterity, and they think to render illustrious their race by their wealth; for this is deemed to be nobility, that the richer any one is the more he excels, as he thinks, in dignity, and the more is he to be esteemed by all. Since, then, this is the object of almost all the avaricious, the Prophet here reminds them, that they are greatly deceived; for the Lord will not only frustrate their hopes, but will also convert their glory into shame. Hence he says, that they consult shame to their family.

He includes in the word consult, all the industry, diligence, skill, care, and labor displayed by the avaricious. We indeed see how very sagacious they are; for if they smell any gain at a distance, they draw it to themselves, night and day they form new designs, that they may circumvent this person and plunder that person, and accumulate into their heap whatever money they can find, and also that they may join fields to fields, built great palaces, and secure great revenues. This is the reason why the Prophet says, that they consult shame. What is the object of all their designs? for they are, as we have said, very sharp and keen-sighted, they are also industrious, and torment themselves day and night with continual labor; for what purpose are all these things? even for this, that their posterity may be eminent, that their nobility may be in the mouth of all, and spread far and wide. But the Prophet shows that they labor in vail; for God will turn to shame whatever they in their great wisdom contrived for the honor of their families. The more provident then the avaricious are, the more foolish they are, for they consult nothing but disgrace to their posterity.

He adds, though thou cuttest off many people. This seems to have been expressed for the sake of anticipating an objection; for it might have seemed incredible that the Babylonians should form designs disgraceful to their posterity, when their fame was so eminent, and Babylon itself was like an idol, and the king was everywhere regarded with great reverence and also fear. Since then the Babylonians had made such advances, who could have thought it possible that what the Prophet declares here should take place? But, as I have already said, he meets these objections, and says, “Though the Babylonians shall conquer many enemies, and overthrow strong people, yet this will be of no advantage to them; nay, even that will turn out to their disgrace which they think will be to their glory.”

To the same purpose is what he adds, thou hast sinned against thy soul. Some give this version, “Thou hast sinned licentiously” or immoderately; others, “Thy soul has sinned,” but these pervert the Prophet’s meaning; for what he intended was nothing else but the evils which the avaricious and the cruel bring on themselves, and which will return on their own heads. When therefore the Babylonians contrived ruin for the whole world, the Prophet predicts that an end, very different from what they thought, would be to them: thou hast sinned, he says, against thine own soul; Literally, “sinning thy soul.” We have in Proverbs 8:36, [הטאי], “my sinner,” rendered no doubt correctly, “he that sinneth against me.” So here “sinning thy soul,” means “sinning against thy soul.” See the same words in Proverbs 20:2. In Numbers 16:38, the preposition [ב] is before “souls.” “Thy soul hath sinned,” as given by the Septuagint, and adopted by Newcome, does not convey the meaning; for to sin against our souls, is to injure ourselves so as to bring down judgment, as in the case mentioned in Numbers 16:38, while the other phrase conveys only the idea of doing what is wrong. — Ed. that is, the evil which thou didst prepare to bring on others, shall be made by God to fall on thine own head.

And this kind of declaration ought to be carefully noticed; that is, that the ungodly, while they trouble all, and harass all, while they torment one, plunder another, oppress another, do always sin against their own souls; that is, they do not cause so such loss and sorrow to others as to themselves: for the Lord will make the evil they intend for others to return on themselves. He does not speak here of guilt, but of punishment, when he says, “Thou hast sinned against thy soul;” that is, thou shalt receive the reward due to all thy sins. We now then see what the Prophet means. It now follows —

Habakkuk 2:11-13

11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

11. Quia lapis ex muro clamabit, et lignum ex tabulato (ad verbum est, ex ligno,) respondebit ei.

12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!

12. Vae aedificanti urbem in sanguinibus, et paranti civitatem in iniquitate.

13. Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?

13. Annon ecce a Jehova exercituum? ideo laborabunt populi in igne et gentes in vanitate (hoc est, frustra fatigabuntur.)

There is here introduced by the Prophet a new personification. He had before prepared a common song, which would be in the mouth of all. He now ascribes speech to stones and wood, of which buildings are formed. The stone, he says, shall cry from the wall, and the wood from the chamber; that is, there is no part of the building that will not cry out that it was built by plunder, by cruelty, and, in a word, by evil deeds. The Prophet not only ascribes speech to wood and stone, but he makes them also respond one to the other as in a chorus, as in lyrics there are voices which take up the song in turns. The stone, he says, shall cry from the wall, and the wood shall respond to it from the chamber; The word rendered here “Wood,” lignum, is [כפיס], and only found here. The Septuagint has κανθαρος, a beetle, — Sym. συνδεσμος, bond, tie, or joint, — Theod. ἔνδεσμος, bandage or jointing. The context shows that it must be something connected with wood-building. Parkhurst says, that it is a verb in Syriac, and means to connect, to fasten together, and he renders it a beam or a rafter, which would exactly suit this place. The word, [מעף], “from the wood,” evidently means the wood-building or wood-work. So that tabulatum, a story or a chamber in a building, as rendered by Calvin, is not amiss. Perhaps the best version would be, —

And the beam from the wood-work answers it.

Bochart says, that [כפיס], in Rabbinical writings, means a brick, and that it was usual formerly, as it was in this country not long ago, to build with bricks and wood or timber together; and Henderson has adopted this meaning, but the other is more satisfactory. — Ed. as though he said, “There will be a striking harmony in every part of the building; for the wall will begin and will utter its song, ‘Behold I have been built by blood and by iniquity;’ and the wood will utter the same, and will cry, ‘Woe;’ but all in due order; there will be no confused noise, but as music has distinct sounds, so also the stones will respond to the wood and the wood to the stones, so that there may be, as they say, corresponding voices.”

The stone, then, from the wall shall cry, and the wood shall answer — what will it answer? — Woe to him who builds a city by blood, and who adorns his city by iniquity. By blood and by iniquity he understands the same thing; for though the avaricious do not kill innocent men, they yet suck their blood, and what else is this but to kill them by degrees, by a slow tormenting process? For it is easier at once to undergo death than to pine away in want, as it happens to helpless men when spoiled and deprived of all their property. Wherever there is wanton plundering, there is murder committed in the sight of God; for as it has been said, he who spares not the helpless, but drinks up their blood, doubtless sins no less than if he were to kill them.

But if this personification seems to any one strange, he must consider how incredible seemed to be what the Prophet here teaches, and how difficult it was to produce a conviction on the subject. We indeed confess that God is the judge of the world; nay, there is no one who does not anticipate his judgement by condemning avarice and cruelty; the very name of avarice is infamous and hated by all: the same may be said of cruelty. But yet when we see the avaricious in splendor and in esteem, we are astounded, and no one is able to foresee by faith what the Prophet here declares. Since, then our dullness is so great, or rather our sottishness, it is no wonder that the Prophet should here set before us the stones and the wood, as though he said, “When all prophecies and all warnings become frigid, and God himself obtains no credit, while openly declaring what he will do, and when his servants consume their labor in vain by warning and crying, let now the stones come forth, and be teachers to you who will not give ear to the voice of God himself, and let the wood also cry out in its turn.” This, then, is the reason why the Prophet introduces here mute things as the speakers, even to awaken our insensibility.

Then he adds, Shall it not be, behold, from Jehovah of hosts? The construction of the first line of this verse, as given by Calvin, is stiff and unnatural. There is no doubt but that [הנה] is a pronoun in the plural number, and so it has been taken by the Septuagint, ταυτα, these things, and such is the rendering of the Syriac and Arabic versions. No improvement, perhaps, can be made on Newcome’s rendering of this verse, —

Are not these things from Jehovah God of hosts, That people should labor for the fire, And nations should weary themselves for a vain thing?

The intimation is, that all the buildings erected by blood and prepared by iniquity, were destined for the fire. “For the fire,” [בדי אש], literally is, for the supply of fire, as Parkhurst renders the phrase: then it is, for the supply of emptiness or vacuity, [ברי ריק].

The last two lines, with some variety, are found in Jeremiah 51:58, and applied to Babylon. In Jeremiah, “for a vain thing,” is in the first line, and “for the fire” is in the second. Jeremiah puts the less evil first, and the greatest last; but Habakkuk’s usual manner is the reverse, which has been before noticed, and we find an instance in the preceding verse, where he mentions “blood” first, and in the next line, “iniquity.”

That the destination of Babylon for the fire is here meant, seems evident from the following verse. See Jeremiah 51:25. — Ed. Some give a wrong version, “Is not this,” as though הנה, ene, were put here instead of a pronoun demonstrative; but they extenuate and obscure the beauty of the expression; nay, they pervert the meaning of the Prophet: for when he says, הנה, ene, behold, he refers not to what he had said, nor specifies any particular thing, and yet he shows, as it were by the finger, the judgement of God, which he bids us to expect; as though he said, “Shall not God at length have his turn, when the avaricious and the cruel have obtained their triumphs in the world, and darkened the minds and thoughts of all, as though no account were to be given by them before the tribunal of God? Shall not God sometime show that it is his time to interpose?” When, therefore, he says, Shall it not be, behold, from Jehovah? it is an indefinite mode of speaking; he does not say, This or that shall be from the God of hosts; but, Shall it not be, behold, from Jehovah of hosts? that is, God seems now indeed to rest, and on this account men indulge themselves with greater boldness; but he will not always remain still, Shall not God then come forth, who seems now to be unconcerned? Something there will at length be from the God of hosts. And the demonstrative particle confirms the same thing: Behold, he says, as though he would show to the faithful as in a picture the tribunal of God, which cannot be seen by us now but by faith. He says, Behold, will not there be something from the God of hosts? that is, Will not God at length stretch forth his hand, to show that he is not unconcerned, but that he cares for the affairs of men? In a word, by this mode of speaking is pointed out to us the change, which we are to hole for, inasmuch as it cannot be soon realised.

Hence he concludes, The people, then, labor in the fire, and the people weary themselves in vain. To labor in the fire means the same thing as to take in hand an unprofitable work, the fruit of which is immediately consumed. Some say that people labor in the fire, because Babylon had been built by a great number of men, and at length perished by fire; but this explanation seems far-fetched. I take a simpler view — that people labor in the fire, like him who performs a work, and a fire is put under it and consumes it; or like him, who with great labor polishes his own work, and a fire is prepared, which destroys it while in the hands of the artifices. For it is certain that the Prophet repeats the same thing in another form, when he says, בדי-ריק, bedi-rik, with vanity, or for vanity. We now then apprehend his object.

We may here collect a useful doctrine — that not only the fruit of labor shall be lost by all who seek by wicked means to enrich themselves, but also that were the whole world favorable and subservient to them, the whole would yet be useless; as it happened to the king of Babylon, though he had many people ready to obey him. But the Prophet derides all those great preparation; for God had fire at hand to consume whatever they had so eagerly contrived who wished to spend all their labor to please one man. He at length adds —

Habakkuk 2:14

14. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

14. Quia replebitur terra cognitione gloriae Jehovae, sicuti aquae operiunt mare.

The Prophet briefly teaches us here, that so remarkable would be God’s judgement on the Babylonians that his name would thereby be celebrated through the whole world. But there is in this verse an implied contrast; for God appeared not in his own glory when the Jews were led away into exile; the temple being demolished and the whole city destroyed; and also when the whole easterly regions was exposed to rapine and plunder. When therefore the Babylonians were, after the Assyrians, swallowing up all their neighbors, the glory of God did not then shine, nor was it conspicuous in the world. The Jews themselves had become mute; for their miseries had, as it were, stupefied them; their mouths were at least closed, so that they could not from the heart bless God, while he was so severely afflicting them. And then, in that manifold confusion of all things, the profane thought that all things here take place fortuitously, and that there is no divine providence. God then was at that time hid: hence the Prophet says, Filled shall be the earth with the knowledge of God; that is, God will again become known, when by stretching forth his hand he will execute vengeance on the Babylonians; then will the Jews, as well as other nations, acknowledge that the world is governed by God’s providence, as it had been once created by him.

We now understand the Prophet’s meaning, and why he says, that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory; for the glory of God previously disappeared from the world, with regard to the perceptions of men; but it shone forth again, when God himself had erected his tribunal by overthrowing Babylon, and thereby proved that there is no power among men which he cannot control. We have the same sentence in Isaiah 11:9. The idea is nearly the same, though not the words. The verse in Isaiah is literally this —

For fill the earth shall the knowledge of Jehovah, Like the waters spreading over the sea.

The verb rendered “cover” here and in Isaiah is, [כסה], which means first to spread, and in the second place to cover, as the effect of spreading. It is followed here by [על], over, and by [ל], over, in Isaiah; and so spreading must be the idea included in the verb. The comparison in Isaiah is between knowledge and waters, and the earth and the sea. Hence the common version does not properly present the comparison. The verb [מלא], is used in a passive and active sense. See Genesis 6:13, and Genesis 1:22; 24:16. This verse may be rendered in Welsh word for word, without changing the order in one instance: —

Canys henwa y ddaear wybodaeth o Jehova, Vel y dyvroedd dros y more yn ymdaenu.

“The knowledge of Jeohovah,” [דעה את-יהוה], is not an instance of a genitive case by juxtaposition, which is common both in Hebrew and in Welsh; for [את] here must be a preposition, “from,” for it is sometimes used for [מאת]. It is a knowledge that was to come from Jehovah, and not a knowledge of Jehovah. — Ed. The Prophet there speaks indeed of the kingdom of Christ; for when Christ was openly made known to the world, the knowledge of God’s glory at the same time filled the earth; for God then appeared in his own living image. But yet our Prophet uses a proper language, when he says that the earth shall then be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory, when he should execute vengeance on the Babylonians. Hence incorrectly have some applied this to the preaching of the gospel, as though Habakkuk made a transition from the ruin of Babylon to the general judgement: this is a strained exposition. It is indeed a well-known mode of speaking, and often occurs in the Psalms, that the power, grace, and truth of God are made known through the world, when he delivers his people and restrains the ungodly. The same mode the Prophet now adopts; and he compares this fullness of knowledge to the waters of the sea, because the sea, as we know, is so deep, that there is no measuring of its waters. So Habakkuk intimates, that the glory of God would be so much known that it would not only fill the world, but in a manner overflow it: as the waters of the sea by their vast quantity cover the deep, so the glory of God would fill heaven and earth, so as to have no limits. If, at the same time, there be a wish to extend this sentence to the coming of Christ, I do not object: for we know that the grace of redemption flowed in a perpetual stream until Christ appeared in the world. But the Prophet, I have no doubt, sets forth here the greatness of God’s power in the destruction of Babylon. There is no reason to doubt but that this is the meaning of the sentence here: and it is a striking instance of the variety of meaning which belongs to similar expressions, when differently connected. The glory of God is manifested by judgments as well as by mercies. In Isaiah it is “the knowledge of or from Jehovah;” here the expression is, “the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah.” By “the knowledge of Jehovah” is to be understood the revelation made by the gospel. But by “the knowledge of his glory” is meant evidently the display of his power in destroying Babylon, as power is often signified by glory. — Ed.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as we are so inclined to do wrong, that every one is naturally disposed to consider his own private advantage — O grant that we may confine ourselves by that restraint which thou layest on us by thy Prophets, so that we may not allow our coveting to break forth so as to commit wrong or iniquity, but confine ourselves within the limits of what is just, and abstain from what belongs to others: may we also so learn to console ourselves in all our distresses, that though we may be justly oppressed by the wicked, we may yet rely on thy providence and righteous judgement, and patiently wait until thou deliverest us, and makes it manifest that whatever the wicked devise for our ruin, so cleaves to themselves as to return and recoil at length on their own heads; and may we so fight under the banner of the Cross, as to possess our souls in patience, until we at length shall attain that blessed life which is laid up in heaven for us, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and Thirteenth

Habakkuk 2:15, 16

15. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

15. Vae qui potat socium suum (vel, amicum;) conjungis (conjungens) calorem tuum (vel, utrem tuum; alii vertunt, adhibes venenum tuum, vel, iram tuam; alii intendens iram;) atque etiam inebrias, ut aspicias super nuditates eorum (id est, verenda.)

16. Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord’s right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.

16. Saturatus es ignominia ex gloria (vel, pro gloria;) bibe etiam tu et disco-operire (vel, sopiares;) fundetur super te calix dexterae Jehovae, et vomitus ignominiae super gloriam tuam.

This passage, in which the Prophet condemns the king of Babylon for his usual practice of rendering drunk his friends, is frigidly interpreted by most expounders. It has been already often said how bold the Jews are in contriving what is fabulous; when nothing certain occurs to them, they divine this or that without any discrimination or shame. Hence they say, that Nebuchadnezzar was given to excess, and led all whom he could into a participation of the same vice. They also think that his associates were captive kings, as though he bid them for the sake of sport to be brought to his table, and by drinking to their health, forced them to intoxication, that he might laugh at them when they made themselves base and ridiculous. But all this is groundless; for there is no history that relates any such thing. It is, however, easy to see that another matter is here treated of by the Prophet; for he does not speak of the king only, but he refers to the whole empire. I therefore doubt not but that this whole discourse, in which the Babylonian king is condemned for making drunk his associates or friends, is metaphorical or allegorical. But before I proceed further on the subject, I shall say something as to the words; for the meaning of the Prophet will thereby be made more evident.

Woe, he says, to him who gives his friend drink; then he adds, מספח חמתך, mesephech chemetak, "who joinest and bottle.” חמה, cheme, is taken in Hebrew for a bottle; and we know, and it is sufficiently evident from Scripture, that the Jews used bottles of skin, as there are casks and larger vessels with us. Since, then, they put their wine into bottles, these were often taken for their cups, as it is in our language, when one says, Des flacons, des bouteilles. Hence some give this explanation — that the king of Babylon brought forth his flagons, that he might force to intoxication, by excessive drinking, those who could not and dared not to resist his will. But others render חמה, cheme, wrath, with a preposition understood: and in order that nothing may be understood, some render the participle, מספח, “displaying,” that is, “his fury.” But as חמה, cheme, means to be hot, we may, therefore, properly give this version, “Uniting thy heat;” that is, “It is not enough for thee to inebriate others, except thou implicates them with thyself.” We now perceive the meaning of this phrase. He adds, And thou also dost inebriate. We may hence learn that the Prophet had no other thing in view, but to show that the king of Babylon sought for himself many associates in his intemperance or excess: at the same time he takes, as I have said, excess in a metaphorical sense. I shall presently explain more fully what all this means; but now we only expound the words. And thou, he says, dost also inebriate: the particle אף, as it is well known, is laid down for the sake of amplifying. After having said, Thou unitest thy heat; that is, thou exhales thine intemperance, so that others also contract the same heat with thyself, he immediately adds, Thou inebriatest them. It follows, that their nakedness may be made open; that is, that they may disclose themselves with shame. The following verse I shall defer until we shall see more clearly what the Prophet had in view. The rendering of this verse has been various, though most agree as to its import. Grotius, Marckius, and Henderson, take nearly the same view of its meaning as Calvin, regarding it as metaphorical. But Marckius thinks that the drunkenness which the king of Babylon produced, means the evils which he inflicted on other nations. To make a nation drunk was to subdue and oppress it. See Isaiah 51:17,22; Jeremiah 25:15,16, 27,28; 51:7,39,57. This view is confirmed by the following verse, where the king of Babylon is threatened with a similar judgment; he was also to drink of the cup of Jehovah’s right hand. As he made other nations drunk, so the Lord threatens him with a like visitation.

The verse will admit of a much simpler rendering than what has been commonly offered, such as the following: —

Woe to him who makes his neighbor to drink, Who adds his bottle, and also strong drink, In order that he may look on their nakedness.

To render [חמה], wrath, or heat, or gall, or poison, as some have done, is to introduce an idea foreign to the context, and the word is often found to signify the bottle of skin in which wine was kept. Newcome renders it “flagon.” By mentioning bottle, abundance of wine was probably intended, and to this abundance was added the strong drink, [שכר], intoxicating liquor. It is commonly rendered as though it were a verb in Hiphil; but it is not so. It means here no doubt, as in other places, strong drink. This line is only an application, as we find often in the Prophets, of the preceding line.

Though there is no MS. which has “his” instead of “thy” connected with “bottle,” yet the preceding and the following lines seem to require it; and this is the reading of Symmachus and of the Vulgate. The change of persons, it is true, is very common in the Prophets, but not in such a way as we find here, the third person being adopted both in the preceding and in the following line.

The idea of drinking as a judgment may have arisen from the cup of malediction given to criminals before their execution. See also Psalms 75:8. Babylon is in Jeremiah 51:7, represented as “a golden cup” in God’s hand to make the nations drunken. It was “golden” to signify an outward appearance that was plausible, and alluring. So the mystic Babylon is said to have a golden cup, which was full of all abominations, Revelation 17:4. — Ed.

As I have already said the Prophet charges the Babylonian king with having implicated neighboring kings in his own evil desires, and with having in a manner inebriated them. He indeed compares the insatiable avarice of that king to intemperance; for as it is the object of drunken men not to drink what may suffice them, but to glut themselves with wine, so also when avarice is dominant in the hearts of men, they are seized with a certain kind of fury, like a person who has an immoderate love for wine. This is the reason for the metaphor; for the Babylonian king, when he thirsted for the blood of men, and also for wealth and kingdoms, led into the same kind of madness many other kings; for he could not have succeeded except he had allured the favor of many others, and deceived them with vain expectations. As a person who gives himself up to drinking wishes to leave associates, so Habakkuk lays the same thing to the charge of the king of Babylon; for being himself addicted to insatiable avarice, he procured associates to be as it were his guests, and quaffed wine to them, that is, elicited their cupidity, that they might join him in his wars; for each hoped for a part of the spoil after victory. Since, then, he had thus blinded many kings, they are said to have been inebriated by him. We indeed know that such allurements infatuate the minds and hearts of men; for there is no intoxication that stultifies men more than that eager appetite by which they devour both lands and seas.

We now then apprehend what the Prophet meant — that the Babylonian king not only burnt with his own avarice, but kindled also, as it were, a flame in others, like drunken men who excite one another. As then he had thus inflamed all the neighboring kings to rush headlong without any consideration and without any shame, like a person suffocated and overcome by excessive drinking; so the Prophet designates this inflaming as quaffing wine to them.

And this metaphor ought to be carefully observed; for we see at this day as in a mirror what the Prophet teaches here. For all the great princes, when they devise any plans of their own, send their ambassadors here and there, and seek to involve with themselves other cities and princes; and as no one is willing to endanger himself without reason, they set forth many fallacious allurements. And when any city fears a neighboring prince, it will seek to fortify itself by a new protection; so a treaty, when offered, becomes like a snare to it. And then when any inferior prince wishes to enlarge his borders, or to revenge himself, he willingly puts on arms, nay, anxiously, that he may be able, by the help of a greater, to effect his purpose, which he could not otherwise accomplish. Thus we see that dukes and counts, as they are called, and free cities, are daily inebriated. They who are chief kings, abounding in wine, that is, full of many vain promises, give to drink, as it were with full flagons, bidding wine to be brought forth on a well furnished table — “I will make thine enemy to give way to thee, and thou shalt compel him according to thy wish, and when I shall obtain the victory a part of the spoil shall be allotted to thee; I desire nothing but the glory. With regard to you, the free cities, see, ye tremble continually; now if you lie under my shadow, it will be the best security for you.” Such quaffing is to be found at this day almost throughout the whole of Europe.

Then the Prophet does not without reason commemorate this vice in the king of Babylon — that he made those associates drunk whom he had bound to himself by perfidious treaties; for as it has been said, there is no intoxication so dangerous as this madness; that is, when any one promises this or that to himself, and imagines what does not exist. Hence he not only says, that the Babylonian king gave drink to his friends, but also that he joined his bottles; as though he had said that he was very liberal, nay, prodigal, while seeking associates in his intemperance; for if one condition did not suffice, another was added — “Behold, my king is prepared; but if he is not enough another will be joined with him.” They thus then join together their heat. If we take חמה, cheme, for a bottle, then to join together their bottles would mean, that they accumulated promises until they inebriated those whom they sought to deceive. But if the other interpretation be more approved, which I am disposed to follow, then the meaning would be — They join together their own heat, that is, they implicate others with themselves; as they burn themselves with insatiable cupidity, so they spread this ardor far and wide, so that the desires of many become united.

He afterwards adds — that thou mayest see their nakedness. It was not indeed an object to the king of Babylon to disclose the reproach of all those whom he had induced to take part in his wars; but we know that great kings are wont to neglect their friends, to whom at first they promise every thing. When a king wishes to entice to himself a free city or an inferior prince, he will say — “See, I seek nothing but to be thy friend”. We indeed see how shamefully they perjure themselves; nor is it enough for them to utter these perjuries in their courts; but not many years pass away before our great kings make public their abominable perjuries; and it appears immediately afterwards that they thus seek, without any shame, to mock both God and all mankind. After testifying that they seek nothing except to defend by their protection what is right and just, and to resist the tyranny and pride of others, they immediately draw back when anything adverse afterwards happens, and the city, which had hoped everything from so liberal a king, is afterwards forced to submit and to agree with its enemies, and to manage matters anyhow; thus its nakedness is disclosed. In the same manner also are inferior princes deprived of their power. And to whom is this to be imputed but to the principal author? For when any one, for the sake of ambition or avarice, leads others to inconvenience or to damage, he may justly and correctly be said to disclose their nakedness. We now apprehend the Prophet’s real meaning, which interpreters have not understood. I come now to the next verse —

He says that he is satiated with shame instead of glory. Some give this rendering — “Thou art satiated with shame more than glory;” but this does not suit the passage; for the Prophet does not mean that the Babylonian king was satiated with his own reproach, but rather with that of others. Secondly, the particle מ, mem, is not put here in a comparative sense, but the clause is on the contrary to be understood thus — “By thy glory, or, on account of thy glory, thou art satiated with shame”. It must also in the third place be observed, that punishment is not what the Prophet describes in these words; for it immediately follows — שתה גם אחה, shite gam ate, “drink thou also.” He comes now to punishment. By saying, then, that the king of Babylon was satiated with shame on account of glory, it is the same as though he had said, that while he was intent on increasing his own glory he brought all others to shame. It is indeed the common game of great kings, as it has been said, to enlarge their own power at the expense and loss of others. They would, indeed, if they could, render their friends safe; but when any one loses ground in their favor they neglect him. We see how at this day great kings, raising great armies, shed innocent blood. When a slaughter is made in war they express their grief, but it is only on account of their own glory or advantage. They will in words profess that they sympathise with the miserable men who faithfully spent their life for them, but they have for them no real concern. As, then, great kings draw human blood, and care nothing when many perish for their sake, the Prophet justly says, That the king of Babylon was satiated with shame on account of glory; that is, that while he was seeking his own glory he was satiated with the reproaches of many; for many perished on his account, many had been robbed of their power, or were afterwards to be robbed — for the Prophet refers not here to what had taken place, but he speaks of things future; and the past tense of verbs was intended to express certainty; and we know that this was a common mode of speaking with the Prophets. The view presented here of the first clause of the verse is striking, and such as the words may admit. But most commentators attach to them another meaning. Newcome’s version is —

Thou art filled with shame instead of glory.

Henderson’s rendering is —

Thou art filled with shame, not with glory.

The verb being in the past tense seems to favor Calvin’s view — “Thou hast been satiated with shame from glory,” that is, thou hast been filled to satiety with the shame occasioned to others, arising from the pursuit of thine own glory. And then, as Calvin justly observes, his punishment is denounced. — “Drink thou also.” — Ed.

He now adds — drink thou also. We hence see that the king of Babylon was secure as long as he remained untouched, though his alliance and friendship had proved ruinous to many. As long then as his kingdom flourished, the king of Babylon cared but little for the losses of others. Hence the Prophet says — “Thou shalt also drink; thou thinkest that others only shall be punished, as though thou were not exposed to God’s judgement; but thou shalt come in thy turn and drink;” — in what way? He speaks here allegorically of the vengeance which was nigh the king of Babylon — “Thou, also,” he says, “shalt drink and become a reproach,” or, shalt be uncovered.

The word ערל, orel, means in Hebrew the foreskin; and the foreskinned, or uncircumcised, was the name given to the profane and the base, or the contaminated; and hence many give this rendering — “Thou also shalt become ignominious;” but others express more clearly the Prophet’s meaning by this version — “Thou shalt be uncovered.” Yet their opinion is not amiss who think that there is here a change of letters, that הערל, eorel,is put for הרעל, erol; and רעל, rol, means to be cast asleep; and it well suits a drunken man to say that he is stupefied. But as the Prophet had spoken of nakedness, I retain the word as it is; and thus the two clauses will correspond — Then thou shalt drink and be uncovered

Then follows the explanation — Poured forth The verb [תסוב], loosely expressed here, is very correctly rendered by Henderson “shall come round;” and this is the idea which Calvin suggests in the following explanation. — Ed. into thee shall be the cup of Jehovah’s right hand; that is, “the Lord shall in his time be thy cup-bearer; as thou hast inebriated many nations, and under the pretense of friendship hast defrauded those who, being bound to thee by treaties, have been ruined; so the Lord will now recompense thee with the reward which thou hast deserved: As thou hast been a cup-bearer to others, so the Lord will now become thy cup-bearer, and will inebriate thee, but after another manner.” We indeed know what the Scripture everywhere means by the cup of God’s hand — even vengeance of every kind. God strikes some with giddiness and precipitates them, when deprived of all humanity, into a state of madness; others he infatuates by insensibility; some he deprives of all understanding, so that they perceive nothing aright; against others he rouses up enemies, who treat them with cruelty. Hence the Lord is said to extend his cup to the wicked whenever he takes vengeance on them.

Therefore he adds — the reproach of spewing shall be on thy glory. The word קיקלון, kikolun, is a compound. It is commonly derived from [קי], a contraction of [קיא], a vomit or spewing, and [קלוז], shame. Compounds are no common things in Hebrew; and these are found separate in nine MSS. The Septuagint have ἀτιμια, reproach only; and the Vulgate, “vomitus ignominiae — the spewing of shame.” Newcome renders it “foul shame,” and Henderson “great ignominy,” regarding it as a reduplicate noun for [קלקלוז]. But as drunkenness is the metaphor used, “shameful spewing,” or the spewing of shame or of reproach is most suitable to the passage. — Ed. We have already seen that קלוכ, kolun, is shame; and now he speaks of shameful spewing. And this may be referred to the king of Babylon — that he himself would shamefully spew out what he had before intemperately swallowed down; or it might be fitly applied to his enemies — that they would spew in the face of the king of Babylon.

The end of which Habakkuk speaks, awaits all tyrants, who disturb the world by their cupidity. Ambition does indeed so infatuate them, that they neither spare human blood, nor hesitate to endanger their nearest and most friendly associates. Since then an insatiable thirst for glory thus inflames them, the Prophet justly allots to them this reward — that they shall receive filthy and shameful spewing instead of that glory, in seeking which they observed no limits. Let us now proceed -

Habakkuk 2:17

17. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

17. Quia violentia Libani operiet te et praedatio animalium, quae terruit ea (vel, quae contrivit,) propter sanguines hominis et violentiam terrae, urbis et omnium habitantium in ea.

We may hence easily learn, that the Prophet has not been speaking of drunkenness, but that his discourse, as we have explained, was metaphorical; for here follows a reason, why he had denounced such a punishment on the king of Babylon, and that was, because he had exercised violence, not only against all nations indiscriminately, but also against the chosen people of God. He had before only set forth in general the cruelty with which the king of Babylon had destroyed many nations; but he now speaks distinctly of the Jews, in order to show that God would in a peculiar manner be the avenger of that cruelty which the Chaldeans had employed towards the Jews, because the Lord had taken that people under his own protection. Since then the king of Babylon had assailed the children of God, who had been adopted by him, and whose defender he was, he denounces upon him here a special punishment. We thus see that this discourse is properly addressed to the Jews; for he intended to bring them some consolation in their extreme evils, so that they might strengthen their patience; for they were thereby made to see that the wrongs done to them were come to a reckoning before God.

By Libanus then we are to understand either Judea or the temple; for Libanus, as it is well known, was not far from the temple; and it is elsewhere found in the same sense. But if any extends this to the land of Judea, the meaning will be the same; there will be but little or no difference as to the subject that is handled. Because the violence then of Libanus shall overwhelm thee

Then come the words, the pillaging of beasts. Interpreters think that the Chaldeans and Assyrians are here called בהמות, bemutt, beasts, as they had been savage and cruel, like wild beasts, in laying waste Judea; but I rather understand by the beasts of Libanus those which inhabited that forest. The Prophet exaggerates the cruelty of the king of Babylon by this consideration, that he had been an enemy to brute beasts; and I consider the pronoun relative אשר, asher, which, to be understood before the verb יחיתן, ichiten, which may be taken to mean, to tear, or to frighten, Some give this rendering, “The plundering of beasts shall tear them;” as though he had said, “The Babylonians are indeed like savage beasts, but they shall be torn by their own plundering:” but another sense will be more suitable that the plundering of beasts, which terrified them, shall overwhelm thee; for the same verb, יבס, icas, shall cover or overwhelm the king of Babylon, is to be repeated here. He adds at last the clause, which was explained yesterday. We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet to be — that the king of Babylon would be justly plundered, because he had destroyed the holy land and iniquitously attacked God’s chosen people, and had also carried on his depredations through almost the whole of the Easter world. It is commonly agreed, that Libanus here means either the temple or the land of Judah; most probably the last, according to the opinion of Jerome, Drusius, and others. The “violence,” or outrage, of Libanus, means the violence done to it, as Newcome and others render the clause. The next line is more difficult: if the verb be retained as it is, we must either adopt what Calvin has proposed, and after him Drusius, or take the [ו] at the beginning as a particle of comparison, according to what is done by Henderson, “As the destruction of beasts terrifieth them.” But to preserve the parallelism of the two lines, it would be better to adopt the correction of all the early versions, Sept. Arab. Syr. and also of the Chald. par.; which substitute [ד] for [ז] and make the verb to be [יחיתד]: and there are two MSS. which have [יחת]. In this case the rendering would be the following —

Because the violence done to Libanus shall overwhelm thee; And the depredation done to the beasts shall rend thee; On account of the blood of men, and of violence to the land, To the city, and to all who dwelt in it.

The reason men are called “beasts” is because Libanus is mentioned which was inhabited by beasts; and in the two following lines the statement is more clear, and according to the order usually observed, “the depredation done to beasts” is “the blood of men;” and “the violence to Libanus” is “violence to the land.” And then, as it is often the case in the Prophets, there is an addition made to the two last lines, “To the city,” etc. — Ed. It now follows —

Habakkuk 2:18

18. What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

18. Quid prodest sculptile? quia sculpsit illud fictor ejus conflatile et doctorem mendacii; quia confidit fictor figmento suo, ut faciat idola muta.

The Prophet now advances farther, and shows that whatever he had predicted of the future ruin of Babylon and of its monarchy, proceeded from the true God, from the God of Israel: for it would not have been sufficient to hold, that some deity existed in heaven, who ruled human affairs, so that it could not be, but that tyrants would have to suffer punishment for their cruelty. We indeed know that such sayings as these were everywhere common among heathen nations — that justice sits with Jupiter — that there is a Nemesis — that there is Divine vengeance. Since then such a conviction had ever been imprinted on the hearts of men, it would have been a frigid and almost an empty doctrine, had not the Prophet introduced the God of Israel. This is the reason why he now derides all idols, and claims for God the government of the whole world, and clearly shows that he speaks of the Jews, because they worshipped no imaginary gods, as the heathen nations, but plainly understood him to be the creator of heaven and earth, who revealed himself to Abraham, who gave his law by the hand of Moses. We now perceive the Prophet’s design.

As then the king of Babylon did himself worship his own gods, the Prophet dissipates that vain confidence, by which he might be deceived and deceive others. Hence he says, What avails the graven image? He speaks here contemptuously of images formed by men’s hands. And he adds a reason, because the maker has graven it, he says. Interpreters give a sense that is very jejune, as though the Prophet had said, “What avails a graven image, when it is graven or melted by its artifices?” But the Prophet shows here the reason why the worship of idols is useless, and that is, because these gods are made of dead materials. And then he says, “What deity can the artifices produce?” We hence see that a reason is given in these words, and therefore we may more clearly render them thus — “What avails the graven image, when the framer has graven it?” that is, since the graven image has its origin from the hand and skill of man, what can it avail? He then adds, he has formed a molten image; that is, though the artifices has given form to the metal, or to the wood, or to the stone, yet he could not have changed its nature. He has indeed given it a certain external appearance; but were any one to ask what it is, the answer would surely be, “It is a graven image.” Since then its nature is not changed by the work of man, it evidently appears, how stupid and mad must all those be who put their trust in graven images. Rightly to understand this verse, it is necessary to remember that the graven and the molten image was the same; it was first graven and then covered with some metal, either of gold or of silver. See Note on Micah 1:7, vol. 3, p. 167.

This verse, as given in our version and in that of Newcome, presents hardly a meaning; and Henderson is not justified in the peculiar sense he gives to the particle [כי], taking it as a relative pronoun. The rendering of Calvin gives an evident and a striking sense. The verse may be thus literally rendered —

18. What avails the graven image? — For its graver has formed it, — The molten image and the teacher of falsehood? For trust in it does the former of its form, After having made dumb idols.

The last line show that the singular number before used is to be taken in a collective sense: and the preposition [ל] before an infinitive has sometimes the meaning of “after.” See Exodus 19:1, “When he has made,” etc., is the rendering of Grotius. — Ed.

He then adds, and a teacher of falsehood. He added this clause, because men previously entertain false notions, and dare not to form a judgement on the matter itself. For, how comes it that a piece of wood or a stone is called a god? Had any one asked the sages at Rome or at Athens, or in other cities, who thought all other nations barbarous, What is that? on seeing a Jupiter made of silver; or of wood, or of stone, the answer would have been, “It is Jupiter, it is God.” But how could this be? It is a stone, a piece of wood, or of silver. They would yet have asserted that it was God. Whence came this madness? Even from this, because men were bewitched, so that seeing they saw not; they wilfully closed their eyes, and resolved to be blind, being unwilling to understand. This is the reason why the Prophet, by way of anticipation, says, the artificer has formed — what has he formed? a graven image and a teacher of falsehood. The material remains the same, but a false notion prevails, for men think idols to be gods. How come they to think so? It is no doubt the teaching of falsehood, a mere illusion. He then confirms the same thing; the fashioner, or the artificer, he says, trusts in his own work, or in what he has formed. How is this? Must they not be void of sense and reason who trust in lifeless things? “The workman,” as Isaiah says, “will take his instruments, will form an idol, and then he will bow the knee, and call it his god; yet it is the work of his own hands.” What! art not thou thyself a god? thou knowest thine own frailty, and yet thou createst new gods! Even in this manner does the Prophet confirm what he had previously said, that men are extremely stupid, nay, that they are seized with monstrous sottishness, when they ascribe a kind of deity to wood, or to a stone, or to metal. How so? because they are, he says, false imaginations.

And he adds, that he may make dumb idols. He again repeats what he had said, — that the nature of the material is not changed by men’s workmanship, when they form to themselves gods either from wood or from stone. How so? because they cannot speak. To the same purpose is what immediately follows; the next verse must therefore be added. We shall afterwards say something more on the general subject.

Habakkuk 2:19

19. Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

19. Vae qui dicit ligno, Expergiscere; excitare, lapidi muto (mortuo,) ipse docebit: Ecce, ipse (vel ipsum lipsum, si vefaremus ad lignum; ipse ergo) opertus est auro et argento; et nullus spiritus in medio ejus.

He pursues, as I have said, the same subject, and sharply inveighs against the sottishness of men, that they call on wood and stone, as though there were some hidden power in them. They say to the wood, Awake; for they implored help from their idols. Shall it teach? Some render it thus as a question; but I take it in a simpler form, “It will teach;” that is, “It is a wonder that ye are so wilfully foolish; for were God to send to you no Prophet, were there no one to instruct you, yet the wood and the stone would be sufficient teachers to you: ask your idols, that is, ascertain rightly what is in them. Doubtless, the god that is made of wood or of stone, sufficiently declares by his silence that he is no god. For there is no motion in wood and stone. Where there is no vigor and no life, is it not right to feel assured, that there is no deity? There are, indeed, many creatures endued with feeling and motion; but the God who gives power, and motion, and feeling to the whole world, and to all its parts, does he not surpass in these respects all his creatures? Since, then, wood and stone are silent, they are teachers sufficient for you, provided ye be apt scholars.”

We hence see how the Prophet in this way amplifies the insensibility of men; for they did not perceive what was quite manifest. The design of what follows is the same. Behold, it is covered over with gold and silver; that is, it is made splendid: for idolaters think that their gods are better when adorned with gold and silver; but yet there is no breath in the midst of them. “Look,” he says, “within; look within, and ye shall see that they are dead.” With the exception of the clause, “It will teach,” there is a general agreement in the mode of rendering this verse. “Shall it teach,” is Newcome’s version. Henderson considers it to be ironical, “It teach!” Grotius agrees with Calvin, “It will itself teach thee,” that is, that it is deaf, and no god. I regard the verse as capable of a simpler and more literal rendering, as follows:

19. Woe to him who saith to the wood, “Awake, Arise;” To the dumb stone, “It will teach:” Behold, it is covered with gold and silver! Yet there is no breath within it.

The two verbs, “Awake, Arise,” stand connected with “wood,” and they are so given in the Septuagint; and there is a striking contrast between the dumb stone and teaching. — Ed. The rest we shall dilate on to-morrow.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as there is in us so little of right judgement, and as our minds are blind even at mid-day, — O grant, that thy Spirit may always shine in us, and that being attentive to the light of thy word, we may also keep to the right way through the whole course of our pilgrimage, and subject to thee both ourselves and every action of our life, so that we may not be led by any allurements into the same ruin with the ungodly, who would deceive and entrap us, and who lie in wait on every side; but that being ruled by the counsel of thy Spirit, we may beware of all their intrigues: and may we, especially as to our spiritual life, be so given up to thee alone, as ever to keep ourselves far away from the defilements of all people, and so remain in the pure worship of thy majesty, that the ungodly may never draw us away into the same delusions with themselves, by which Satan so mightily deceives them; but may we follow Him as our leader whom thou wouldst have to be our ruler, even Christ thy Son, until he at length gathers us all into that celestial kingdom which he has purchased for us by his own blood. Amen.

Lecture One Hundred and Fourteenth

We said yesterday, that the Prophet speaks now of idols, that he might deprive the king of Babylon of his vain confidence: for though heathens claim everything to themselves and to their own powers, yet their superstition in some measure dementates them. Hence the Prophet shows, that that tyrant in vain trusted in his idols, since they were things of nought. But the reasons by which he refutes idolatry ought to be noticed: he says, that the artifices, who formed gods, were not able to change the nature of the material, for the wood remained wood, and stone continued to be stone, and that the workmen and artifices in forming it did nothing more than make a molten image. The material then remained still the same. As to the image itself, the Prophet says, that it was mere falsehood and deception; yea, that gods made of wood or of silver, or of any other material, were instructors and teachers of falsehood, for they allured simple souls: and Satan spread his snares before men, when he set before their eyes these visible figures, and persuaded them that they contained something divine. Then this reasoning of the Prophet ought to be carefully observed; for he reminds us, that fictitious gods are made of lifeless and perishable materials, and that images are only the juggleries of Satan.

That saying of Gregory is common among the Papists, that images are the books of the ignorant; for such was his answer to Serenus, bishop of Marseilles, who turned out images from all the churches (Lib. 9, Epist. 9.) He said that he approved of his object, in wishing to correct the superstition which prevailed among the people, but that he had done what was not right in wholly taking away images, the books of the ignorant. But let us consider whether more faith is due to Gregory, a man imbued with many errors, (as that age was very corrupt), or to the Prophet Habakkuk, and also to Jeremiah, who announces nearly the same sentiment. Though, then, there is some speciousness in idols, yet the Prophet here reminds us that they are nothing but the impostures of Satan; for they teach falsehood. The reason also that is given is deserving of notice — that the workmen put their hope in what they themselves have formed. And it is indeed a thing most preposterous, that a mortal man should form his own god, and then imagine that something divine is enclosed in the very form, for deity is not in the material. The material is disregarded when unformed; but not so when it attains a beautiful shape. While the tree grows, while it produces flowers and fruit, it is deemed, as it really is, a dead thing; but when a piece of it is formed in the figure of a man, it is believed to be a god! But it is extremely absurd to suppose that the hand of the artifices gives deity to a dead material; for the wood is dead, and nothing is perceived but the shape given to it by man. Since, then, the artifices trusts in what he has formed, it is what seems beyond anything strange. It is hence quite evident, that men are wholly demented by the devil, when they worship their own workmanship.

But now, in order to press the matter more fully on idolaters, the Prophet upbraids them for calling on the wood and on the stone to awake. It is certain, that when idolaters bow the knee before what they have themselves formed, they still imagine that there are celestial gods; but when before a figure of wood or stone they call upon God, it is the same thing as though they expected help from the wood and stone; for the question is not here what idolaters imagine, but the thing itself is to be regarded; and this is what the Prophet most fully and plainly condemns. Since, then, the superstitious are wont to address their prayers to wood and stone, he says, that they make to themselves gods, to whom they sacrifice. And the Prophet rightly refers in express terms to this kind of service; for the chief sacrifice which God bids to be offered to him, and demands from us, is to call on him; for we thus testify that life and all things belonging to salvation are found alone in him. Since, then, the majesty of God appears especially from having this testimony borne to him, that he is the fountain of life and of all blessings, every one who prostrates himself before a stone or wood, and implores the aid of a visible god, transfers, no doubt, the glory of the eternal God to a dead piece of wood or to a stone. If, then, we wish to be free from every superstition, let us remember this truth, that then only we have the only true God, when we direct our prayers and supplications to him alone, or, in a word, when we call on him alone. When we have recourse to dead idols, God is deprived of his own right. We may call him God a hundred times, but we give him an empty title, and one of no value, except we pray to him alone.

The Prophet, in the last place, derides the madness of men, by saying that the very idols teach: for, as it was said yesterday, the clause is not to be read as a question, as some do; but in order more sharply to reprove the stupidity of men, the Prophet says, "Doubtless the very figures themselves, except ye are wholly senseless, will teach you.” He had before said, it is true, that they were the teachers of falsehood and vanity; but he speaks now of another kind of teaching, that if men wisely attended to the thing itself, they might soon learn from a mere view of their gods, that they were most palpably the deceits of Satan; for if any one looked on the idols with a clear eye, he would see that they were a dead material, and would see that great wrong is done to God by transforming him into a likeness of what is dead.

We now understand the Prophet’s meaning, when he says, That idols themselves are sufficient, and more than sufficient teachers, when men are teachable, and lend an attentive ear. He means not, as it was said yesterday, that idols teach fallaciously to the destruction of men, while something divine is ascribed to them; but he says that they teach, if any one of a sane mind, and free from error, comes to view the idol, and forms a judgement of the thing itself. But superstition occupies the minds of men; and hence it is that all become the scholars of Satan, and no one applies his mind to understand the doctrine he mentions here. In short, idols teach naturally, and they teach through the artifice and delusion of Satan. They teach naturally; for by their silence they show that they are not gods, inasmuch as there is no strength in them. They teach, also, by the artifice of the devil; for they are made to claim a kind of divinity, and thus dazzle the minds of men, who are already corrupted by their own delusions. To the first teaching, of which the Prophet now speaks, none apply their minds; for almost all renounce nature wholly: this only lays hold on them — that idols are gods; for they make an image of the heavenly and eternal God, from whom we are at a great distance, and who does not otherwise descend to us, except through visible representations!

The same truth the Prophet confirms when he says, that though these gods are covered over with gold and silver, there is no breath in them, or in the midst of them. In short, he means that they are mere masks; for no divinity can be without life. As then idols are dead things, it follows that they are the most palpable impostures of Satan, by which he fascinates the minds of men, when they thus devote themselves to dead things.

Moreover, whatever is here said against idols, most certainly applies to the superstitions of popery. They deny that they give divine honors to their idols; but let us consider what the Prophet says. They indeed sacrifice to gold and silver, and then bend their knees before their images, and do not think that God is near them, except in these figures. Let them show, then, that the Prophet reasons here foolishly, or let them be held guilty according to the declaration, as it were, of the Holy Spirit, when they thus present their prayers before idols. It now follows —

Habakkuk 2:20

20. But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

20. Jehova autem in templo sanctitatis suae (id est, in templo sancto suo:) sileat a facie ejus omnis terra.

After having taught us that the Babylonians were deceived in expecting any help from their idols, and were deluded by Satan, Habakkuk now recalls the attention of the faithful to the only true God; for it would not have been enough to take away from the Babylonians the false confidence which they had in their idols, except the Israelites, on the other hand, trusting in the grace of the true God, were fully persuaded that God was on their side, as he had taken them under his protection.

And we ought carefully to observe this order; for we see that many boldly deride all the superstitions which prevail in the world, and at the same time daringly and with cyclopic fury despise the true God. How many are at this day either Epicureans or Lucianians, who prate jestingly and scoffingly against the superstitions of the papacy, but in the meantime they are not influenced by any fear of God? If, however, we are to choose one of two evils, superstition is more tolerable than that gross impiety which obliterates every thought of a God. It is indeed true, that the more the superstitious toil in their delusions, the more they provoke God’s wrath against them; for they transfer his glory to dead things; but yet they retain this principle — that honor and worship are due to God: but the profane, in whom there is no religion whatever, not only change God from what he is, but also strive as far as they can to reduce him to nothing. Hence I have said, that the order which the Prophet observes here ought to be maintained. For, after having overturned the false illusions of the devil, by which he deludes the superstitious, by setting before them a mere shadow in the place of the true God, he now sets up the true worship of the only true God. Then the Prophet has hitherto been endeavoring to subvert superstitions, but he now builds up: for except God, when idols are pulled down, ascends his own tribunal, and shines there as supreme according to his right, it would be better, at least it would be more tolerable, as I have said, that superstitions should be left entire.

He now says that God is in his own temple or palace: this word is often taken for heaven, but is applied to the sanctuary. Many consider that the reference is made to heaven; as though the Prophet had said, that the true God, who is the artificer and creator of heaven and earth, is not to be seen in a visible form, nor covered over with gold and silver, nor represented by wood or stone; but that he rules in heaven, and fills heaven with his infinite glory and this view is by no means unsuitable. But as he here specially addresses the Jews, it seems to me more probable that he speaks of the temple, where God then designed to be worshipped, and sacrifices to be offered to him for it would not have been sufficient to set God, the creator of heaven and earth, in opposition to the superstitions of all the nations; but it was also necessary to introduce the contrast between the God of Israel and all those gods who then had obtained a name and reputation in the world, as they had been formed by the will of men. The God of Israel was indeed the creator of heaven and earth; but he had made himself known by his law, he had revealed himself to men, so that his majesty was not hidden; for when we speak of God, we are lost except he comes to us, and in a manner exhibits himself to us; for the capacity of our understanding is not so great that it can penetrate above all heavens. Hence the majesty of God is in itself incomprehensible to us; but he makes himself known by his works and by his word. Now as the Israelites worshipped, and surely knew that they worshipped the only true God, the Prophet here rightly confirms them in the hope they derived from the teaching of the law — that God was their Father, inasmuch as he had adopted them. If any prefer to take the word for heaven, I do not object; and that meaning, as I have said, is not unsuitable. But as the Prophet seems to me to have a special vies to his own people, to whom he was appointed a teacher; it is more probable that the word, temple or palace, is here to be understood of the sanctuary.

If any raises the objection that there is then no difference between the God of Israel and the gods of the Gentiles, for he also dwells in an earthly habitation, the answer is obviously this — that though God is said to dwell between the cherubim, he has not been represented by an image, as though he had anything like to wood or stone, or possessed any likeness to human bodies. All these delusions were banished from the Temple; for he commanded his worshipers to look up to heaven. There was an intervening veil, that the people might understand that they could not otherwise come to God than through that celestial model, the and types of which they saw in the altar of incense, in the altar on which they sacrificed, in the table of the shewbread, in short, in all other services of the Temple. And there is another difference to be noticed; for though there was there the golden altar, though there was there the ark of the covenant, and the altar on which the victims were immolated, yet inscribed on all these typical representations was the word of God, by which alone true religion was to be distinguished from all false inventions. For whatever specious appearance of reason may therefore be in fictitious modes of worship, men have no authority to render them lawful; but so much reverence is due to the only true word of God, that it ought to overrule all other reasons. And besides, this word, as I have hinted already, did not retain the Jews in these delusions, but elevated their minds to heaven. We now then see that there was a wide difference between the Temple which was at Jerusalem, and the temples which the superstitious had then built for themselves throughout the world; for God ruled over the Jews, so that they could not have been deluded. And at this day, where the word of God shines among us, we can follow it with safety. And, further, God did spiritually draw to himself his own servants, though he employed, on account of their ignorance, certain outward elements. Hence the Prophet justly says, that God was in his palace or his Temple; for the Israelites knew of a certainty that they did not worship a fictitious God, since in his law he had revealed himself to them, and had chosen the sanctuary, where he intended to be worshipped in a typical, and yet in a spiritual manner.

He then adds, Let all the earth be silent before him. Habakkuk, no doubt, commends the power of God, that the Israelites might proceed with alacrity in their religious course, knowing it to be a sufficient security to be under the protection of the only true God, and that they might not seek after the superstitions of the nations, nor be carried here and there, as it often happens, by vain desires. Keep silence, then, he says, let all the earth. He shows that though the Israelites might be far inferior to the Babylonians and other nations, and be far unequal to them in strength, military art, forces, and, in short, in all things of this kind, yet they would be always safe under the guardianship of God; for the Lord was able to control whatever power there might be in the world.

We now see what the Prophet had in view: for he does not here simply exhort all people to worship God, but shows, that thought men may grow mad against him, he yet can easily by his hand subjugate them; for after all the tumults made by kings and their people, the Lord can, by one breath of his mouth, dissipate all their attempts, however furious they may be. This, then, is the silence of which the Prophet now speaks. But there is another kind of silence, and that is, when we willingly submit to God; for silence in this respect is nothing else but submission: and we submit to God, when we bring not our own inventions and imaginations, but suffer ourselves to be taught by his word. We also submit to him, when we murmur not against his power or his judgements, when we humble ourselves under his powerful hand, and do not fiercely resist him, as those do who indulge their own lusts. This is indeed, as I have said, a voluntary submission: but the Prophet here shows that there is power in God to lay prostrate the whole world, and to tread it under his feet, whenever it may please him; so that the faithful have nothing to fear, for they know that their salvation is secured; for though the whole world were leagued against them, it yet cannot resist God. Now follows a prayer: —

CHAPTER 3

Habakkuk 3:1

1. A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.

1. Precatio Chabakuk Prophetae super ignorantiis (vel, super canticis, aut instrumentis musicis.)

CHAPTER 2

Ha 2:1-20. The Prophet, Waiting Earnestly for an Answer to His Complaints (First Chapter), Receives a Revelation, Which Is to Be Fulfilled, Not Immediately, Yet in Due Time, and Is Therefore to Be Waited for in Faith: The Chaldeans Shall Be Punished for Their Cruel Rapacity, nor Can Their False GodS Avert the Judgment of Jehovah, the Only True God.

1. stand upon ... watch--that is, watch-post. The prophets often compare themselves, awaiting the revelations of Jehovah with earnest patience, to watchmen on an eminence watching with intent eye all that comes within their view (Is 21:8, 11; Jr 6:17; Eze 3:17; 33:2, 3; compare Psa 5:3; 85:8). The "watch-post" is the withdrawal of the whole soul from earthly, and fixing it on heavenly, things. The accumulation of synonyms, "stand upon ... watch ... set me upon ... tower ... watch to see" implies persevering fixity of attention.

what he will say unto me--in answer to my complaints (Ha 1:13). Literally, "in me," God speaking, not to the prophet's outward ear, but inwardly. When we have prayed to God, we must observe what answers God gives by His word, His Spirit, and His providences.

what I shall answer when I am reproved--what answer I am to make to the reproof which I anticipate from God on account of the liberty of my expostulation with Him. Maurer translates, "What I am to answer in respect to my complaint against Jehovah" (Ha 1:12-17).

2. Write the vision--which I am about to reveal to thee.

make it plain--(De 27:8). In large legible characters.

upon tables--boxwood tables covered with wax, on which national affairs were engraved with an iron pen, and then hung up in public, at the prophets' own houses, or at the temple, that those who passed might read them. Compare Lu 1:63, "writing table," that is, tablet.

that he may run that readeth it--commonly explained, "so intelligible as to be easily read by any one running past"; but then it would be, "that he that runneth may read it." The true sense is, "so legible that whoever readeth it, may run to tell all whom he can the good news of the foe's coming doom, and Judah's deliverance." Compare Da 12:4, "many shall run to and fro," namely, with the explanation of the prophecy, then unsealed; also, Re 22:17, "let him that heareth (the good news) say (to every one within his reach), Come." "Run" is equivalent to announce the divine revelation (Jr 23:21); as everyone who becomes informed of a divine message is bound to run, that is, use all despatch to make it known to others [Henderson]. Grotius, Ludovicus De Dieu, and Maurer interpret it: "Run" is not literal running, but "that he who reads it may run through it," that is, read it at once without difficulty.

3. for--assigning the cause why it ought to be committed to writing: because its fulfilment belongs to the future.

the vision is yet for an appointed time--(Da 10:14; 11:27, 35). Though the time appointed by God for the fulfilment be yet future, it should be enough for your faith that God hath spoken it (La 3:26).

at the end it shall speak--Maurer translates, "it pants for the end." But the antithesis between, "it shall speak," and "not be silent," makes English Version the better rendering. So the Hebrew is translated in Pr 12:17. Literally, "breathe out words," "break forth as a blast."

though it tarry, wait for it--(Ge 49:18).

4. his soul which is lifted up--the Chaldean's [Maurer]. The unbelieving Jew's [Henderson].

is not upright in him--that is, is not accounted upright in God's sight; in antithesis to "shall live." So He 10:38, which with inspired authority applies the general sense to the particular case which Paul had in view, "If any man draw back (one result of being 'lifted up' with overweening arrogancy), my soul shall have no pleasure in him."

the just shall live by his faith--the Jewish nation, as opposed to the unbelieving Chaldean (compare Ha 2:5, &c.; Ha 1:6, &c.; Ha 1:13) [Maurer]. Henderson's view is that the believing Jew is meant, as opposed to the unbelieving Jew (compare Ro 1:17; Ga 3:11). The believing Jew, though God's promise tarry, will wait for it; the unbelieving "draws back," as He 10:38 expresses it. The sense, in Maurer's view, which accords better with the context (Ha 2:5, &c.). is: the Chaldean, though for a time seeming to prosper, yet being lifted up with haughty unbelief (Ha 1:11, 16), is not upright; that is, has no right stability of soul resting on God, to ensure permanence of prosperity; hence, though for a time executing God's judgments, he at last becomes "lifted up" so as to attribute to his own power what is the work of God, and in this sense "draws back" (He 10:38), becoming thereby a type of all backsliders who thereby incur God's displeasure; as the believing Jew is of all who wait for God's promises with patient faith, and so "live" (stand accepted) before God. The Hebrew accents induce Bengel to translate, "he who is just by his faith shall live." Other manuscripts read the accents as English Version, which agrees better with Hebrew syntax.

5. Yea also, because--additional reason why the Jews may look for God punishing their Chaldean foe, namely, because ... he is

a proud man--rather, this clause continues the reason for the Jews expecting the punishment of the Chaldeans, "because he transgresseth by wine (a besetting sin of Babylon, compare Da 5:1-31, and Curtius [5.1]), being a proud man." Love of wine often begets a proud contempt of divine things, as in Belshazzar's case, which was the immediate cause of the fall of Babylon (Da 5:2-4, 30; compare Pr 20:1; 30:9; 31:5).

enlargeth his desire as hell--the grave, or the unseen world, which is "never full" (Pr 27:20; 30:16; Is 5:14). The Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar were filled with an insatiable desire of conquest. Another reason for their punishment.

6. Shall not all these--the "nations" and "peoples" (Ha 2:5) "heaped unto him" by the Chaldean.

take up a parable--a derisive song. Habakkuk follows Isaiah (Is 14:4) and Micah (Mi 2:4) in the phraseology.

against him--when dislodged from his former eminence.

Woe--The "derisive song" here begins, and continues to the end of the chapter. It is a symmetrical whole, and consists of five stanzas, the first three consisting of three verses each, the fourth of four verses, and the last of two. Each stanza has its own subject, and all except the last begin with "Woe"; and all have a closing verse introduced with "for," "because," or "but."

how long?--how long destined to retain his ill-gotten gains? But for a short time, as his fall now proves [Maurer]. "Covetousness is the greatest bane to men. For they who invade others' goods, often lose even their own" [Menander]. Calvin makes "how long?" to be the cry of those groaning under the Chaldean oppression while it still lasted: How long shall such oppression be permitted to continue? But it is plainly part of the derisive song, after the Chaldean tyranny had passed away.

ladeth himself with thick clay--namely, gold and silver dug out of the "clay," of which they are a part. The covetous man in heaping them together is only lading himself with a clay burden, as he dares not enjoy them, and is always anxious about them. Lee and Fuller translate the Hebrew as a reduplicated single noun, and not two words, "an accumulation of pledges" (De 24:10-13). The Chaldean is compared to a harsh usurer, and his ill-gotten treasures to heaps of pledges in the hands of a usurer.

7. suddenly--the answer to the question, "How long?" (Ha 2:6).

bite--often used of usury; so favoring Lee's rendering (Ha 2:6). As the Chaldean, like a usurer, oppressed others, so other nations shall, like usurers, take pledges of, that is, spoil, him.

8. the remnant of the people--Those remaining of the peoples spoiled by thee, though but a remnant, will suffice to inflict vengeance on thee.

the violence of the land ... city--that is, on account of thy violent oppression of the lands and cities of the earth [Grotius] (compare Ha 2:5, 6, 12). The same phrase occurs in Ha 2:17, where the "land" and "city" are Judea and Jerusalem.

9. coveteth an evil covetousness--that is, a covetousness so surpassingly evil as to be fatal to himself.

to his house--greedily seizing enormous wealth, not merely for himself, but for his family, to which it is destined to be fatal. The very same "evil covetousness" that was the cause of Jehoiakim's being given up to the Chaldean oppressor (Jr 22:13) shall be the cause of the Chaldean's own destruction.

set his nest on high--(Nu 24:21; Jr 49:16; Ob 4). The image is from an eagle (Job 39:27). The royal citadel is meant. The Chaldean built high towers, like the Babel founders, to "be delivered from the power of evil" (Ge 11:4).

10. Thou hast consulted shame ... by cutting off many--Maurer, more literally, "Thou hast consulted shame ... to destroy many," that is, in consulting (determining) to cut off many, thou hast consulted shame to thy house.

sinned against thy soul--that is, against thyself; thou art the guilty cause of thine own ruin (Pr 8:36; 20:2). They who wrong their neighbors, do much greater wrong to their own souls.

11. stone ... cry out--personification. The very stones of thy palace built by rapine shall testify against thee (Lu 19:40).

the beam out of the timber--the crossbeam or main rafter connecting the timbers in the walls.

shall answer it--namely, the stone. The stone shall begin and the crossbeam continue the cry against thy rapine.

12. buildeth a town with blood--namely, Babylon rebuilt and enlarged by blood-bought spoils (compare Da 4:30).

13. is it not of the Lord of hosts--Jehovah, who has at His command all the hosts of heaven and earth, is the righteous author of Babylon's destruction. "Shall not God have His turn, when cruel rapacious men have triumphed so long, though He seem now to be still?" [Calvin].

people ... labour in the ... fire ... weary themselves for ... vanity--The Chaldeans labor at what is to be food for the fire, namely, their city and fortresses which shall be burnt. Jr 51:58 adopts the same phraseology to express the vanity of the Chaldean's labor on Babylon, as doomed to the flames.

14. Adapted from Is 11:9. Here the sense is, "The Jews shall be restored and the temple rebuilt, so that God's glory in saving His people, and punishing their Chaldean foe, shall be manifested throughout the world," of which the Babylonian empire formed the greatest part; a type of the ultimate full manifestation of His glory in the final salvation of Israel and His Church, and the destruction of all their foes.

waters cover the sea--namely, the bottom of the sea; the sea-bed.

15. giveth ... neighbour drink ... puttest ... bottle to him--literally, "skin," as the Easterns use "bottles" of skin for wine. Maurer, from a different Hebrew root, translates, "that pourest in thy wrath." English Version keeps up the metaphor better. It is not enough for thee to be "drunken" thyself, unless thou canst lead others into the same state. The thing meant is, that the Chaldean king, with his insatiable desires (a kind of intoxication), allured neighboring states into the same mad thirst for war to obtain booty, and then at last exposed them to loss and shame (compare Is 51:17; Ob 16). An appropriate image of Babylon, which at last fell during a drunken revel (Da 5:1-31).

that thou mayest look on their nakedness!--with light, like Ham of old (Ge 9:22).

16. art filled--now that thou art fallen. "Thou art filled" indeed (though so insatiable), but it is "with shame."

shame for glory--instead of thy former glory (Ho 4:7).

drink thou also--The cup of sorrow is now in thy turn to pass to thee (Jr 25:15-17; La 4:21).

thy foreskin--expressing in Hebrew feeling the most utter contempt. So of Goliath (1Sa 17:36). It is not merely thy "nakedness," as in Ha 2:15, that shall be "uncovered," but the foreskin, the badge of thy being an uncircumcised alien from God. The same shall be done to thee, as thou didst to others, and worse.

cup ... shall be turned unto thee--literally, "shall turn itself," namely, from the nations whom thou hast made to drink it. "Thou shalt drink it all, so that it may be turned as being drained" [Grotius].

shameful spewing--that is, vomiting; namely, that of the king of Babylon, compelled to disgorge the spoil he had swallowed. It expresses also the ignominious state of Babylon in its calamity (Jr 25:27). "Be drunken, spew, and fall." Less appropriately it is explained of the foe spewing in the face of the Babylonian king.

17. the violence of Lebanon--thy "violence" against "Lebanon," that is, Jerusalem (Is 37:24; Jr 22:23; Eze 17:3, 12; for Lebanon's cedars were used in building the temple and houses of Jerusalem; and its beauty made it a fit type of the metropolis), shall fall on thine own head.

cover--that is, completely overwhelm.

the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid--Maurer explains, "the spoiling inflicted on the beasts of Lebanon (that is, on the people of Jerusalem, of which city 'Lebanon' is the type), which made them afraid (shall cover thee)." But it seems inappropriate to compare the elect people to "beasts." I therefore prefer explaining, "the spoiling of beasts," that is, such as is inflicted on beasts caught in a net, and "which makes them afraid (shall cover thee)." Thus the Babylonians are compared to wild beasts terrified at being caught suddenly in a net. In cruel rapacity they resembled wild beasts. The ancients read, "the spoiling of wild beasts shall make THEE afraid." Or else explain, "the spoiling of beasts (the Medes and Persians) which (inflicted by thee) made them afraid (shall in turn cover thyself--revert on thyself from them)." This accords better with the parallel clause, "the violence of Lebanon," that is, inflicted by thee on Lebanon. As thou didst hunt men as wild beasts, so shalt thou be hunted thyself as a wild beast, which thou resemblest in cruelty.

because of men's blood--shed by thee; repeated from Ha 2:8. But here the "land" and "city" are used of Judea and Jerusalem: not of the earth and cities generally, as in Ha 2:8.

the violence of the land, &c.--that is, inflicted on the land by thee.

18. The powerlessness of the idols to save Babylon from its doom is a fitting introduction to the last stanza (Ha 2:19), which, as the former four, begins with "Woe."

teacher of lies--its priests and prophets uttering lying oracles, as if from it.

make dumb idols--Though men can "make" idols, they cannot make them speak.

19. Awake--Arise to my help.

it shall teach!--rather, An exclamation of the prophet, implying an ironical question to which a negative answer must be given. What! "It teach?" Certainly not [Maurer]. Or, "It (the idol itself) shall (that is, ought to) teach you that it is deaf, and therefore no God" [Calvin]. Compare "they are their own witnesses" (Is 44:9).

Behold--The Hebrew is nominative, "There it is" [Henderson].

it is laid over with gold ... no breath ... in the midst--Outside it has some splendor, within none.

20. But the Lord--Jehovah; in striking contrast with the idols.

in his holy temple--"His place" (Is 26:21); heaven (Psa 11:4; Jon 2:7; Mi 1:2). The temple at Jerusalem is a type of it, and there God is to be worshipped. He does not lie hid under gold and silver, as the idols of Babylon, but reigns in heaven and fills heaven, and thence succors His people.

keep silence--in token of reverent submission and subjection to His judgments (Job 40:4; Psa 76:8; Zep 1:7; Zec 2:13).

I will stand upon my watch - The prophets are always represented as watchmen, watching constantly for the comfort, safety, and welfare of the people; and watching also to receive information from the Lord: for the prophetic influence was not always with them, but was granted only at particular times, according to the will of God. When, in doubtful cases, they wished to know what God was about to do with the country, they retired from society and gave themselves to meditation and prayer, waiting thus upon God to hear what he would say In them.

What he will say unto me - בי bi, In me - in my understanding and heart.

And what I shall answer when I am reproved - What I shall say to God in behalf of the people; and what the Lord shall command me to say to the people. Some translate, "And what he will answer for my conviction." Or, "what shall be answered to my pleading."

Write the vision - Carefully take down all that I shall say.

Make it plain upon tables - Write it in a full plain, legible hand.

That he may run that readeth it - That he who attentively peruses it may speed to save his life from the irruption of the Chaldeans, by which so many shall be cut off. The prophet does not mean that the words are to be made so plain, that a man running by may easily read them, and catch their meaning. This interpretation has been frequently given; and it has been incautiously applied to the whole of the Bible: "God's book is so plain, that he that runs may read;" but it is very foolish: God never intends that his words shall be understood by the careless. He that reads, studies, meditates, and prays, shall understand every portion of this sacred book that relates immediately to his own salvation. But no trifler can understand it. If the contents of a play-bill were to be read as many read the Bible, they would know just as much of the one as they do of the other.

The vision is yet for an appointed time - The Chaldeans, who are to ruin Judea, shall afterwards be ruined themselves: but they must do this work before they receive their wages; therefore the vision is for an appointed time. But at the end it shall speak. When his work of devastation is done, his day of retribution shall take place.

Though it tarry - Though it appear to be long, do not be impatient; it will surely come; it will not tarry longer than the prescribed time, and this time is not far distant. Wait for it.

Behold, his soul which is lifted up - He that presumes on his safety without any special warrant from God, is a proud man; and whatever he may profess, or think of himself, his mind is not upright in him. But he that is just by faith shall live - he that believes what God hath said relative to the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem, shall make his escape from the place, and consequently shall save his life. The words in the New Testament are accommodated to the salvation which believers in Christ shall possess. Indeed, the just - the true Christians, who believed in Jesus Christ's words relative to the destruction of Jerusalem, when they found the Romans coming against it, left the city, and escaped to Pella in Coelesyria, and did live - their lives were saved: while the unbelieving Jews, to a man, either perished or were made slaves. One good sense is, He that believes the promises of God, and has found life through believing, shall live by his faith.

Because he transgresseth by wine - From the present translation, it is not easy to see either reason or meaning in the first clause of this verse. Newcome translates, "Moreover, as a mighty man transgresseth through wine, he is proud, and remaineth not at rest." Houbigant thus: "For he, though he be a despiser, and powerful, and proud, yet shall he not have rest."

Nebuchadnezzar is here represented in his usual character, proud, haughty, and ambitious; inebriated with his successes, and determined on more extensive conquests; and, like the grave, can never have enough: yet, after the subjugation of many peoples and nations, he shall be brought down, and become so despicable that he shall be a proverb of reproach, and be taunted and scorned by all those whom he had before enslaved.

And cannot be satisfied - When he has obtained all that is within his reach, he wishes for more; and becomes miserable, because any limits are opposed to his insatiable ambition. It is said of Alexander: -

Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis;

Aestuat infelix angusto limite mundi.

Juv. Sat. 10:168.

One world sufficed not Alexander's mind;

Coop'd up, he seem'd on earth and seas confined.

And the poet justly ridicules him, because at last the sarcophagus was found too large for his body!

Shall not all these take up a parable against him - His ambition, derangement, and the final destruction of his mighty empire by the Persians, shall form the foundation of many sententious sayings among the people. "He who towered so high, behold how low he is fallen!" "He made himself a god; behold, he herds with the beasts of the field!" "The disturber of the peace of the world is now a handful of dust!"

Shall they not rise up suddenly - Does not this refer to the sudden and unexpected taking of Babylon by Cyrus, whose troops entered into the city through the bed of the Euphrates, whose waters they had diverted by another channel; so that the Babylonians knew nothing of the matter till they saw the Persian soldiers rise up as in a moment, in the very heart of their city?

For the violence of the land - Or, for the violence done to the land of Judea, and to the city of Jerusalem.

An evil covetousness to his house - Nebuchadnezzar wished to aggrandize his family, and make his empire permanent: but both family and empire were soon cut off by the death of his son Belshazzar, and the consequent destruction of the Chaldean empire.

Hast sinned against thy soul - Thy life is forfeited by thy crimes.

The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it - This appears to refer to the ancient mode of building walls; two or three courses of stone. and then one course of timber. See 1Kgs 6:36 : thus was the palace of Solomon built. The splendid and costly buildings of Babylon have been universally celebrated. But how were these buildings erected? By the spoils of conquered nations, and the expense of the blood of multitudes; therefore the stones and the timber are represented as calling out for vengeance against this ruthless conqueror.

Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood - At the expense of much slaughter. This is the answer of the beam to the stone. And these things will refer to the vast fortunes gained, and the buildings erected, by means of the slave-trade; where, to a considerate and humane mind, the walls appear as if composed of the bones of negroes, and cemented by their blood! But the towns or houses established by this iniquity soon come to ruin; and the fortunes made have, in most cases, become as chaff and dust before the whirlwind of God's indignation. But where are the dealers in the souls and bodies of men? Ask him who has them in his keeping. He can tell.

The people shall labor in the very fire - All these superb buildings shall be burnt down. See the parallel passage, Jer 51:58 (note), and the note there.

Shall weary themselves for very vanity? - For the gratification of the wishes of ambition, and in buildings which shall be brought to naught.

For the earth shall be filled - This is a singular and important verse. It may be first applied to Babylon. God's power and providence shall be widely displayed in the destruction of this city and empire, in the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan 4:37, and in the captivity and restoration of his people. See Newcome, and see Isa 11:9.

Secondly. It may be applied to the glorious days of the Messiah. The land of Judea should by his preaching, and that of his disciples, be filled with the knowledge of God. God's great design fully discovered, and the scheme of salvation amply explained.

Thirdly. It may be applied to the universal spread of the Gospel over the habitable globe; when the fullness of the Gentiles should be brought in, and the Jews gathered in with that fullness. The earth cannot perish till every continent, island, and inhabitant, is illuminated with the light of the Gospel.

Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink - This has been considered as applying to Pharaoh-hophra, king of Egypt, who enticed his neighbors Jehoiachin and Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, whereby the nakedness and imbecility of the poor Jews was soon discovered; for the Chaldeans soon took Jerusalem, and carried its kings, princes, and people, into captivity.

The cup of the Lord's right hand - Among the ancients, all drank out of the same cup; was passed from hand to hand, and each drank as much as he chose. The Chaldeans gave to the neighboring nations the cup of idolatry and of deceitful alliance: and in return they received from the Lord the cup of his fury. So Grotius.

For the violence of Lebanon - Or, the violence done to Lebanon; to men, to cattle, to Judea, and to Jerusalem. See the note on the parallel place, Hab 2:8 (note). This may be a threatening against Egypt, as the former was against Chaldea.

What profiteth the graven image - This is against idolatry in general, and every species of it, as well as against those princes, priests, and people who practice it, and encourage others to do the same. See on Isa 44:9-10 (note); Isa 46:2 (note).

Dumb idols? - אלילים אלמים elilim illemim, "dumb nothings." This is exactly agreeable to St. Paul, 1Cor 8:4, who says, "An idol is nothing in the world." What signify the idols worshipped by the Chaldeans, Tyrians, and Egyptians? They have not been able to save their worshippers.

Wo unto him - How foolish and contemptible to worship a thing formed by the hand of man out of wood, stone, gold, or silver! The meanest brute is superior to them all; it breathes and lives, but they have no breath in them. However, they are said above to be teachers of lies; that is, they appeared to give out oracles: but these were lies; and were not given by the statue, but by the priest.

The Lord is in his holy temple - Jehovah has his temple, the place where he is to be worshipped; but there there is no image. Oracles, however, are given forth; and every word of them is truth, and is fulfilled in its season. And this temple and its worship are holy; no abomination can be practiced there, and every thing in it leads to holiness of heart and life.

Let all the earth keep silence before him - Let all be dumb. Let none of them dare to open their mouths in the presence of Jehovah. He alone is Sovereign. He alone is the arbiter of life and death. Let all hear his commands with the deepest respect, obey them with the promptest diligence, and worship him with the most profound reverence. When an Asiatic sovereign goes to the mosque on any of the eastern festivals, such as the Bairham, the deepest silence reigns among all his retinue, viziers, foreign ambassadors, etc. They all bow respectfully before him; but no word is spoken, no sound uttered. It is to this species of reverence that the prophet alludes, and with this he concludes the prophetic part of this book. What God has threatened or promised, that he will fulfill. Let every soul bow before him, and submit to his authority.

Upon my watch - I will stand as a watchman on my watch - tower. He - The Lord. Reproved - Called to give an account of the mysteriousness of providence; either to satisfy doubters, or to silence quarrellers.

Upon tables - What was of publick concern, and therefore to be published, was anciently written or engraven upon tables, smooth stones, or wood, and then hung up in a publick place to be read. May run - That none may need to stop, but every one may plainly and clearly discern what is written.

At the end - When the period appointed of God shall come. Shall speak - Be accomplished, and not disappoint your expectation.

Which is lifted up - That proudly contests with the justice and wisdom of the Divine Providence, and provides for his own safety by his own wit. The just - The humble and upright one, who adores the depth of divine providence, and is persuaded of the truth of divine promises. Shall live - Supports himself, by a firm expectation of the deliverance of Zion.

Of the land - Of the whole land of Chaldea. The city - Babylon.

To his house - His family which he would enrich, and raise high. Delivered - Kept secure and out of danger from all below him.

Thou - Nebuchadnezzar.

Shall cry out - As if it had a voice, it cries to God for vengeance. Answer it - Confirm the charge against thee.

Is it not of the Lord - Is it not a judgment from God? Shall labour - That men go thro' the most painful labour. For very vanity - For nothing; without any reward of their labour.

Thou - O king of Babylon. Shall be turned - They turned the cup of pleasure about, God will carry the cup of indignation about also, and make them drink deep of it. Shameful spewing - Thou shalt be as much loathed as a shameful drunkard is in his vomit.

The violence - The violence thou hast done to Judea shall overwhelm thee. The spoil of brass - Such spoil as by hunters is made among wild beasts, when they endeavour to destroy the whole kind.

The Lord - He is Jehovah, the fountain of being, life, power, and salvation to his people. Keep silence - Fear, submit, and depend on him; let his enemies be silent, reverence, hope, pray and wait for him, who will arise and have mercy on them, who will make it to be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked, who will fully and satisfactorily solve the doubts, and unfold the riddles of his providence.

1 I Will stand upon my watch , and set me upon the tower , and will watch to see what he will say unto me , and what I shall answer when I am reproved .

The first Chapter ended with that difficult and perplext question, why God suffers the wicked so long to prosper in their oppressions of the righteous? This Chapter represents the Prophet waiting, and musing, studying with himself what account he might give to himself, and waiting what account God would give him of it. He will stand in a posture of meditating, observing and waiting.

Possibly the Prophet may have respect to the manner of the Iews, who in their solemn Prayers and waiting on God had their stations and watches (as DD. Buxtorf observeth in verbo [non-Latin text not transcribed]) in their Synagogues, or at Ierusalem. But I rather think the Prophet resolveth to be like one that is to be a watchman, as Prophets are, Ezek. 3.17. for the People of God, Or passively in my Watch, i. e. where my adversaries like besieging Enemies observe and watch me. It contains his diligent and persevering expectation and observing.

Fixedly and with resolution not to leave my station, as the Heb. implieth; 'tis the same thing more emphatically exprest than in the word stand.

Either Watch-tower, or besieged Tower, or within a circle out of which I will not stir till I receive an answer.

Most attentively observe.

The Lord, chap. 1.12.

Or signifie unto me.

Waiting for mine own satisfaction, and for the information of others.

There are many that are perplext at the intricacy of Providence, and some enquire to be instructed; some propose doubts, and fears; and others do quarrel, and perversly wrangle with God, and his Prophets: And how I may answer these from the Word of God, is that I wait for, saith our Prophet.

When called to give an account of the mysteriousness of Providence; when either to satisfie doubters, or to silence quarrellers.

Marginal references: Isa. [illegible: 1 span]; Heb. [illegible: 1 span].; Or. [illegible: 1 word]; Heb. [illegible: 1 span].; Or, [illegible: 1 span]

2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision , and make it plain upon tables , that he may run that readeth it.

On whom he waited, and who ruleth all Affairs.

Did hear my desire, and gave direction what I should do.

What is onely spoken is soon forgot, but what is written is more lasting, therefore write thou the Vision shew'd to thee.

The things thou seest, or which thou shalt see.

Make the writing very plain, engrave it, as was their manner.

What was of publick concern, and therefore to be publish'd, was antiently written or engraven upon Tables, smooth stones, or wood, and then hang'd up in a publick place to be read.

That none may need to make a stop, but hold on his course, in the greatest haste of business, every one may plainly and clearly discern what is written.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time , but at the end it shall speak , and not lie : though it tarry , wait for it, because it will surely come , it will not tarry .

The reason why it must be written is because it should not be forgotten, whilest the appointed time is somewhat far off; write it that it may be preserved in memory.

The accomplishment of the things shew'd unto thee, what thou seest is coming, and what thou foretellest to them, will take effect.

Determin'd and fixed with God though unknown to men.

When the period appointed of God shall come, then, and not till then, 'twill be accomplished.

Be accomplished, and fully made good.

Not disappoint your expectation.

From the times of the Prophets seeing it, which was about Manasseh's time or from about the time of captivating the Ten Tribes, until Cyrus his time.

Expect it, then 'twill speak out that every one who hath an ear to hear it.

When the ruine of Babylon, never to be more built, shall proclaim the Justice of God against his, and his Church her Enemies, and what difference there is between corrections on his people, and destruction upon Enemies.

Not beyond the appointed time, which reckon'd from the captivity of the Ten Tribes, was 160 years, or from Manassehs captivity, was about 120 years, more or less to the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus, when the riddle was fully unfolded.

Marginal references: Heb. 1[illegible: 2 letters]

4 Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith .

Note it, there are two sorts of persons who concern themselves in this puzzling question of the Divine Providence; some object and quarrel, contest with God, proudly, discontentedly and impatiently. Others enquire humbly, submitting themselves to God, and waiting for him.

The heart and mind of every such one.

That proudly contests with the Justice and Wisdom of the Divine Providence, that sleights promises of deliverance at so great a distance and provides for his own safety by his own Wit.

Is very corrupt and wicked, full of, (not onely distrusts, but) positive conclusions against Gods future punishing the wicked, such one is so wicked that he thinks God will not punish the violent, and bloody; the superstitious and Idolatrous Babylonian.

The humble, upright, and comparatively Righteous one, who adores the depth of Divine Providence, and is perswaded of the truth of Divine Promises, and doth approve the Season God chooseth.

Supports himself, and quiets his own heart, whilest he foreseeth the approaching deliverance of Sion.

His well grounded dependence on a perswasion of the truth of Gods Promises touching the Relief of the Faithful Servants of God, whose deliverance he believes to be certain, and so waits for the performance of Promises made to him and them.

Marginal references: Job. 3.36. [illegible: 1 word]. 1.17. [illegible: 1 word]. 3.11. [illegible: 1 word]. 10.38.

5 Yea also because he transgresseth by wine , he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home , who enlargeth his desire as hell , and is as death , and cannot be satisfied , but gathereth unto him all nations , and heapeth unto him all people.

Or moreover, furthermore.

The King of Babylon, or every one of them.

Which Vice destroys Kings and Kingdoms, and in the excesses of Luxury the Babylonian King Belshazzar, his City and Kingdom of Babylon fell a prey to Darius and Cy[illegible: 1 letter]us.

Insolent in his behaviour towards all both retainers, subjects, strangers, and conquer'd Enemies, such pride shall have a fall.

Is ever abroad warring upon some or other which though it enlarge his Countreyes, it weakneth his Kingdom, and gives advantage to Malecontents and Conspirators, beside that it exposeth him to iminent, and continual dangers.

Is most insatiably greedy to devour all, as far from saying 'tis enough as the grave is.

As pernicious, and ravenous.

All is too little for him, and there is no possibility to satiate his appetite.

Addeth one after another.

To his Kingdom.

That are round about him, all he knows, are design'd upon, and he purposeth to engross them.

Another expression of the same import. Now all this foretold of the future temper of the Babylonish Kings and Kingdoms are sure presage of their no long continuance in grandeur, but that shortly Divine Vengeance will overtake them. This might be answer to disputers.

Marginal references: Or, how much [illegible: 1 word].

6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him , and a taunting proverb against him? and say: Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his: how long ? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay ?

The Prediction is moulded thus in a Question to give it emphasis and make it more affective.

Who have been opprest, contumeliously used, and perfidiously deceived; all the people who have fear'd the power and policy of Babylon.

Turn him and his state into a By-word, and Scorn.

The King of Babylon, a while since the Terrour, now the scorn of nations.

Short, but smart, wounding scoffes, and whereas men usually bewail and condole the mishaps of great, brave, and just Kings or Kingdoms; All people shall exult, and triumph, in the miseries of this oppressive, luxurious and base Kingdom.

Either 'tis a threat of like vengeance on all such Transgressors, or it may be a publishing the miseries come upon Babylon.

By Rapine, frauds, and injurious dealings multiplieth his Treasures, as the King of Babylon did.

'Twas not his, though he had it; 'twas not his right though 'twas in his possession. Or else thus, one misery of the Babylonians shall be, they increase Wealth, but not for themselves, but for the Medes and Persians.

This seems to be the sigh of the oppressed who think it long ere the oppressour fall.

Wo to him that is a burthen to others, while he burthens himself with amassed Treasures gather'd by Extortion, and grievous unjust Taxes.

Gold and Silver, so called to lower the overvalue of them, and perhaps to mind the Tyrant of a Clay-bed.

Marginal references: Or, H[illegible: 1 letter], [illegible: 1 word].

7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them t?

This question doth more fully ascertain the thing.

Either grow up, or else as men who resolve to do a thing throughly get upon their feet and stand to it. The Medes and Persians were growing to Power and would ere long rise up to ruine Babylon.

And surprize it in security, so they were down ere they did perceive themselves falling and such sudden ruine is most dreadful.

Devour and eat thee up.

Thou, O Belshazzar, (and Babylon with thee) wilt in drunken slumbers (unable to resist) fall into the hands of the awakened Medes and Persians.

As thou hast been, O Babylon! vexation to others by thy proud and insolent behaviour by scoffes and cruelties, so others shall now be a vexation unto thee.

Not onely your lands, houses and goods; but your persons, and those of your Relations, shall be booties taken, and sold for Slaves, to the profit of

Medes and Persians.

8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee because of mens blood , and for the violence of the land , of the city , and all that dwell therein.

The Prophet proceeds to give account of the Reasons on which the Divine Nemesis moves in this Affair, and these may convince and confirm us in it,

Slain their People, sack'd their Cities, rob'd their Treasuries, led captive the Subjects, and deposed Kings, and done this to many Nations, whose Cry is come up to heaven.

Ier. 25.9. and 27.3. recounts some six or seven Nations, It is like all the Nations that lay round about this Kingdom were spoil'd by it.

Now shalt thou be paid in thine own coin: The remnant of the Nations unspoiled by thee, shall combine against thee, and execute the Lords just Sentence, and spoil the spoiler.

O Babylon.

Either shed by private Murthers which cry'd to heaven for Vengeance, or shed by ill application of the Sword of Justice, or continual needless Wars upon her Neighbours.

Injustice and Oppressions.

Of the whole land of Chaldea if you understand it actively, or else if passively taken, 'tis the violence done by Babylon to the land of Iudaea especially.

Either Babylon which opprest Ierusalem, or Ierusalem opprest by Babylon.

This also as understood actively, or passively is applicable to either Babylon's, or Ierusalems Citizens and Inhabitants.

Marginal references: Isa. 33.1▪; Ver. 17.; Heb. bloods.

9 Wo to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house , that he may set his nest on high , that he may be delivered from the power of evil o.

It is a general and comprehensive threat against all Tyrants, and oppressors.

Every one that is guilty of the sin

Or driveth a trade of oppression, to gain by what means sover, right or wrong. This is evil of sin and will end in evil of trouble.

His Family which he would enrich, and greaten by raising it on the ruins of oppressed Innocents.

A proverbial speech in allusion to birds of prey which build their nests in the greatest heights, Obadiah 4. greatness and an advanced estate gotten by rapine and prey may seem, but never can be a security to any Monarch.

Higher then God, and justice set him.

Kept secure, and out of danger from all below him.

Heb. from the palm of the hand of evil, that no evil may fasten on, though it may attempt against them.

Marginal references: Jer. 22.13.; Or, that gaineth an evil gain.; Heb. palm of the hand.

10 Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul .

Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon.

Hast mistaken thy measures, thoughtst to advance thy glory, and to illustrate thy name; but 'tis in very deed the shame of thy reign that it hath been bloody.

Or Family, thy Royal Family.

Destroying and impoverishing multitudes of men and cities.

It was thy sin what ever thou didst think of it.

Or life of thy person, and posterity, this blood and cruelty will surely ruine thy house.

11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

The strength of thy house accuseth thee.

As if it had a voice it cryeth to God for vengeance.

On which thy chambers are laid.

Confirms the charge against thee, and that fabrick can not be long a safe, or a beautiful habitation, whose stones and beams are shaken with the strong cries of innocent blood, and families ruin'd by the oppression of the builder.

Marginal references: Or, piece, or, fastning.; Or, Witness against it.

12 Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood , and stablisheth a city by iniquity .

Whosoever he be that lays foundations in blood, is here threatned, and none so great as to keep off the wo, deserved, and menaced.

Heb. City.

In the guilt and with the cruelty of murthering the innocent, it is the worst cement which is tempered with blood of murther'd Men, Women, and Children.

Goeth about, or thinketh to stablish the foundations of a City.

Babylon in particular.

By force and fraud, by riches extorted from the just possessor.

Marginal references: Jer. 22.13. Ezek. 24.9. Nah. 3.1.; Heb. bloods.

13 Behold , is it not of the LORD of hosts , that the people shall labour in the very fire , and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?

The Prophet calls for attention, and that we observe who 'tis will execute vengeance on bloody Cities and Kingdoms, Babylon is a mighty City, and the Kingdom is over match to any Kingdom, and perhaps it may be thought none can give Babylon blood to drink, or kindle a fire in her, that shall consume her.

Though men cannot the Lord of hosts can, and is not this vengeance his? will not he repay?

Either Babylonians and their Confederates, labour for that the fire shall consume. Or the adversaries of Babylon shall be able to endure a service for God against Babylon, hot as if they laboured in the fire.

Either literally taken, or figuratively will well consist with the Text,

Either Medes and Persians against Babylon, or the Chaldeans for Babylon.

Spend their strength, and life,

The one to preserve what shall never profit them, which they laid up in vain, the other to destroy all (though they lose their booty by destroying it) in the fire, yet all this from the Lord of hosts justly punishing Babylon for all her cruelties.

Marginal references: Jer. 51.5[illegible: 1 letter].; Or, in vain.

14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD , as the waters cover the sea.

The Land of Chaldaea, of [illegible: 1 word] Medes and Persians, and their Confederates, the Lands oppressed by the Chaldaeans, but Iudaea more particularly.

Every eye shall see, or ear hear, or tongue speak what they know.

Sight and sense of the

just and glorious proceedings of God against Babylon, for when God shall appear to execute his just judgments upon his own, and his Churches Enemies he will appear glorious indeed.

The God of Israel, their Holy One, as chap. 1.12.

It is a proverbial speech expressing the general notice, and deep sense all should have of Gods Justice, Truth, Power, and zeal against mighty Oppressours, such as Babylon was full of.

Marginal references: Isa. 11.9.; Or, by knowing the glory of the LORD.

15 ¶ Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink : that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness .

Another publick and crying sin of this Chaldaean Kingdom was excessive drinking, and making one another drunk, and for this God will severely punish.

Forcing them by importunity or threats to drink by greater measures then they can bear.

Never givest over till thou hast made him vile and loathsome, as well as senseless in his drink.

Designing to put the greatest abuse on them, exposing them to view, scorn and derision, or to beastly, or not to be named uncleanness, which vice the Babylonians are charged with by Herodotus and Ctesias.

16 Thou art [illegible: 1 letter]illed with shame for glory : drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered : the cup of the LORDS right hand , shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be upon thy glory.

O King of Babylon.

shortly shalt be, and 'tis as sure as if already done.

As much filled with shame by the contempt they shall cast upon thee whom thou didst once vilifie and contemn; thy shame shall be greater then ever was thy glory as the Heb. seems to import.

Thy sin was that thou didst drink, and madest others drink to shameless excess too; now thy punishment shall be to drink of the cup of Gods wrath, which will fill thee with astonishment, and calamities.

Let thy shame be laid open before all, this retaliation is just and necessary.

A Scripture phrase, expressing the just judgements and corrections, of sinners.

'Tis said to be in his right hand, here and in his hand, Psal. 75.8.

They turned the cup of pleasure about, God will carry the cup of indignation about also, and make them drink deep of it, they shall not escape.

Then shalt thou be as much loath'd as a shameful drunkard is in his vomit.

Marginal references: Or, more with sh[illegible: 1 letter]me, then with glory.; Jer. 25.26. and 51.57.

17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee l, and the spoil of beasts , which made them afraid, because of [illegible: 1 word] blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city and of all that dwell therein.

This is added to all the rest, that Gods people might know this was the times of recompences for Sion, that the violence by Babylon done to Iudaea and its inhabitants, should be avenged and no longer defer'd, but now should overwhelm Babylon, in which should be made as great devastations as ever she made in the fruitful, and beautiful mountain Lebanon supposed in Deut. 3.25. to express the Land of Canaan, or else by Lebanon may be meant the Temple, and House of the Sanctuary (as the Chaldee paraphrast) because it was built of the Cedars of Lebanon.

Babylon.

Such spoil as by hunters is made among wild Beasts, when they endeavour to destroy the whole kind of them, such havock, and by all the wayes and methods that art, and subtle[illegible: 1 letter]y can invent to extirpate them, such wastes shalt thou suffer: for thou art to be destroyed. Or else thus, such desolations shall thine Enemies make in thee as wild, ravenous, and unsatiable Beasts make where they prevail, they shall tear and devour all they seise, and seise all that peep abroad, and this shall make all men afraid continually.

Vid. ver. 8. l[illegible: 1 letter]t. a. b c. d. e.

18 ¶ What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath graven it: the molten image and a teacher of lies t, that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make him dumb idols?

Here the Prophet removes the confidences of Babylon, she would boast of her gods, and depend on them, but this will be vain and unprofitable, it is not imaginable that these Idols should help these persons.

Carved in Wood, or Stone, for of such materials did these Idol makers sometimes make their Gods.

It is brutish folly in any one to value, or desire to be helpt, by such lifeless Idols, but 'tis greatest folly for him that-makes the image, that remembers how it was hewed, plained, tumbled about, and all this without the least degree of sense, or feeling of what it suffered, and can that be sensible of my sorrows which feels not any thing it self?

Idols made of Gold or Silver, or any other fusile mettal were framed out of the mettal first melted, and are therefore called molten images.

But whether graven or molten, yet all such images are but teachers of lies, Ier. 10.8, 14. They withdraw the mind from God our true, and onely helper, and bewitch men to trust to Idols in which is no help, which ever proved lies to all that trusted on them.

Who knows, for he saw that there was no Life Strength or Wisdom in one or other, it is shameless in any, but most in him that made the Idol to worship his own work and rely upon that which he knows hath no eyes, or hands, or ears, but what his tool framed for it.

His own work and yet his God! The product of his art, and yet the hope of his Soul! O brutish folly. Self contradiction!

Resteth confident of defence, and rescue from evil by it.

Which neither can answer a question, nor give a direction in a streight, can neither promise good to a Friend, nor denounce a threat against an Enemy,

Marginal references: Zech. [illegible: 2 letters].; Heb. [illegible: 1 span].

19 Wo unto him that saith to the wood Awake ; to the dumb stone, Arise , it shall teach: Behold , it is laid over with gold, and silver. and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

In the former verse the Prophet declared the uselessness, and unprofitableness of the Idols of Babylon, now he threatens the Idolaters. They sin'd greatly by placing their confidence in them, and they should suffer the more for it.

What ever shape Art may give it, or whatever veneration blind Idolaters may bear to it, 'tis still Wood, no better; a log, a worthless block.

This expresseth the Idolaters prayer to his Idol awake what? Is he a sleepy God? No not so much, 'tis a lifeless log and its eyes never did see.

Another sort of their useless Idols, senseless as the stones, and still as unable to rise, or help as before they were graven and carved, 'tis a stone, no God.

An other form of praying to this Idol, and when the Idol can rise Babylon shall be helpt, till then it must abide its sorrows.

Sottish men! in misery to hope that lifeless Idols shall counsel and direct, what dumb, and without sense, and yet teach!

Look ye self deceiving Idolaters, consult your own senses, see what matter they are made of.

See the facings, or plates are different from that which is under, and can that be a God that is made up of such different materials? it were more like men to pull off the Gold and Silver, and with these to purchase your safety.

Not so much as the soul of a brute in them.

20 But the LORD is in his holy temple let all the earth keep silence before him p.

What Idols are, he had already shew'd, a Doctrine of lies, impotent, and lifeless Statues. But the God of Israel is not like them.

He is Iehovah fountain of Being, Life, Power, and Salvation to his people, he can do all he will, for, or against a people.

Or Palace of his Holiness, he is in his Temple and in Heaven, every where at all times, though his people be in Babylon, yet he is where he doth hear, see, and discern their state and whence he promised to relieve and help them.

Both Chaldea the oppressive, and Iudea the oppressed, and Medes and Persians and all their Confederates, let all these Nations.

Fear, submit, pray, wait for and depend on him; let his Enemies be silent, fear, make their peace, and prevent his displeasure: let his people be silent, reverence, hope, pray and wait for him, who will arise and have mercy on them, and destroy their enemies, who will make it to be well with the righteous, and again will make it ill with the wicked, who will fully and satisfactorily solve the doubts, and unfold the riddles of his ow[illegible: 1 letter] Providence.

Marginal references: Psal. 11[illegible: 1 letter]; Heb. [illegible: 1 span] all the [illegible: 1 span].

Hab 2:1-3

Hab 2:1-3 form the introduction to the word of God, which the prophet receives in reply to his cry of lamentation addressed to the Lord in Hab 1:12-17. Hab 2:1. “I will stand upon my watchtower, and station myself upon the fortress, and will watch to see what He will say in me, and what I answer to my complaint. Hab 2:2. Then Jehovah answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tables, that he may run who reads it. Hab 2:3. For the vision is yet fore the appointed end, and strives after the end, and does not lie: if it tarry, wait for it; for it will come, it does not fail.” Hab 2:1 contains the prophet’s conversation with himself. After he has poured out his trouble at the judgment announced, in a lamentation to the Lord (Hab 1:12-17), he encourages himself - after a pause, which we have to imagine after Hab 1:17 - to wait for the answer from God. He resolves to place himself upon his observatory, and look out for the revelation which the Lord will give to his questions. Mishmereth, a place of waiting or observing; mâtsōr, a fortress, i.e., a watch-tower or spying-tower. Standing upon the watch, and stationing himself upon the fortification, are not to be understood as something external, as Hitzig supposes, implying that the prophet went up to a steep and lofty place, or to an actual tower, that he might be far away from the noise and bustle of men, and there turn his eyes towards heaven, and direct his collected mind towards God, to look out for a revelation. For nothing is known of any such custom as this, since the cases mentioned in Exo 33:21 and 1Ki 19:11, as extraordinary preparations for 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 23:3), furnishes not 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 prophetic word, that he looked out for revelations from God in significant phenomena of nature (see at Num 23:3-4). The words of our verse are to be taken figuratively, or internally, like the appointment of the watchman in Isa 21:6. The figure is taken from the custom of ascending high places for the purpose of looking into the distance (2Ki 9:17; 2Sa 18:24), and simply expresses the spiritual preparation of the prophet’s soul for hearing the word of God within, i.e., the collecting of his mind by quietly entering into himself, and meditating upon the word and testimonies of God. Cyril and Calvin bring out the first idea. Thus the latter observes, that “the watch-tower is the recesses of the mind, where we withdraw ourselves from the world;” and then adds by way of explanation, “The prophet, under the name of the watch-tower, implies that he extricates himself as it were from the thoughts of the flesh, because there would be no end or measure, if he wished to judge according to his own perception;” whilst others find in it nothing more than firm continuance in reliance upon the word of God.Theodoret very appropriately compares the words of Asaph in Psa 73:16., “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I entered into the sanctuaries of God, and gave heed to their end;” and observes, “And there, says the prophet, will I remain as appointed, and not leave my post, but, standing upon such a rock as that upon which God placed great Moses, watch with a prophet’s eyes for the solution of the things that I seek.”Tsippâh, to spy or watch, to wait for the answer from God. “This watching was lively and assiduous diligence on the part of the prophet, in carefully observing everything that took place in the spirit of his mind, and presented itself either to be seen or heard” (Burk). ידבּר־בּי, to speak in me, not merely to or with me; since the speaking of God to the prophets was an internal speaking, and not one that was perceptible from without. What I shall answer to my complaint (‛al tōkhachtı̄), namely, first of all to myself and then to the rest. Tōkhachath, lit., correction, contradiction. Habakkuk refers to the complaint which he raised against God in Hab 1:13-17, namely, that He let the wicked go on unpunished. He will wait for an answer from God to this complaint, to quiet his own heart, which is dissatisfied with the divine administration. Thus he draws a sharp distinction between his own speaking and the speaking of the Spirit of God within him. Jehovah gives the answer in what follows, first of all (Hab 2:2, Hab 2:3) commanding him to write the vision (châzōn, the revelation from God to be received by inward intuition) upon tables, so clearly, that men may be able to read it in running, i.e., quite easily. בּאר as in Deu 27:8; see at Deu 1:5. The article attached to הלּחות does not point to the tables set up in the market-places for public notices to be written upon (Ewald), but simply means, make it clear on the tables on which thou shalt write it, referring to the noun implied in כּתב (write), though not expressed (Delitzsch). קורא בו may be explained from קרא בּספר in Jer 36:13. The question is a disputed one, whether this command is to be understood literally or merely figuratively, “simply denoting the great importance of the prophecy, and the consequent necessity for it to be made accessible to the whole nation” (Hengstenberg, Dissertation, vol. i. p. 460). The passages quoted in support of the literal view, i.e., of the actual writing of the prophecy which follows upon tables, viz., Isa 8:1; Isa 30:8, and Jer 30:2, are not decisive. In Jer 30:2 the prophet is commanded to write all the words of the Lord in a book (sēpher); and so again in Isa 30:8, if כּתבהּ על־לוּח is synonymous with על־ספר חקּהּ. But in Isa 8:1 there are only two significant words, which the prophet is to write upon a large table after having taken witnesses. It does not follow from either of these passages, that luchōth, tables, say wooden tables, had been already bound together into books among the Hebrews, so that we could be warranted in identifying the writing plainly upon tables with writing in a book. We therefore prefer the figurative view, just as in the case of the command issued to Daniel, to shut up his prophecy and seal it (Dan 12:4), inasmuch as the literal interpretation of the command, especially of the last words, would require that the table should be set up or hung out in some public place, and this cannot for a moment be thought of. The words simply express the thought, that the prophecy is to be laid to heart by all the people on account of its great importance, and that not merely in the present, but in the future also. This no doubt involved the obligation on the part of the prophet to take care, by committing it to writing, that it did not fall into oblivion. The reason for the writing is given in Hab 2:3. The prophecy is למּועד, for the appointed time; i.e., it relates to the period fixed by God for its realization, which was then still (עוד) far off. ל denotes direction towards a certain point either of place or time. The vision had a direction towards a point, which, when looked at from the present, was still in the future. This goal was the end (הקּץ towards which it hastened, i.e., the “last time” (מועד קץ, Dan 8:19; and עת קץ, Dan 8:17; Dan 11:35), the Messianic times, in which the judgment would fall upon the power of the world. יפח לקּץ, it pants for the end, inhiat fini, i.e., it strives to reach the end, to which it refers. “True prophecy is inspired, as it were, by an impulse to fulfil itself” (Hitzig). יפח is not an adjective, as in Psa 27:12, but the third pers. imperf. hiphil of pūăch; and the contracted form (יפח for יפיח), without a voluntative meaning, is the same as we frequently meet with in the loftier style of composition. ולא יכזּב, “and does not deceive,” i.e., will assuredly take place. If it (the vision) tarry, i.e., be not fulfilled immediately, wait for it, for it will surely take place (the inf. abs. בּוא to add force, and בּוא applying to the fulfilment of the prophecy, as in 1Sa 9:6 and Jer 28:9), will not fail; אחר, to remain behind, not to arrive (Jdg 5:28; 2Sa 20:5).The lxx have rendered כּי בא יבא, ὅτι ἐρχόμενος ἥξει, which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 10:37) has still further defined by adding the article, and, connecting it with μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον of Isa 26:20 (lxx), has taken it as Messianic, and applied to the speedy coming of the Messiah to judgment; not, however, according to the exact meaning of the words, but according to the fundamental idea of the prophetic announcement. For the vision, the certain fulfilment of which is proclaimed by Habakkuk, predicts the judgment upon the power of the world, which the Messiah will bring to completion.

Hab 2:4-5

With these verses the prophecy itself commences; namely, with a statement of the fundamental thought, that the presumptuous and proud will not continue, but the just alone will live. Hab 2:4. “Behold, puffed up, his soul is not straight within him: but the just, through his faith will he live. Hab 2:5. And moreover, the wine is treacherous: a boasting man, he continues not; he who has opened his soul as wide as hell, and is like death, and is not satisfied, and gathered all nations to himself, and collected all peoples to himself.” These verses, although they contain the fundamental thought, or so to speak the heading of the following announcement of the judgment upon the Chaldaeans, are nevertheless not to be regarded as the sum and substance of what the prophet was to write upon the tables. For they do indeed give one characteristic of two classes of men, with a brief intimation of the fate of both, but they contain no formally rounded thought, which could constitute the motto of the whole; on the contrary, the description of the insatiable greediness of the Chaldaean is attached in Hab 2:5 to the picture of the haughty sinner, that the two cannot be separated. This picture is given in a subjective clause, which is only completed by the filling up in Hab 2:6. The sentence pronounced upon the Chaldaean in Hab 2:4, Hab 2:5, simply forms the preparatory introduction to the real answer to the prophet’s leading question. The subject is not mentioned in Hab 2:4, but may be inferred from the prophet’s question in Hab 1:12-17. The Chaldaean is meant. His soul is puffed up. עפּלה, perf. pual of עפל, of which the hiphil only occurs in Num 14:44, and that as synonymous with הזיד in Deu 1:43. From this, as well as from the noun עפל, a hill or swelling, we get the meaning, to be swollen up, puffed up, proud; and in the hiphil, to act haughtily or presumptuously. The thought is explained and strengthened by לא ישׁרה, “his soul is not straight.” ישׁר, to be straight, without turning and trickery, i.e., to be upright. בּו does not belong to נפשׁו (his soul in him, equivalent to his inmost soul), but to the verbs of the sentence. The early translators and commentators have taken this hemistich differently. They divide it into protasis and apodosis, and take עפּלה either as the predicate or as the subject. Luther also takes it in the latter sense: “He who is stiff-necked will have no rest in his soul.” Burk renders it still more faithfully: ecce quae effert se, non recta est anima ejus in eo. In either case we must supply נפשׁ אשׁר after עפּלה. But such an ellipsis as this, in which not only the relative word, but also the noun supporting the relative clause, would be omitted, is unparalleled and inadmissible, if only because of the tautology which would arise from supplying nephesh. This also applies to the hypothetical view of הנּה עפּלה, upon which the Septuagint rendering, ἐὰν ὑποστείληται, οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῶ, is founded. Even with this view nephesh could not be omitted as the subject of the protasis, and בּו would have no noun to which to refer. This rendering is altogether nothing more than a conjecture, עפל being confounded with עלף, and נפשׁו altered into נפשׁי. Nor is it proved to be correct, by the fact that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 10:38) makes use of the words of our verse, according to this rendering, to support his admonition is to stedfastness. For he does not introduce the verse as a quotation to prove his words, but simply clothes his own thoughts in these words of the Bible which floated before his mind, and in so doing transposes the two hemistichs, and thereby gives the words a meaning quite in accordance with the Scriptures, which can hardly be obtained from the Alexandrian version, since we have there to take the subject to ὑποστείληται from the preceding ἐρχόμενος, which gives no sense, whereas by transposing the clauses a very suitable subject can be supplied from ὁ δίκαιος.

The following clause, וצדּיק וגו, is attached adversatively, and in form is subordinate to the sentence in the first hemistich in this sense, “whilst, on the contrary, the righteous lives through his faith,” notwithstanding the fact that it contains a very important thought, which intimates indirectly that pride and want of uprightness will bring destruction upon the Chaldaean. בּאמוּנתו belongs to יחיה, not to צדּיק. The tiphchah under the word does not show that it belongs to tsaddı̄q, but simply that it has the leading tone of the sentence, because it is placed with emphasis before the verb (Delitzsch). אמוּנה does not denote “an honourable character, or fidelity to conviction” (Hitzig), but (from 'âman, to be firm, to last) firmness (Exo 17:12); then, as an attribute of God, trustworthiness, unchangeable fidelity in the fulfilment of His promises (Deu 32:4; Psa 33:4; Psa 89:34); and, as a personal attribute of man, fidelity in word and deed (Jer 7:28; Jer 9:2; Psa 37:3); and, in his relation to God, firm attachment to God, an undisturbed confidence in the divine promises of grace, firma fiducia and fides, so that in 'ĕmūnâh the primary meanings of ne'ĕmân and he'ĕmı̄n are combined. This is also apparent from the fact that Abraham is called ne'ĕmân in Neh 9:8, with reference to the fact that it is affirmed of him in Gen 15:6 that האמין בּיהוה, “he trusted, or believed, the Lord;” and still more indisputably from the passage before us, since it is impossible to mistake the reference in צדּיק בּאמוּנתו יחיה to Gen 15:6, “he believed (he'ĕmı̄n) in Jehovah, and He reckoned it to him litsedâqâh.” It is also indisputably evident from the context that our passage treats of the relation between man and God, since the words themselves speak of a waiting (chikkâh) for the fulfilment of a promising oracle, which is to be preceded by a period of severe suffering. “What is more natural than that life or deliverance from destruction should be promised to that faith which adheres faithfully to God, holds fast by the word of promise, and confidently waits for its fulfilment in the midst of tribulation? It is not the sincerity, trustworthiness, or integrity of the righteous man, regarded as being virtues in themselves, which are in danger of being shaken and giving way in such times of tribulation, but, as we may see in the case of the prophet himself, his faith. To this, therefore, there is appended the great promise expressed in the one word יחיה” (Delitzsch). And in addition to this, 'ĕmūnâh is opposed to the pride of the Chaldaean, to his exaltation of himself above God; and for that very reason it cannot denote integrity in itself, but simply some quality which has for its leading feature humble submission to God, that is to say, faith, or firm reliance upon God. The Jewish expositors, therefore, have unanimously retained this meaning here, and the lxx have rendered the word quite correctly πίστις, although by changing the suffix, and giving ἐκ πίστεώς μου instead of αὐτοῦ (or more properly ἑαυτοῦ: Aquila and the other Greek versions), they have missed, or rather perverted, the sense. The deep meaning of these words has been first fully brought out by the Apostle Paul (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11 : see also Heb 10:38), who omits the erroneous μου of the lxx, and makes the declaration ὁ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται the basis of the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith.

Hab 2:6-20

In Hab 2:6-20 the destruction of the Chaldaean, which has been already intimated in Hab 2:4, Hab 2:5, is announced in the form of a song composed of threatening sentences, which utters woes in five strophes consisting of three verses each: (1) upon the rapacity and plundering of the Chaldaean (Hab 2:6-8); (2) upon his attempt to establish his dynasty firmly by means of force and cunning (Hab 2:9-11); (3) upon his wicked ways of building (Hab 2:12-14); (4) upon his base treatment of the subjugated nations (Hab 2:15-17); and (5) upon his idolatry (Hab 2:18-20). These five strophes are connected together, so as to form two larger divisions, by a refrain which closes the first and fourth, as well as by the promise explanatory of the threat in which the third and fifth strophes terminate; of which two divisions the first threatens the judgment of retribution upon the insatiableness of the Chaldaean in three woes (Hab 2:5), and the second in two woes the judgment of retribution upon his pride. Throughout the whole of the threatening prophecy the Chaldaean nation is embraced, as in Hab 2:4, Hab 2:5, in the ideal person of its ruler.The unity of the threatening prophecy, which is brought out in the clearest manner in this formal arrangement, has been torn in pieces in the most violent manner by Hitzig, through his assumption that the oracle of God includes no more than Hab 2:4-8, and that a second part is appended to it in Hab 2:9-20, in which the prophet expresses his own thoughts and feelings, first of all concerning king Jehoiakim (Hab 2:9-14), and then concerning the Egyptians (Hab 2:15-20). This hypothesis, of which Maurer observes quite correctly, Qua nulla unquam excogitata est infelicior, rests upon nothing more than the dogmatic assumption, that there is no such thing as prophecy effected by supernatural causality, and therefore Habakkuk cannot have spoken of Nebuchadnezzar’s buildings before they were finished, or at any rate in progress. The two strophes in Hab 2:9-14 contain nothing whatever that would not apply most perfectly to the Chaldaean, or that is not covered by what precedes and follows (compare Hab 2:9 with 6 b and 8 a, and Hab 2:10 with 5 b and 8 a). “The strophe in Hab 2:9-11 contains the same fundamental thought as that expressed by Isaiah in Isa 14:12-14 respecting the Chaldaean, viz., the description of his pride, which manifests itself in ambitious edifices founded upon the ruins of the prosperity of strangers” (Delitzsch). The resemblance between the contents of this strophe and the woe pronounced upon Jehoiakim by Jeremiah in Jer 12:13-17 may be very simply explained from the fact that Jehoiakim, like the Chaldaean, was a tyrant who occupied himself with the erection of large state buildings and fortifications, whereas the extermination of many nations does not apply in any respect to Jehoiakim. Lastly, there is no plausible ground whatever for referring the last two strophes (Hab 2:15-20) to the Egyptian, for the assertion that Habakkuk could not pass over the Egyptian in silence, unless he meant to confine himself to the Chaldaean, is a pure petitio principii; and to any unprejudiced mind the allusion to the Chaldaean in this verse is placed beyond all possible doubt by Isa 14:8, where the devastation of Lebanon is also attributed to him, just as it is in Hab 2:17 of our prophecy. Hab 2:6-8

Introduction of the ode and first strophe. - Hab 2:6. “Will not all these lift up a proverb upon him, and a song, a riddle upon him? And men will say, Woe to him who increases what is not his own! For how long? and who loadeth himself with the burden of pledges. Hab 2:7. Will not thy biters rise up suddenly, and thy destroyers wake up, and thou wilt become booty to them? Hab 2:8. For thou hast plundered many nations, all the rest of the nations will plunder thee, for the blood of men and wickedness on the earth, the city, and all its inhabitants.” הלוא is here, as everywhere else, equivalent to a confident assertion. “All these:” this evidently points back to “all nations” and “all people.” Nevertheless the nations as such, or in pleno, are not meant, but simply the believers among them, who expect Jehovah to inflict judgment upon the Chaldaeans, and look forward to that judgment for the revelation of the glory of God. For the ode is prophetical in its nature, and is applicable to all times and all nations. Mâshâl is a sententious poem, as in Mic 2:4 and Isa 14:4, not a derisive song, for this subordinate meaning could only be derived from the context, as in Isa 14:4 for example; and there is nothing to suggest it here. So, again, melı̄tsâh 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 לוּץ, lucere and lascivire, a brilliant oration, oratio splendida, from which מליץ is used to denote an interpreter, so called, not from the obscurity of the speaking, but from his making the speech clear or intelligible. חידות לו is in apposition to מליצה and משׁל, adding the more precise definition, that the sayings contain enigmas relating to him (the Chaldaean). The enigmatical feature comes out more especially in the double meaning of עבטיט in Hab 2:6, נשׁכיך in Hab 2:7, and קיקלון in Hab 2:16. לאמר serves, like לאמר elsewhere, as a direct introduction to the speech. The first woe applies to the insatiable rapacity of the Chaldaean. המּרבּה לא־לו, who increases what does not belong to him, i.e., who seizes upon a large amount of the possessions of others. עד־מתי, for how long, sc. will he be able to do this with impunity; not “how long has he already done this” (Hitzig), for the words do not express exultation at the termination of the oppression, but are a sign appended to the woe, over the apparently interminable plunderings on the part of the Chaldaean. וּמכבּיד is also dependent upon hōi, since the defined participle which stands at the head of the cry of woe is generally followed by participles undefined, as though the former regulated the whole (cf. Isa 5:20 and Isa 10:1). At the same time, it might be taken as a simple declaration in itself, though still standing under the influence of the hōi; in which case הוּא would have to be supplied in thought, like וחוטא in Hab 2:10. And even in this instance the sentence is not subordinate to the preceding one, as Luther follows Rashi in assuming (“and still only heaps much slime upon himself”); but is co-ordinate, as the parallelism of the clauses and the meaning of עבטיט require. The ἁπ. λεγ. עבטיט is probably chosen on account of the resemblance in sound to מכבּיד, whilst it also covers an enigma or double entendre. Being formed from עבט (to give a pledge) by the repetition of the last radical, עבטיט signifies the mass of pledges (pignorum captorum copia: Ges., Maurer, Delitzsch), not the load of guilt, either in a literal or a tropico-moral sense. The quantity of foreign property which the Chaldaean has accumulated is represented as a heavy mass of pledges, which he has taken from the nations like an unmerciful usurer (Deu 24:10), to point to the fact that he will be compelled to disgorge them in due time. הכבּיד, to make heavy, i.e., to lay a heavy load upon a person. The word עבטיט, however, might form two words so far as the sound is concerned: עב טיט, cloud (i.e., mass) of dirt, which will cause his ruin as soon as it is discharged. This is the sense in which the Syriac has taken the word; and Jerome does the same, observing, considera quam eleganter multiplicatas divitias densum appellaverit lutum, no doubt according to a Jewish tradition, since Kimchi, Rashi, and Ab. Ezra take the word as a composite one, and merely differ as to the explanation of עב. Grammatically considered, this explanation is indeed untenable, since the Hebrew language has formed no appellative nomina composita; but the word is nevertheless enigmatical, because, when heard from the lips, it might be taken as two words, and understood in the sense indicated.

In Hab 2:7 the threatening hōi is still further developed. Will not thy biters arise? נשׁכיך = נשׁכתם אתך, those who bite thee. In the description here given of the enemy as savage vipers (cf. Jer 8:17) there is also an enigmatical double entendre, which Delitzsch has admirably interpreted thus: “המּרבּה,” he says, “pointed to תּרבּית (interest). The latter, favoured by the idea of the Chaldaean as an unmerciful usurer, which is concentrated in עבטיט, points to נשׁך, which is frequently connected with תּרבּית, and signifies usurious interest; and this again to the striking epithet נשׁכתם, which is applied to those who have to inflict the divine retribution upon the Chaldaean. The prophet selected this to suggest the thought that there would come upon the Chaldaean those who would demand back with interest (neshek) the capital of which he had unrighteously taken possession, just as he had unmercifully taken the goods of the nations from them by usury and pawn.” יקצוּ, from יקץ, they will awake, viz., מזעזעך, those who shake or rouse thee up. זעזע, pilel of זוּע, σείω, is used in Arabic of the wind (to shake the tree); hence, as in this case, it was employed to denote shaking up or scaring away from a possession, as is often done, for example, by a creditor (Hitzig, Delitzsch). משׁסּות is an intensive plural.

So far as this threat applies to the Chaldaeans, it was executed by the Medes and Persians, who destroyed the Chaldaean empire. But the threat has a much more extensive application. This is evident, apart from other proofs, from Hab 2:8 itself, according to which the whole of the remnant of the nations is to inflict the retribution. Gōyı̄m rabbı̄m, “many nations:” this is not to be taken as an antithesis to kol-haggōyı̄m (all nations) in Hab 2:5, since “all nations” are simply many nations, as kol is not to be taken in its absolute sense, but simply in a relative sense, as denoting all the nations that lie within the prophet’s horizon, as having entered the arena of history. Through ישׁלּוּך, which is placed at the head of the concluding clause without a copula, the antithesis to שׁלּות is sharply brought out, and the idea of the righteous retaliation distinctly expressed. כּל־יתר עמּים, the whole remnant of the nations, is not all the rest, with the exception of the one Chaldaean, for yether always denotes the remnant which is left after the deduction of a portion; nor does it mean all the rest of the nations, who are spared and not subjugated, in distinction from the plundered and subjugated nations, as Hitzig with many others imagine, and in proof of which he adduces the fact that the overthrow of the Chaldaeans was effected by nations that had not been subdued. But, as Delitzsch has correctly observed, this view makes the prophet contradict not only himself, but the whole of the prophetic view of the world-wide dominion of Nebuchadnezzar. According to Hab 2:5, the Chaldaean has grasped to himself the dominion over all nations, and consequently there cannot be any nations left that he has not plundered. Moreover, the Chaldaean, or Nebuchadnezzar as the head of the Chaldaean kingdom, appears in prophecy (Jer 27:7-8), as he does in history (Dan 2:38; 3:31; Dan 5:19) throughout, as the ruler of the world in the highest sense, who has subjugated all nations and kingdoms round about, and compelled them to serve him. These nations include the Medes and Elamites (= Persians), to whom the future conquest of Babylon is attributed in Isa 13:17; Isa 21:2; Jer 51:11, Jer 51:28. They are both mentioned in Jer 25:25 among the nations, to whom the prophet is to reach the cup of wrath from the hand of Jehovah; and the kingdom of Elam especially is threatened in Jer 49:34. with the destruction of its power, and dispersion to all four winds. In these two prophecies, indeed, Nebuchadnezzar is not expressly mentioned by name as the executor of the judgment of wrath; but in Jeremiah 25 this may plainly be inferred from the context, partly from the fact that, according to Jer 25:9, Judah with its inhabitants, and all nations round about, are to be given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and partly from the fact that in the list of the nations enumerated in Jer 25:18-26 the king of Sesach (i.e., Babel) is mentioned as he who is to drink the cup “after them” (Jer 25:26). The expression 'achărēhem (after them) shows very clearly that the judgment upon the nations previously mentioned, and therefore also upon the kings of Elam and Media, is to occur while the Chaldaean rule continues, i.e., is to be executed by the Chaldaeans. This may, in fact, be inferred, so far as the prophecy respecting Elam in Jer 49:34. is concerned, from the circumstance that Jeremiah’s prophecies with regard to foreign nations in Jeremiah 46-51 are merely expansions of the summary announcement in Jer 25:19-26, and is also confirmed by Eze 32:24, inasmuch as Elam is mentioned there immediately after Asshur in the list of kings and nations that have sunk to the lower regions before Egypt. And if even this prophecy has a much wider meaning, like that concerning Elam in Jer 49:34, and the elegy over Egypt, which Ezekiel strikes up, is expanded into a threatening prophecy concerning the heathen generally (see Kliefoth, Ezech. p. 303), this further reference presupposes the historical fulfilment which the threatening words of prophecy have received through the judgment inflicted by the Chaldaeans upon all the nations mentioned, and has in this its real foundation and soil.

History also harmonizes with this prophetic announcement. The arguments adduced by Hävernick (Daniel, p. 547ff.) to prove that Nebuchadnezzar did not extend his conquests to Elam, and neither subdued this province nor Media, are not conclusive. The fact that after the fall of Nineveh the conquerors, Nabopolassar of Babylonia, and Cyaxares the king of Media, divided the fallen Assyrian kingdom between them, the former receiving the western provinces, and the latter the eastern, does not preclude the possibility of Nebuchadnezzar, the founder of the Chaldaean empire, having made war upon the Median kingdom, and brought it into subjection. There is no historical testimony, however, to the further assertion, that Nebuchadnezzar was only concerned to extend his kingdom towards the west, that his conquests were all of them in the lands situated there, and gave him so much to do that he could not possibly think of extending his eastern frontier. It is true that the opposite of this cannot be inferred from Strabo, xvi. 1, 18;This passage is quoted by Hitzig (Ezech. p. 251) as a proof that Elam made war upon the Babylonians, and, indeed, judging from Jer 49:34, an unsuccessful war. But Strabo speaks of a war between the Elymaeans (Elamites) and the Babylonians and Susians, which M. v. Niebuhr (p. 210) very properly assigns to the period of the alliance between Media (as possessor of Susa) and Babylon. but it may be inferred, as M. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. Assurs, pp. 211-12) has said, from the fact that according to Jeremiah 27 and 28, at the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign, and therefore not very long after Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem in the time of Jehoiachin, and restored order in southern Syria in the most energetic manner, the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, entered into negotiations with Zedekiah for a joint expedition against Nebuchadnezzar. M. v. Niebuhr infers from this that troublous times set in at that period for Nebuchadnezzar, and that this sudden change in the situation of affairs was connected with the death of Cyaxares, and leads to the conjecture that Nebuchadnezzar, who had sworn fealty to Cyaxares, refused at his death to do homage to his successor; for fidelity to a father-in-law, with whose help the kingdom was founded, would assume a very different character if it was renewed to his successor. Babel was too powerful to accept any such enfeoffment as this. And even if Nebuchadnezzar was not a vassal, there could not be a more suitable opportunity for war with Media than that afforded by a change of government, since kingdoms in the East are so easily shaken by the death of a great prince. And there certainly was no lack of inducement to enter upon a war with Media. Elam, for example, from its very situation, and on account of the restlessness of its inhabitants, must have been a constant apple of discord. This combination acquires extreme probability, partly from the fact that Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning Elam, in which that nation is threatened with the destruction of its power and dispersion to all four winds, was first uttered at the commencement of Zedekiah’s reign (Jer 49:34), whereas the rest of his prophecies against foreign nations date from an earlier period, and that against Babel is the only one which falls later, namely, in the fourth year of Zedekiah (Jer 51:59), which appears to point to the fact that at the commencement of Zedekiah’s reign things were brewing in Elam which might lead to his ruin. And it is favoured in part by the account in the book of Judith of a war between Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar) and Media, which terminated victoriously according to the Rec. vulg. in the twelfth year of his reign, since this account is hardly altogether a fictitious one. These prophetic and historical testimonies may be regarded as quite sufficient, considering the universally scanty accounts of the Chaldaean monarchy given by the Greeks and Romans, to warrant us in assuming without hesitation, as M. v. Niebuhr has done, that between the ninth and twentieth years of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign - namely, at the commencement of Zedekiah’s reign - the former had to make war not only with Elam, but with Media also, and that it is to this eastern war that we should have to attribute the commotion in Syria.

From all this we may see that there is no necessity to explain “all the remnant of the nations” as relating to the remainder of the nations that had not been subjugated, but that we may understand it as signifying the remnant of the nations plundered and subjugated by the Chaldaeans (as is done by the lxx, Theodoret, Delitzsch, and others), which is the only explanation in harmony with the usage of the language. For in Jos 23:12 yether haggōyı̄m denotes the Canaanitish nations left after the war of extermination; and in Zec 14:2 yether hâ‛âm signifies the remnant of the nation left after the previous conquest of the city, and the carrying away of half its inhabitants. In Zep 2:9 yether gōi is synonymous with שׁארית עמּי, and our יתר עמּים is equivalent to שׁארית הגּוים in Eze 36:3-4. מדּמי אדם: on account of the human blood unjustly shed, and on account of the wickedness on the earth (chămas with the Genesis obj. as in Joe 3:19 and Oba 1:10). 'Erets without an article is not the holy land, but the earth generally; and so the city (qiryâh, which is still dependent upon chămas) is not Jerusalem, nor any one particular city, but, with indefinite generality, “cities.” The two clauses are parallel, cities and their inhabitants corresponding to men and the earth. The Chaldaean is depicted as one who gathers men and nations in his net (Hab 1:14-17). And so in Jer 50:23 he is called a hammer of the whole earth, in Jer 51:7 a cup of reeling, and in Jer 51:25 the destroyer of the whole earth.

Waiting upon God; The People Directed. (b. c. 600.)

1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

Here, I. The prophet humbly gives his attendance upon God (v. 1): "I will stand upon my watch, as a sentinel on the walls of a besieged city, or on the borders of an invaded country, that is very solicitous to gain intelligence. I will look up, will look round, will look within, and watch to see what he will say unto me, will listen attentively to the words of his mouth and carefully observe the steps of his providence, that I may not lose the least hint of instruction or direction. I will watch to see what he will say in me" (so it may be read), "what the Spirit of prophecy in me will dictate to me, by way of answer to my complaints." Even in a ordinary way, God not only speaks to us by his word, but speaks in us by our own consciences, whispering to us, This is the way, walk in it; and we must attend to the voice of God in both. The prophet's standing upon his tower, or high place, intimates his prudence, in making use of the helps and means he had within his reach to know the mind of God, and to be instructed concerning it. Those that expect to hear from God must withdraw from the world, and get above it, must raise their attention, fix their thought, study the scriptures, consult experiences and the experienced, continue instant in prayer, and thus set themselves upon the tower. His standing upon his watch intimates his patience, his constancy and resolution; he will wait the time, and weather the point, as a watchman does, but he will have an answer; he will know what God will say to him, not only for his own satisfaction, but to enable him as a prophet to give satisfaction to others, and answer their exceptions, when he is reproved or argued with. Herein the prophet is an example to us. 1. When we are tossed and perplexed with doubts concerning the methods of Providence, are tempted to think that it is fate, or fortune, and not a wise God, that governs the world, or that the church is abandoned, and God's covenant with his people cancelled and laid aside, then we must take pains to furnish ourselves with considerations proper to clear this matter; we must stand upon our watch against the temptation, that it may not get ground upon us, must set ourselves upon the tower, to see if we can discover that which will silence the temptation and solve the objected difficulties, must do as the psalmist, consider the days of old and make a diligent search (Ps. lxxvii. 6), must go into the sanctuary of God, and there labour to understand the end of these things (Ps. lxxiii. 17); we must not give way to our doubts, but struggle to make the best of our way out of them. 2. When we have been at prayer, pouring out our complaints and requests before God, we must carefully observe what answers God gives by his word, his Spirit, and his providences, to our humble representations; when David says, I will direct my prayer unto thee, as an arrow to the mark, he adds, I will look up, will look after my prayer, as a man does after the arrow he has shot, Ps. v. 3. We must hear what God the Lord will speak, Ps. lxxxv. 8. 3. When we go to read and hear the word of God, and so to consult the lively oracles, we must set ourselves to observe what God will thereby say unto us, to suit our case, what word of conviction, caution, counsel, and comfort, he will bring to our souls, that we may receive it, and submit to the power of it, and may consider what we shall answer, what returns we shall make to the word of God, when we are reproved by it. 4. When we are attacked by such as quarrel with God and his providence as the prophet here seems to have been—beset, besieged, as in a tower, by hosts of objectors—we should consider how to answer them, fetch our instructions from God, hear what he says to us for our satisfaction, and have that ready to say to others, when we are reproved, to satisfy them, as a reason of the hope that is in us (1 Pet. iii. 15), and beg of God a mouth and wisdom, and that it may be given us in that same hour what we shall speak.

II. God graciously gives him the meeting; for he will not disappoint the believing expectations of his people that wait to hear what he will say unto them, but will speak peace, will answer them with good words and comfortable words, Zech. i. 13. The prophet had complained of the prevalence of the Chaldeans, which God had given him a prospect of; now, to pacify him concerning it, he here gives him a further prospect of their fall and ruin, as Isaiah, before this, when he had foretold the captivity in Babylon, foretold also the destruction of Babylon. Now, this great and important event being made known to him by a vision, care is taken to publish the vision, and transmit it to the generations to come, who should see the accomplishment of it.

1. The prophet must write the vision, v. 2. Thus, when St. John had a vision of the New Jerusalem, he was ordered to write, Rev. xxi. 5. He must write it, that he might imprint it on his own mind, and make it more clear to himself, but especially that it might be notified to those in distant places and transmitted to those in future ages. What is handed down by tradition is easily mistaken and liable to corruption; but what is written is reduced to a certainty, and preserved safe and pure. We have reason to bless God for written visions, that God has written to us the great things of his prophets as well as of his law. He must write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, must write it legibly, in large characters, so that he who runs may read it, that those who will not allow themselves leisure to read it deliberately may not avoid a cursory view of it. Probably, the prophets were wont to write some of the most remarkable of their predictions in tables, and to hang them up in the temple, Isa. viii. 1. Now the prophet is told to write this very plain. Note, Those who are employed in preaching the word of God should study plainness as much as may be, so as to make themselves intelligible to the meanest capacities. The things of our everlasting peace, which God has written to us, are made plain, they are all plain to him that understands (Prov. viii. 9), and they are published with authority; God himself has prefixed his imprimatur to them; he has said, Make them plain.

2. The people must wait for the accomplishment of the vision (v. 3): "The vision is yet for an appointed time to come. You shall now be told of your deliverance by the breaking of the Chaldeans' power, and that the time of it is fixed in the counsel and decree of God. There is an appointed time, but it is not near; it is yet to be deferred a great while;" and that comes in here as a reason why it must be written, that it may be reviewed afterwards and the event compared with it. Note, God has an appointed time for his appointed work, and will be sure to do the work when the time comes; it is not for us to anticipate his appointments, but to wait his time. And it is a great encouragement to wait with patience, that, though the promised favour be deferred long, it will come at last, and be an abundant recompence to us for our waiting: At the end it shall speak and not lie. We shall not be disappointed of it, for it will come at the time appointed; nor shall we be disappointed in it, for it will fully answer our believing expectations. The promise may seem silent a great while, but at the end it shall speak; and therefore, though it tarry longer than we expected, yet we must continue waiting for it, being assured it will come, and willing to tarry until it does come. The day that God has set for the deliverance of his people, and the destruction of his and their enemies, is a day, (1.) That will surely come at last; it is never adjourned sine die—without fixing another day, but it will without fail come at the fixed time and the fittest time. (2.) It will not tarry, for God is not slack, as some count slackness (2 Pet. iii. 9); though it tarry past our time, yet it does not tarry past God's time, which is always the best time.

3. This vision, the accomplishment of which is so long waited for, will be such an exercise of faith and patience as will try and discover men what they are, v. 4. (1.) There are some who will proudly disdain this vision, whose hearts are so lifted up that they scorn to take notice of it; if God will work for them immediately, they will thank him, but they will not give him credit; their hearts are lifted up towards vanity, and, since God puts them off, they will shift for themselves and not be beholden to him; they think their own hands sufficient for them, and God's promise is to them an insignificant thing. That man's soul that is thus lifted up is not upright in him; it is not right with God, is not as it should be. Those that either distrust or despise God's all-sufficiency will not walk uprightly with him, Gen. xvii. 1. But, (2.) Those who are truly good, and whose hearts are upright with God, will value the promise, and venture their all upon it; and, in confidence of the truth of it, will keep close to God and duty in the most difficult trying times, and will then live comfortably in communion with God, dependence on him, and expectation of him. The just shall live by faith; during the captivity good people shall support themselves, and live comfortably, by faith in these precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. The just shall live by his faith, by that faith which he acts upon the word of God. This is quoted in the New Testament (Rom. i. 17; Gal. iii. 11; Heb. x. 38), for the proof of the great doctrine of justification by faith only and of the influence which the grace of faith has upon the Christian life. Those that are made just by faith shall live, shall be happy here and for ever; while they are here, they live by it; when they come to heaven faith shall be swallowed up in vision.

Judgment Predicted; Judgment of the King of Babylon. (b. c. 600.)

5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: 6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! 7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? 8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 9 Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! 10 Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. 11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. 12 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord , as the waters cover the sea.

The prophet having had orders to write the vision, and the people to wait for the accomplishment of it, the vision itself follows; and it is, as divers other prophecies we have met with, the burden of Babylon and Babylon's king, the same that was said to pass over and offend, ch. i. 11. It reads the doom, some think, of Nebuchadnezzar, who was principally active in the destruction of Jerusalem, or of that monarchy, or of the whole kingdom of the Chaldeans, or of all such proud and oppressive powers as bear hard upon any people, especially upon God's people. Observe,

I. The charge laid down against this enemy, upon which the sentence is grounded, v. 5. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, are the entangling snares of men, and great men especially; and we find him that led Israel captive himself led captive by each of these. For, 1. He is sensual and voluptuous, and given to his pleasures: He transgresses by wine. Drunkenness is itself a transgression, and is the cause of abundance of transgression. We read of those that err through wine, Isa. xxviii. 7. Belshazzar (in whom particularly this prophecy had its accomplishment) was in the height of his transgression by wine when the hand-writing upon the wall signed the warrant for his immediate execution, pursuant to this sentence, Dan. v. 1. 2. He is haughty and imperious: He is a proud man, and his pride is a certain presage of his fall coming on. If great men be proud men, the great God will make them know he is above them. His transgressing by wine is made the cause of his arrogance and insolence: therefore he is a proud man. When a man is drunk, though he makes himself as mean as a beast, yet he thinks himself as great as a king, and prides himself in that by which he shames himself. We find the crown of pride upon the head of the drunkards of Ephraim, and a woe to both, Isa. xxviii. 1. 3. He is covetous and greedy of wealth, and this is the effect of his pride; he thinks himself worthy to enjoy all, and therefore makes it his business to engross all. The Chaldean monarchy aimed to be a universal one. He keeps not at home, is not content with his own, which he has an incontestable title to, but thinks it too little, and so enjoys it not, nor takes the comfort he might in his own palace, in his own dominion. His sin is his punishment, his ambition is his perpetual uneasiness. Though the home be a palace, yet to a discontented mind it is a prison. He enlarges his desire as hell, or the grave, which daily receives the body of the dead, and yet still cries, Give, give; he is as death, which continues to devour, and cannot be satisfied. Note, It is the sin and folly of many who have a great deal of the wealth of this world that they do not know when they have enough, but the more they have the more they would have, and the more eager they are for it. And it is just with God that the desires which are insatiable should still be unsatisfied; it is the doom passed on those that love silver that they shall never be satisfied with it, Eccl. v. 10. Those that will not be content with their allotments shall not have the comfort of their achievements. This proud prince is still gathering to him all nations, and heaping to him all people, invading their rights, seizing their properties, and they must not be unless they will be his, and under his command. One nation will not satisfy him unless he has another, and then another, and all at last; as those in a lower sphere, to gratify the same inordinate desire, lay house to house, and field to field, that they may be placed alone in the earth, Isa. v. 8. And it is hard to say which is more to be pitied, the folly of such ambitious princes as place their honour in enlarging their dominions, and not in ruling them well, or the misery of those nations that are harassed and pulled to pieces by them.

II. The sentence passed upon him (v. 6): Shall not all these take up a parable against him? His doom is,

1. That, since pride has been his sin, disgrace and dishonour shall be his punishment, and he shall be loaded with contempt, shall be laughed at and despised by all about him, as those that look big, and aim high, deserve to be, and commonly are, when they are brought down and baffled.

2. That, since he has been abusive to his neighbours, those very persons whom he has abused shall be the instruments of his disgrace: All those shall take up a taunting proverb against him. They shall have the pleasure of insulting over him and he the shame of being trampled upon by them. Those that shall triumph in the fall of this great tyrant are here furnished with a parable, and a taunting proverb, to take up against him. He shall say (he that draws up the insulting ditty shall say thus), Ho, he that increases that which is not his! Aha! what has become of him now? So it may be read in a taunting way. Or, He shall say, that is, the just, who lives by his faith, he to whom the vision is written and made plain, with the help of that shall say this, shall foretel the enemy's fall, even when he sees him flourishing, and suddenly curse his habitation, even when he is taking root, Job v. 3. He shall indeed denounce woes against him.

(1.) Here is a woe against him for increasing his own possessions by invading his neighbour's rights, v. 6-8. He increases that which is not his, but other people's. Note, No more of what we have is to be reckoned ours than what we came honestly by; nor will it long be ours, for wealth gotten by vanity will be diminished. Let not those that thrive in the world be too forward to bless themselves in it, for, if they do not thrive lawfully, they are under a woe. See here, [1.] What this prosperous prince is doing; he is lading himself with thick clay. Riches are but clay, thick clay; what are gold and silver but white and yellow earth? Those that travel through thick clay are both retarded and dirtied in their journey; so are those that go through the world in the midst of an abundance of the wealth of it; but, as if that were not enough, what fools are those that load themselves with it, as if this trash would be their treasure! They burden themselves with continual care about it, with a great deal of guilt in getting, saving, and spending it, and with a heavy account which they must give of it another day. They overload their ship with this thick clay, and so sink it and themselves into destruction and perdition. [2.] See what people say of him, while he is thus increasing his wealth; they cry, "How long? How long will it be ere he has enough?" They cry to God, "How long wilt thou suffer this proud oppressor to trouble the nations?" Or they say to one another, "See how long it will last, how long he will be able to keep what he gets thus dishonestly." They dare not speak out, but we know what they mean when they say, How long? [3.] See what will be in the end hereof. What he has got by violence from others, others shall take by violence from him. The Medes and Persians shall make a prey of the Chaldeans, as they have done of other nations, v. 7, 8. "There shall be those that will bite thee and vex thee; those from whom thou didst not fear any danger, that seemed asleep, shall rise up and awake to be a plague to thee. They shall rise up suddenly when thou are most secure, and least prepared to receive the shock and ward off the blow. Shall they not rise up suddenly? No doubt they shall, and thou thyself hast reason to expect it, to be dealt with as thou hast dealt with others, that thou shalt be for booties unto them, as others have been unto thee, that, according to the law of retaliation, as thou hast spoiled many nations so thou shalt thyself be spoiled (v. 8); all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee." The king of Babylon thought he had brought all the nations round about him so low that none of them would be able to make reprisals upon him; but though they were but a remnant of people, a very few left, yet these shall be sufficient to spoil him, when God has such a controversy with him, First, For men's blood, and the thousands of lives that have been sacrificed to his ambition and revenge, especially for the blood of Israelites, which is in a special manner precious to God. Secondly, For the violence of the land, his laying waste so many countries, and destroying the fruits of the earth, especially in the land of Israel. Thirdly, For the violence of the city, the many cities that he had turned into ruinous heaps, especially Jerusalem the holy city, and of all that dwelt therein, who were ruined by him. Note, The violence done by proud men to advance and enrich themselves will be called over again (and must be accounted for) another day, by him to whom vengeance belongs.

(2.) Here is a woe against him for coveting still more, and aiming to be still higher, v. 9-11. The crime for which this woe is denounced is much the same with that in the foregoing article—an insatiable desire of wealth and honour; it is coveting an evil covetousness to his house, that is, grasping at an abundance for his family. Note, Covetousness is a very evil thing in a family; it brings disquiet and uneasiness into it (he that is greedy of gain troubles his own house), and, which is worse, it brings the curse of God upon it and upon all the affairs of it. Woe to him that gains an evil gain; so the margin reads it. There is a lawful gain, which by the blessing of God may be a comfort to a house (a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children), but what is got by fraud and injustice is ill-got, and will be poor gain, will not only do no good to a family, but will bring poverty and ruin upon it. Now observe, [1.] What this covetous wretch aims at; it is to set his nest on high, to raise his family to some greater dignity than it had before arrived at, or to set it, as he apprehends, out of the reach of danger, that he may be delivered from the power of evil, that it may not be in the power of the worst of his enemies to do him a mischief nor so much as to disturb his repose. Note, It is common for men to pretend it as an excuse for their covetousness and ambition that they only consult their own safety, and aim to secure themselves; and yet they do but deceive themselves when they think their wealth will be a strong city to them, and a high wall, for it is so only in their own conceit, Prov. xviii. 11. [2.] What he will get by it: Thou hast consulted, not safety, but shame, to thy house, by cutting off many people, v. 10. Note, An estate raised by iniquity is a scandal to a family. Those that cut off, or undermine, others, to make room for themselves, that impoverish others to enrich themselves, do but consult shame to their houses, and fasten upon them a mark of infamy. Yet that is not the worst of it: "Thou hast sinned against thy own soul, hast brought that under guilt and wrath, and endangered that." Note, Those that do wrong to their neighbour do a much greater wrong to their own souls. But if the sinner pleads, Not guilty, and thinks he has managed his frauds and violence with so much art and contrivance that they cannot be proved upon him, let him know that if there be no other witnesses against him the stone shall cry out of the wall against him, and the beam out of the timber in the roof shall answer it, shall second it, shall witness it, that the money and materials wherewith he built the house were unjustly gotten, v. 11. The stones and timber cry to heaven for vengeance, as the whole creation groans under the sin of man and waits to be delivered from that bondage of corruption.

(3.) Here is a woe against him for building a town and a city by blood and extortion (v. 12): He builds a town, and is him-self lord of it; he establishes a city, and makes it his royal seat. So Nebuchadnezzar did (Dan. iv. 30): Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom? But it is built with the blood of his own subjects, whom he has oppressed, and the blood of his neighbours, whom he has unjustly invaded; it is established by iniquity, by the unrighteous laws that are made for the security of it. Woe to him that does so; for the towns and cities thus built can never be established; they will fall, and their founders be buried in the ruins of them. Babylon, which was built by blood and iniquity, did not continue long; its day soon came to fall; and then this woe took effect, when that prophecy, which is expressed as a history (Isa. xxi. 9), proved a history indeed: Babylon has fallen, has fallen! And the destruction of that city was, [1.] The shame of the Chaldeans, who had taken so much pains, and were at such a vast expense, to fortify it (v. 13): Is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people who have laboured so hard to defend that city shall labour in the very fire, shall see the out-works which they confided in the strength of set on fire, and shall labour in vain to save them? Or they, in their pursuits of worldly wealth and honour, put themselves to great fatigue, and ran a great hazard, as those that labour in the fire do. The worst that can be said of the labourers in God's vineyards is that they have borne the burden and heat of the day (Matt. xx. 12); but those that are eager in their worldly pursuits labour in the very fire, make themselves perfect slaves to their lusts. There is not a greater drudge in the world than he that is under the power of reigning covetousness. And what comes of it? Though they take a world of pains they are but poorly paid for it; for, after all, they weary themselves for very vanity; they were told it was vanity, and when they find themselves disappointed of it, and disappointed in it, they will own it is worse than vanity, it is vexation of spirit. [2.] It was the honour of God, as a God of impartial justice and irresistible power; for by the ruin of the Chaldean monarchy (which all the world could not but take notice of) the earth was filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, v. 14. The Lord is known by these judgments which he executes, especially when he is pleased to look upon proud men and abase them, for he thereby proves himself to be God alone, Job xl. 11, 12. See what good God brings out of the staining and sinking of earthly glory; he thereby manifests and magnifies his own glory, and fills the earth with the knowledge of it as plentifully as the waters cover the sea, which lie deep, spread far, and shall not be dried up until time shall be no more. Such is the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ given by the gospel (2 Cor. iv. 6), and such was the knowledge of his glory by the miraculous ruin of Babylon. Note, Such as will not be taught the knowledge of God's glory by the judgments of his mouth shall be made to know and acknowledge it by the judgments of his hand.

Judgment Predicted. (b. c. 600.)

15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 16 Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord 's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. 17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 18 What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? 19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. 20 But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

The three foregoing articles, upon which the woes here are grounded, are very near akin to each other. The criminals charged by them are oppressors and extortioners, that raise estates by rapine and injustice; and it is mentioned here again (v. 17), the very same that was said v. 8, for that is the crime upon which the greatest stress is laid; it is because of men's blood, innocent blood, barbarously and unjustly shed, which is a provoking crying thing; it is for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein, which God will certainly reckon for, sooner or later, as the asserter of right and the avenger of wrong.

But here are two articles more, of a different nature, which carry a woe to all those in general to whom they belong, and particularly to the Babylonian monarchs, by whom the people of God were taken and held captives.

I. The promoters of drunkenness stand here impeached and condemned. Belshazzar was one of those; he was so, remarkably that very night that the prophecy of this chapter was fulfilled in the period of his life and kingdom, when he drank wine before a thousand of his lords (Dan. v. 1), began the healths, and forced them to pledge him. And perhaps it was one reason why the succeeding monarchs of Persia made it a law of their kingdom that in drinking none should compel, but they should do according to every man's pleasure (as we find, Esth. i. 8), because they had seen in the kings of Babylon the mischievous consequences of forcing healths and making people drunk. But the woe here stands firm and very fearful against all those, whoever they are, who are guilty of this sin at any time, and in any place, from the stately palace (where that was) to the paltry ale-house. Observe,

1. Who the sinner is that is here articled against; it is he that makes his neighbour drunk, v. 15. To give a neighbour drink who is in want, who is thirsty and poor, though it be but a cup of cold water to a disciple, in the name of a disciple, to give drink to weary traveller, nay, and to give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that are heavy of heart, is a piece of charity which is required of us, and shall be recompensed to us. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. But to give a neighbour drink who has enough already, and more than enough, with design to intoxicate him, that he may expose himself, may talk foolishly, and make himself ridiculous, may disclose his own secret concerns, or be drawn in to agree to a bad bargain for himself—this is abominable wickedness; and those who are guilty of it, who make a practice of it, and take a pride and pleasure in it, are rebels against God in heaven, and his sacred laws, factors for the devil in hell, and his cursed interests, and enemies to men on earth, and their honour and welfare; they are like the son of Nebat, who sinned and made Israel to sin. To entice others to drunkenness, to put the bottle to them, that they may be allured to it by its charms, by looking on the wine when it is red and gives its colour in the cup, or to force them to it, obliging them by the rules of the club (and club-laws indeed they are) to drink so many glasses, and so filled, is to do what we can, and perhaps more than we know of, towards the murder both of soul and body; and those that do so have a great deal to answer for.

2. What the sentence is that is here passed upon him. There is a woe to him (v. 15), and a punishment (v. 16) that shall answer to the sin. (1.) Does he put the cup of drunkenness into the hand of his neighbour? The cup of fury, the cup of trembling, the cup of the Lord's right hand, shall be turned unto him; the power of God shall be armed against him. That cup which had gone round among the nations, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, and a hissing, which had made them stumble and fall, so that they could rise no more, shall at length be put into the hand of the king of Babylon, as was foretold, Jer. xxv. 15, 16, 18, 26, 27. Thus the New-Testament Babylon, which had made the nations drunk with the cup of her fornications, shall have blood given her to drink, for she is worthy, Rev. xviii. 3, 6. (2.) Does he take a pleasure in putting his neighbour to shame? He shall himself be loaded with contempt: "Thou art filled with shame for glory, with shame instead of glory, or art filled now with shame more than ever thou wast with glory; and the glory thou hast been filled with shall but serve to make thy shame the more grievous to thyself, and the more ignominious in the eyes of others. Thou also shalt drink of the cup of trembling, and shalt expose thyself by thy fear and cowardice, which shall be as the uncovering of thy nakedness, to thy shame; and all about thee shall load thee with disgrace, for shameful spewing shall be on thy glory, on that which thou hast most prided thyself in, thy dignity, wealth, and dominion; those whom thou hast made drunk shall themselves spew upon it. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts (v. 17); thou shalt be hunted and run down with as much violence as ever any wild beasts in Lebanon were, shall be spoiled as they are, and thy fall made a sport of; for thou art as one of the beasts that made them afraid, and therefore they triumph when they have got the mastery of thee." Or, "It is because of the violence thou hast done to Lebanon, that is, the land of Israel (Deut. iii. 25) and the temple (Zech. xi. 1), that God now reckons with thee; that is the sin that now covers thee."

II. The promoters of idolatry stand here impeached and condemned; and this also was a sin that Babylon was notoriously guilty of; it was the mother of harlots. Belshazzar, in his revels, praised his idols. And for this, here is a woe against them, and in them against all others that do likewise, particularly the New-Testament Babylon. Now see here,

1. What they do to promote idolatry; they are mad upon their idols; so the Chaldeans are said to be, Jer. l. 38. For, (1.) They have a great variety of idols, their graven images and molten images, that people may take their choice, which they like best. (2.) They are very nice and curious in the framing of them: The maker of the work has performed his part admirably well, the fashioner of his fashion (so it is in the margin), that contrived the model in the most significant manner. (3.) They are at great expense in beautifying and adorning them: They lay them over with gold and silver; because these are things people love and dote upon wherever they meet with them, they dress up their idols in them, the more effectually to court the adoration of the children of this world. (4.) They have great expectations from them: The maker of the work trusts therein as his god, puts a confidence in it, and gives honour to it as his god. The worshippers of God give honour to him, by offering up their prayers to him, and waiting to receive instructions and directions from him; and these honours they give to their idols. [1.] They pray to them: They say to the wood, Awake for our relief, "awake to hear our prayers;" and to the dumb stone, "Arise, and save us," as the church prays to her God, Awake, O Lord! arise, Ps. xliv. 23. They own their image to be a god by praying to it. Deliver me, for thou art my God, Isa. xliv. 17. Deos qui rogat ille facit—That to which a man addresses petitions is to him a god. [2.] They consult them as oracles, and expect to be directed and dictated to by them: They say to the dumb stone, though it cannot speak, yet it shall teach. What the wicked demon, or no less wicked priest, speaks to them from the image, they receive with the utmost veneration, as of divine authority, and are ready to be governed by it. Thus is idolatry planted and propagated under the specious show of religion and devotion.

2. How the extreme folly of this is exposed. God, by Isaiah, when he foretold the deliverance of his people out of Babylon, largely showed the shameful stupidity and sottishness of idolaters, and so he does here by the prophet, on the like occasion. (1.) Their images, when they have made them, are but mere matter, which is the meanest lowest rank of being; and all the expense they are at upon them cannot advance them one step above that. They are wholly void both of sense and reason, lifeless and speechless (the idol is a dumb idol, a dumb stone, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it), so that the most minute animal, that has but breath and motion, is more excellent then they. They have not so much as the spirit of a beast. (2.) It is not in their power to do their worshippers any good (v. 18): What profits the graven image? Though it be mere matter, if it were cast into some other form it might be serviceable to some purpose or other of human life; but, as it is made a god of, it is of no profit at all, nor can do its worshippers the least kindness. Nay, (3.) It is so far from profiting them that it puts a cheat upon them, and keeps them under the power of a strong delusion; they say, It shall teach, but it is a teacher of lies; for it represents God as having a body, as being finite, visible, and dependent, whereas he is a Spirit, infinite, invisible, and independent, and it confirms those that become vain in their imaginations in the false notions they have of God, and makes the idea of God to be a precarious thing, and what every man pleases. If we may say to the works of our hands, You are our gods, we may say so to any of the creatures of our own fancy, though the chimera be ever so extravagant. An image is a doctrine of vanities; it is falsehood, and a work of errors, Jer. x. 8, 14, 15. It is therefore easy to see what the religion of those is, and what they aim at, who recommend those teachers of lies as laymen's books, which they are to study and govern themselves by, when they have locked up from them the book of the scriptures in an unknown tongue.

3. How the people of God triumph in him, and therewith support themselves, when the idolaters thus shame themselves (v. 20): But the Lord is in his holy temple. (1.) Our rock is not as their rock, Deut. xxxii. 31. Theirs are dumb idols; ours is Jehovah, a living God, who is what he is, and not, as theirs, what men please to make him. He is in his holy temple in heaven, the residence of his glory, where we have access to him in the way, not which we have invented, but which he himself has instituted. Compare Ps. cxv. 3, But our God is in the heavens, and Ps. xi. 4. (2.) The multitude of their gods which they set up, and take so much pains to support, cannot thrust out our God; he is, and will be, in his holy temple still, and glorious in holiness. They have laid waste his temple at Jerusalem; but he has a temple above that is out of the reach of their rage and malice, but within the reach of his people's faith and prayers. (3.) Our God will make all the world silent before him, will strike the idolaters as dumb as their idols, convincing them of their folly, and covering them with shame. He will silence the fury of the oppressors, and check their rage against his people. (4.) It is the duty of his people to attend him with silent adorings (Ps. lxv. 1), and patiently to wait for his appearing to save them in his own way and time. Be still, and know that he is God, Zech. ii. 13.

CHAP. II.

Verſe 1. I will ſtand upon my watch] To ſee what becomes of my prayer, and what will be the iſſue of my doubts and temptations about Gods providence, ruling the affaires of the world. See the Note on chap. 1.17. There are ſpaces betwixt our prayers, and Gods anſwers. God harkens what Habacuc ſpeakes: and Habacuc muſt harken another while what God ſpeakes. This he had learned of David Pſal. 85.8. Prayer is a Chriſtians angel, ſeed, dove, meſſenger: and muſt be looked after. Who ſhootes an arrow, or caſts a boule, and takes not notice where it lights? They that obſerve not the anſwer of their prayers, do as ſcoffing Pilate, who asked in ſcorn of Chriſt what's truth? but ſtaid not for an anſwer.

and ſet me upon the tower] Heb: ſet me firme and faſt (as a Champion that will keep his ground) upon the tower or fortreſſe of divine meditation, upon Gods word,Neſcio quomodo imbecillior eſt medicina quam morbus. which alone hath virtutem pacativam a ſettling property to compoſe the ſoule when diſtempered, and to lodge a bleſſed calme, a ſabbath of reſt in it, far above all Philoſophicall Conſolations: whereunto when Cicero had aſcribed very much, yet he is forced to conclude, that the diſeaſe was too hard for the medicine. And this well appeared both in Socrates who died doubtingly; and Cato, who deſperately ſlew himſelf, after he had firſt read Plato's diſcourſe concerning the immortality of the ſoule. So fooliſh a thing it is, to flie in diſtreſſe of mind ad conſolatiunculas creaturulae, as Luther ſpeaketh: and not to run to the Name of the Lord, that ſtrong tower Prov. 18.10. R. Kimchi reades the text thus, I have ſet me in a circle q. d. I will not out, till I have an anſwer, why thou deferreſt to puniſh the wicked.

and will watch to ſee what he will ſay unto me] Or, in me, viz. by a Prophetick ſpirit by internall revelation. 2 Sam. 23.1. Zach. 1.9. and 2.2. Preachers muſt ſtill hearken what the Lord God ſaith unto them, and in them; ſpeaking as the oracles of God 2 Pet. 4.11. and able to ſay with St. Paul, I have received of the Lord that which alſo I deliver unto you 1 Cor. 11.23. For, ut drachmam auri ſine imagine Principis, ſic verba Praedicantis ſine authoritate Dei, contemnunt homines ſaith Lipſius. Bring ſcripture, or elſe you do but throw forth words without wiſdome, and to little purpoſe, becauſe they come not Cumprivilegio.

and what I ſhall anſwer, when I am reprooved] Heb: upon my reproof or arguing. Increpationis nomine tentationes intelligit, ſaith Gualther. Under the name of reproof, he underſtandeth thoſe temptations whereby his faith was aſſaulted, when he ſaw bad men proſper, good men ſuffer. Satan and the world do uſually ſet upon Gods ſervants with this weapon to unſettle their faith, and to make them fall from their own ſtedfaſtneſſe. Doſt thou ſtill retain thine integrity? ſaid Jobs wife to him. Seeſt thou not how little good there is to be got by Gods ſervice? that all things are in a huddle here below, that they run on wheeles, and have no certain courſe? Thus the devill and his imps ſuggeſt to the godly, and thereby greatly diſquiet them: ſetting their thoughts all on an hurricomb. It was the caſe of David Pſa. 73. of Jeremy chap. 12.1.5. Of Baſil under the heat of the Arrian perſecution, An Eccleſias ſuas prorſus dereliquit Dominus? ſaith He; what? hath the Lord caſt off all care of his churches? Is it now the laſt houre? &c. Of many good people in Salvians time, for whoſe ſatisfaction he was forced to write thoſe eight excellent bookes De Gubernatione Dei; as likewiſe Auſtin (upon a like occaſion) did thoſe two and twenty elaborate bookes De Civitate Dei: and as the Prophet Habacuc here doth the following viſion which he had for ſome time waited for, and now receiveth as a gracious anſwer to his prayer chap. 1. for his own and others ſettlement, in the doctrine of Divine Providence.

Verſe 2.Jam. 1.5. And the Lord anſwered me and ſaid] Wiſdome he had ſought of God, who giveth liberally; and wiſdome is granted him without hitting him in the teeth with his bold expoſtulations, and conteſtations about providence. Faithfull prayer never miſcarrieth, but is ſure of an anſwer, either before, as the prodigal; See Eſa. 65.24. Or in the act, as Dan. 10.12. I am come for thy words, with an anſwer thereunto. Or ſo one after, as here. If it come not all out ſo ſoon as we would have it, know that ther's water enough in the ſpring, but the pipes are ſtopped or broken.

write the viſion] that is, the following admonition: write it for the uſe of all poſterity. Note this againſt thoſe Opinioniſts, that ſay that the Word of God was not written by his command:Bell. lib. 4. de V. D. Cap. 4. Or that it was written only for the uſe of the preſent ages, and of thoſe particular Churches, to whom it was directed or declared.

and make it plaine upon tables] Boxen tables (as the Seventy render it) for on box, for the firmeneſſe of the matter, were the ancients wont to write.

that he may run that readeth it] That though he be no great Clerk, or in never ſo great haſt of buſineſſe, yet he may read it, being written in great letters and very legible. See Deut. 27.8. Eſa. 8.1. and 30.8. Gal. 6.11. you ſee how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. the Greek ſignifieth with what good great text-letters I have written &c. God hath written for us the great things of his law Hoſ. 8.12. and with much perſpicuity and plainneſſe in things needfull to be known: he hath written them as it were with the beames of the Sun: that none may plead difficulty or obſcurity: See Pſal. 19.9. & 119.105. Pro. 6.23. 2 Pet. 1.19. Of the ſcripture it may be ſaid, & latet & lucet: the knowledge thereof doth even bow down to us as trees do that are laden with fruits, ſo that a child may gather them.

Verſe 3. For the viſion is yet for an appointed time] This he is commanded to write, that Gods people may learn to wait. He that beleeveth maketh not haſt, he can both wait (as knowing that many of Gods promiſes beare a long date) and alſo want; go without the good he deſireth: being well content that God is glorified, though himſelf be not gratified. And this is the work of effectuall faith, which is herein like unto Chriſtall, of which it is reported, that the very touching of it quickens other ſtones, and puts a luſtre and lovelineſſe upon them.

but at the end it ſhall ſpeake] Effabitur, It ſhall ſpeak confidently, boldly and freely, to the great comfort of thoſe that antedate not Gods promiſes, but patiently abide the accomphſhment thereof. If any ask when this ſhall be? it is anſwered, In the end, that is, in Gods good time. Shall he loſe his right, becauſe he hath it not by the day ſet down in our Kalender? Poſſibly the Kalender of heaven hath a poſt-date to ours. Sure it is, that as God ſeldome comes at our time: ſo he never failes at his own. Gods Expectants ſhall ſhortly clap their hands for joy: and cry out with that holy Martyr, Hee's come, Auſtin, Hee's come, Mr. Glover. Act. & Mor. Hee's come.

and not lie] that is, not diſappoint: as the earth is ſaid to lie when it yeelds not her expected increaſe. God is faithfull, and cannot lie. Chriſt hath a rainbow on his head Rev. 10.1. to ſhew that he is faithfull and conſtant in his promiſes, and that tempeſts ſhall blow over the skie be cleared. He hath hitherto kept promiſe with nights and dayes, that the one ſhall ſucceed the other, Ier. 33.20, 25. and ſhall he break with his people? How then ſhould he be Amen, the faithfull and true witneſſe Rev, 3.14? &c. Every man is a liar either by impoſture, and ſo in purpoſe, or by impotency and ſo in the event deceiving thoſe that rely upon him Pſal. 62.9. But God is a God of truth, and without iniquity, juſt and right is he Deut. 32.4.

though it tarry wait for it] This is the duty, wait: and becauſe it is a very difficult duty (the Hebrews found it eaſier to beare evill, then to wait for the promiſed good Heb. 10.36.) therefore is the promiſe heere not delivered only, but doubled, and trebled. It ſhall ſpeake, it will come, it will ſurely come: nay doubled againe for more ſurety; It ſhall not lie, it will not tarry. It is as if God had ſaid, Do but wait, and you ſhall be delivered, you ſhall be delivered, you ſhall be delivered, you ſhall, you ſhall. Oh the Rhetoricke of God! and oh the certaintie of the promiſes!

It will not tarry] ſc. beyond the time appointed of God. In ſe non tardat, carni tardare videtur. Gods help ſeemes long, becauſe we are ſhort. A ſhort walk is a long journey to feeble knees. But that God tarries not beyond his appointed time, See Exod. 12.40, 41. at midnight were the firſt-born ſlaine, becauſe then exactly the 400 yeers were up. And Dan. 5.30. In that night was Belſhazzar ſlaine; becauſe then exactly the 70. yeeres were ended.

Verſe 4. Behold his ſoule which is lifted up] Ebulat, protuberat, which ſwelleth like a bubble, and breaketh thorough its own weakneſſe: [non-Latin text not transcribed] Heb. 10.37. Ecce quiſemu. nit. Gualth. he that by unbeliefe or carnall ſecurity withdraweth from God, and confideth in the creature; ſeeking to ſhift and ſave himſelf ſome other way, as he is a proud preſumptuous perſon, ſo let him know that,

his ſoule is not upright in him] that is, it is very corrupt and crooked, ſtark naught: and Gods ſoule can take no pleaſure in him; but he will puniſh him as a run-away, as one that hath fled from his colours, forſaken his captaine, revolted to the enemy Heb. 10.37, 38. Transfugas ubicunque inventi fuerint, quaſi hoſtes interficere licet, was the old law of armes. What God will do to ſuch, See Pſal. 125.5.

but the juſt ſhall live by his faith] This is an anſwer to thoſe that would ask what ſhall we do till the viſion ſpeake? how ſhall we hold out till it come? till the ſeventy yeers of captivity be expired? The juſt ſhall live by faith ſaith He, and ſhall make a good living of it too: He ſhall live and be ſafe by the ſame faith, whereby he is juſt. He ſhall feed upon faith, as ſome read that Pſal. 37.3. And whereas we find in thoſe Apocryphal additions to Daniel, that Habakkuk brought a meſſe of pottage to that Prophet in the Lions den; as it ſeems to be but a Jewiſh fable, ſo the Jew that invented it, grounding his conceit upon this text, would expreſſe thus much,Keck. Phyſ. that as pottage (that ſuccus benignus, as Keckerman calleth it) preſerveth this naturall life from periſhing: ſo doth faiths acting upon the promiſes, and extracting nouriſhment from the ſame, maintain life ſpirituall: and thereby it was that Daniel ſtopped the mouthes of the Lions, Heb. 11. How Habakkuk taketh out this his own leſſon of living by faith, and not by ſenſe, ſee chap. 3.17. Although the fig-tree ſhall not bloſſome, &c.] See here the life of faith, in the fail of outward comforts, ſo true is that of Solomon, Prov. 2.7. The Lord layeth up ſound wiſdom for the righteous: When he is in greateſt ſtraits, then he hath ſuch quietneſſe, ſoundneſſe, and preſence of minde, as bears him up above all troubles: like as blown bladders do the body aloft all waters. Faith furniſheth him with ſtrongeſt and moſt ſatisfying joyes; ſuch as the flames cannot dry up, nor rivers of blood drown: faith actuated upon the promiſes maketh the beleever walk above the middle region of the air (as it were) in a continuall ſerenity, as Henoch did: and ſealeth him a double charter of privative, and poſitive priviledges. See it ſet down 1 Cor. 3.21, 22, 23. Faith makes him live in the mouth of death, by ſtrengthening him againſt the horrours of it Pſal. 23.4. Rom. 8.38. Heb. 11.31. 1 Cor. 15.55, 56, 57. and by ſhewing him heaven beyond it, Heb. 11.13. and therein freedome from all evil, fruition of all good.

Verſe 5. Yea alſo becauſe he tranſgreſſeth by wine] Or, How. Much more becauſe he is a a wine-bibber, perfidious, proud, neither keepeth at home, &c. Theſe four faults the Prophet here layeth to the charge of the Babylonian, and there-hence inferreth for the comfort of the diſtreſſed captives, that his deſtruction cannot be farre off: and therefore the juſt ſhould mean-while, live by faith, and bear up under affliction. For if thoſe that beleeve not the promiſes, but ſhift and ſhark for help and comfort elſewhere, ſhall ſmart for their unbelief, as verſ. 4. where ſhall thoſe appear that are here deſcribed? ſhall theſe bipedum nequiſſimi, worſt of men eſcape by iniquity? Never think it. Firſt, their drunkenneſſe alone would undo them; as it did Amnon, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Ariſt. Ethic. l. 3. c. 3. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Aelian. lib. 2. cap. 41. Elah, Nabal, Belſhazzar, Bonoſus, &c. Ariſtotle ſaith, that double puniſhments are due to drunkards: firſt, for their drunkenneſſe, and then for other ſinnes committed in and by their drunkenneſſe. Nebuchadnezzar (or, as ſome will have it, Belſhazzar) is here called wine, or, (by an ordinary ellipſis) a man of wine: not onely Meribibulus, but a deep and deſperate drunkard, a very tundiſh (as Diotimus of Athens was called,) a hogſhead, as young Cicero. No wonder therefore though he were all the reſt that followeth. 1. Perfidious, to thoſe that committed themſelves to his truſt, or made leagues with him, which he kept no longer then ſtood with his profit. 2. Proud, or Arrogant, Prov. 21.24. See Dan. 4.30. how he ſpreads his peacocks tail, and prides himſelf in it: his great wealth tumoured him up with great ſwealth. 3. He keepeth not at home] Non habitabit, his own countrey will not contain him, but he encloſeth all nations in his draw-net, chap. 1.15.Sheol. 4. He enlargeth his deſire as hell] which hath its name in Hebrew, from its unſatiableneſſe, Prov. 30.15, 16. and in Latine it is called Infernus ab inferendo, ſay ſome, from the devils continuall carrying in ſouls thither, and yet it is not filled.

and is as death] which is the end of all men, Eccleſ. 7.2. the way of all fleſh, 1 King. 2.2. of all the earth, Joſh. 23.14. the houſe appointed for all living, the great Congregation-houſe, Job 30.23.

and cannot be ſatisfied] Luſt is unſatisfiable, and whatſoever it getteth, is but as fuell to the fire. Ambition groweth as the Crocodile doth, as long as he liveth. It rideth without reins, and there is no hoe with it.

but gathereth unto him all nations, &c.] All that he could come at; All Aſia, and a great part of Africa; and could never have enough, till his mouth was filled with a ſpade full of mould. Therefore, he ſhall not keep home, (ſo ſome read the words above in this verſe) Ideo non manebit in habitaculo His kingdome ſhall not long continue, but after a few years be over-turned by the Perſians: this golden head (as Daniel calleth the Babyloniſh Monarchy) held not up above 170 years, if we reckon from Merodach-Baladan the firſt founder, to Belſhazzar, ſlain by cyrus, who tranſlated the kingdome to the Perſians, Dan. 5.

Verſe 6. Shall not all theſe take up a parable againſt him?] Shall not the Babylonian, who is now a terrour, be ere long a ſcorn? ſhall he not inherit with ignominis, reproach?

and a taunting proverb againſt him] Heb. An interpretation, and riddles: For example, Woe to him that increaſeth that which is not his: that is both a proverb (becauſe in many mens mouthes) and an interpretation, becauſe it is plain and perſpicuous. But that which followeth is a riddle. That ladeth himſelf with thick clay. This Nut muſt be broken up, ere the kernell can be come at. See Judg. 7.15.

Woe to him that i[illegible: 1 letter]creaſeth that which is not his] Heb. Lo, lo. Some render it,Veſhibhro. Hoe, he that multip lieth not for himſelf, but fro another, ſc. for the Medes and Perſians, not Woe, but Hoe, a note of inſulting, and upbraiding, anſwerable to the Latine Vah, Vah, tune ille es, &c. Ah ſirrah, are you he that increaſeth that which is not yours, &c. Euge, [non-Latin text not transcribed].

how long?] This is the common complaint of the oppreſſed nations, groaning out their grievances, and longing for deliverance from thoſe troublers of the world. Neither is this vſque quo in vain; for God is gracious: and may better ſtile himſelf then the great Turk, Awlem Penawh, that is, The worlds refuge: the poor mans King, as James 4. of Scotland was called.

and to him that ladeth himſelf with thick clay] With gold and ſilver, that guts and garbage of the earth; fitly called clay, becauſe of the clogging and polluting property: and ſaid to load people, as a ſumpter-horſe laden with treaſure all day, but at night turned into a ſtinking ſtable, with his back full of gauls, and bruiſes. He that firſt called Riches, Bono, Goods, was miſtaken; the Scripture calleth them, Thorns ſnares, thick clay, &c. a great burden to the owner, according to the proverb, Magna navis, magna cura, A great ſhip is a great care: and the lading oft proves no better then that which Captain Forbiſher brought back with him, after his Voyage to diſcover the Straits, viz. a great quantity of ſtones, which he thought to be Minerals: from which,Camd. Eliſab. 189. when there could be drawn neither gold nor ſilver, nor any other mettall, they were caſt forth to mend the high-wayes. This was labour in vain, preſſure to no purpoſe: and no leſſe is theirs that heap up riches without right, Jer. 17.11. or, if by right means, yet ſet their hearts upon them, Pſal. 62.10. ſtill ſtriving (as they ſay the toad doth) to die with as much earth in their mouthes as may be; till at length their Never-enough, be quit with fire-enough in the bottom of hell. Neneſſan the Lawyer was wont to ſay, He that will not venture his body, ſhall never be valiant: he that will not venture his ſoul, never rich. O curvae in terras animae, & coeleſtium inanes. Is it nothing to loſe an immortall ſoul? to purchaſe an everlaſting death? to ſink into the bottomleſſe lake under this thick clay.

Verſe 7. Shall they not riſe up ſuddenly that ſhall bite thee?] Rent and tear thee, as hunting-dogs do the beaſt they purſue. See Eſay 13.14, 21. Jer. 58. and 51. The interrogation here uſed, importeth both the certainty of the thing, and their ſecurity: as if no ſuch thing could poſſibly befall them: Suddenly therefore, ſaith the Prophet, ſhalt thou be ſurprized, and ſpoyled by the Perſians, when thy city Babylon is held impregnable, and boaſteth of proviſion enough laid in for twenty years ſiege. Security is the certain Uſher of deſtruction; as we ſee in Benhadads army, and thoſe Midianites, Judg. 7. and the Amalekites, 1 Sam. 30. and Pompeyes marching againſt Caeſar; and the French at the battle of Agincourt: ſo confident they were of a victory, that they ſent to our King Henry 5.Speed. 795. who was then in the field againſt them, and gat the day, to know what ranſom hee would give, &c.

Verſe 8. Becauſe thou haſt ſpoyled many nations] God loves to retaliate (as hath before been oft obſerved) to ſpoil the ſpoilers, by a remnant of the people, by ſuch as were of no note, and much unlikely to do ſuch exploits. Thus he ſpoiled theſe Babylonians by Cyrus, and his Medes; the Perſians, by Alexander and his Macedonians (whom they ſo ſlighted, that Darius in his proud Embaſſie to him, called him his ſervant, but himſelf the King of kings, and Couſin of the gods.) So the Roman Empire was miſerably rent and torn by the Gothes, Vandals, Hunnes, Lombards, people not before heard of: and the Greek Empire, by Turks, Tartars, Saracens, Scythians, &c. taht it might the better appear, haec non ſine numine fieri, that it was the Lords own doing: who often ſuffers his enemies, like Adoniah's gueſts, to feaſt and frollick in a jocund ſecurity and promiſe of continued proſperity: But at laſt, when they are at the height of their joyes and hopes, he confounds all their deviſes, and layes them open to the ſcorne of the world, and the ſpoyle of the remnant of the people whom they vilified.

becauſe of mens blood] Heb. bloods, every drop whereof had a tongue to cry to God for vengeance ſaying,Rev. 16.6. Pſal. 55.23. Give them blood to drink, for they are worthy, Oh let not bloody and deceitfull men live out half their dayes. That ſouldier can never anſwer it to God that hath not a good cauſe, and ſtriketh not rather as a Juſticer, then as a ſouldier.

and for the violence of the land] Heb. of the earth, though principally of that land of deſires the promiſed land, and the inhabitants thereof whom he that touched, touched the apple of Gods eye, [illegible: 2 letters]hon. that little man in the eye that may not be medled with Zach. 2.8.

of the city] Jeruſalem, called the city by an excellency, and by a better right then ever Rome was. See Lam. 1.1. and Jeremies elegie there over it, when captivated by theſe Chaldees.

Verſe 9. Wee to him that coveteth an evill covetouſneſſe] For there is a good covetouſneſſe (which few are guilty of) 1 Cor. 12.31. Covet earneſtly the beſt guifts: And yet ſhew I unto you a more excellent way: Covet earneſtly the beſt graces, ſuch as are faith, hope and charity, theſe better then gifts. A ſhop full of barrells enrich not, unleſſe they be full of commodities. Gifts (as to heaven) are but the lumber of a Chriſtian: 'tis grace makes him rich toward God, and of that he cannot be too covetous. But the covetouſneſſe of the Caldeans here threatened and thundered againſt, was of another nature. It is called an evill covetouſneſſe, and hath its name in the Originall of piercing or wounding, as Joel 2.8. and fitly, both in reſpect of a mans ſelf 1 Tim. 6.10. and others Prov. 1.19. Am. 9.1. and here. Woe to ſuch, and deſtruction too, as Hoſ. 7.13. The Lord to ſhew his juſt indignation againſt Covetous perſons ſmiteth his fiſts at them, as Balac did at Balaam Num. 24.10. See Ezek. 22.13. Behold, I have ſmitten mine hand at thy diſhoneſt gaine which thou haſt made, and at thy blood which hath been in the middſt of thee. Now leſt people ſhould object or conceive that thoſe were but great words: and that the Lord would not do ſo as he ſaid; or that they ſhould deale well enough with Him: therefore it followeth verſe 14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be ſtrong in the dayes that I ſhall deale with thee? I the Lord have ſpoken, and will do it,

to his houſe] i. e. his family and poſterity, which he intends to advance, but indeed undoes them, by leaving them a curſed hoard of ill-gotten goods: wherein they do them a greater diſpleaſure then Joab, and Gehezi, did in leaving their children the leproſy for a legacy. Iob ſpeaketh chap. 15.34. as though the wicked, when they ſet up their houſes by pilling and polling, by getting riches without right, did but make a ſtack of wood, and then comes a ſpark of Gods wrath, and makes an end of all. As in another place, Brimſtone, ſaith He, ſhall be ſcattered upon his habitation chap. 18.15. ſo that if the fire of Gods diſpleaſure do but light upon it,De vita Conſtant: lib. 5. &c. Thus Diocleſian that cruell perſecutour had his houſe wholy conſumed with lightening, and a flame of fire that fell from heaven upon it, as Euſebius tells us. Add hereunto, that many times there comes a ſon that is as good with a fork, as his father was with a rake: as great a ſpend-all, as his father was a get-all.

that he may ſet his neſt on high] and there feather it at his pleaſure (ſee Obad 4.) and ſecure his children, like as the Eagle builds on high, to ſave her yong from the ſerpent that ſeekes to deſtroy them.

that he may be delivered from the power of evill] which he hat cauſe to feare from others, to whom he hath been ſo injurious and oppreſſive. But how will he be hid or freed from the terrours of his own guilty conſcience: well he may build cities with Cain, and ſet up high towers with Phocas, but what ſaid the oracle to him? Though thou ſet up thy ſtrong-holds as high as heaven, yet ſin at the foundation thereof, will ſoon overturn all, and lay it levell with the ground.

Verſe 10. Thou haſt conſulted ſhame to thy houſe &c.] Thou haſt taken a wrong courſe both for thy houſe of the kingdome (ſo the Perſians called the kings palace Dan. 4.27.) which ſhall be blown up: and for thine own private family and poſterity: it is not all thy care, paines, plotting and practiſing, that can preſerve it from ignominy and utter ruine. God will turn thy glory into ſhame, and make thy name to rot and ſtink as putrified fleſh Prov. 10.7. and ver. 9. He that perverteth his wayes ſhall be known. And when ſuch a man is raked up in the duſt, his evill courſes ſhall be caſt as dung in the faces of thoſe whom he leaveth behind him. What fooles then are Extortioners, Muckwormes and Cormorants, that live miſerably and deale unjuſtly, opening the mouthes of all to cry out upon their cr[illegible: 2 letters]tineſſe, covetouſneſſe and cruelty, and yet think to raiſe up their houſes and advance their names, and adorne their children with glory and eſtimation?

by cutting off many people] A poore glory it was to Sylla to have made ſuch a mercileſſe maſſacre at Athens: and after that, to have proſcribed and ſlaine 4700. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. citizens of Rome, as he cauſed it to be publikely recorded, videlicet ne memoria tam praeclarae rei dilueretur, ſaith mine Authour.Johnſt. de Nat. Conſt. So for Julius Caeſar to have been the death of a million of men, Mahomet the great Turk, of 800000. So for Stokeſly biſhop of London to boaſt upon his death-bed, that he had in his time brought to the fire fifty heretikes, as he called them: or for the bloody Spaniards, that they have murthered fifty millions of Indians in 42. yeers, as Acoſta the Jeſuite teſtifieth.

and haſt ſinned againſt thy ſoule] The worth whereof is incomparable, the loſſe irreparable, as Chriſt (who only went to the price of ſoules) telleth us Mat. 16.26. It was therefore no ill counfell that Francis Xaverius gave Iohn 3. King of Portugall to meditate every day a quarter of an houre on that divine ſentence, What ſhall it profit a man to win the world, and loſe his ſoule? Neither was it any evill anſwer that Maximilian (King of Bohemia, afterwards Emperour) gave the Pope, who perſwaded him to be a good Catholike with many promiſes of profits and preferments: the king anſwered, I thank your holineſſe: but my ſoules health is dearer to me then all the things in the world.Hiſt. of Counc. of Trent. 429. Speed 496. This pleaſed not the Pope, who ſaid that it was a Lutheran form of ſpeech. and yet that of Lewis king of France about the yeer 1152. pleaſed him much worſe, who caſt his Bulles (whereby he required the fruites of vacancies of all Cathedrall Churches of France) into the fire, ſaying, I had rather the Popes bulles ſhould roaſt in the fire, then that my ſoule ſhould fry in hell.

Verſe 11. For the ſtone ſhall cry out of the wall, and the beame out of the timber ſhall anſwer it] Here are wofull Antiphonies ſcreech-owles of woe cry aloud from the beames of the oppreſſours chambers, and make moſt hideous noiſes in the eares of their conſciences. So that although none other ſhould dare to mute againſt them, or accuſe them of wrong-dealing; yet their very houſes built by rapine and blood ſhall teſtifie againſt them: ſo ſhall other creatures that grone under their abuſes Rom. 8.19, 20, 22. They ſeeme all to ſay unto us thoſe 3.Lib. 2. de Arcap. 3. words, ſaith Hugo, Accipe, Redde, Fuge; Accipe beneficium, Redde Officium, Fuge Supplicium.

Now if we harken not to them but do the contrary, they ſhall be one day as ſo many ſwift witneſſes againſt us.

and the beame out of the timber ſhall anſwer it] Tignum è ligno reſpondet ei.] An alluſion to reſponſores, as in Quires and muſick: And perhaps the Prophet here tacitely taxeth the Babylonian luxury in keeping Quiriſters and Muſicians for their ſinfull delight. God, ſaith he, will fit you with other ſingſters ſhortly, that ſhall twit you by turns with your murthers and ravages: for the ſtone ſhall cry out of the wall, Woe to him that buildeth a town with bloods: and the beame out of the timber ſhall anſwer it, And wo to him that ſtabliſheth a city by iniquity.

Verſe 12. Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood] This ſeemeth to be the ſenſeleſſe creatures black Cantus (as they call it) chaunted out againſt the wrong-doer, by Gods own appoinrment, cui obſcura clarent, muta reſpondent, ſilentium confitetur, ſaith an Ancient, —cui ſervi ut taceant, jumenta loquentur,Juvenal. The very beaſts have a verdict to paſſe upon oppreſſours; as the dumb Aſſe did upon Balaam: yea the lifeleſſe creatures ſhall ring a dolefull knell of Woe and alaſſe in their eares, and cry them guilty: as the earth did Cain, and the heaven did Phocas; and as the tignum è ligno doth here Nehuchadnezzar. His town of Babylon was built in blood by Seminamis who ſlew her husband, ſo was Rome by Romulus, ſo was Alexandria in Egypt by Alexander that great man-ſlayer, the founder of populous No, of whoſe Woe reade Nah. 3.8, 10. with the Note. And for Alexander himſelf,Speed. he lay unburied thirty dayes together, neither did his bloody conqueſt above ground purchaſe him any title for an habitation under ground. The like befell our Conquerour William, who laid his foundation here upon fire-works: and was puniſhed in his poſterity for his depopulations at Newforreſt, and elſewhere.

and ſtabliſheth a city by iniquity] That thinketh ſo to ſtabliſh it, but it proveth otherwiſe. Joſephus telleth us that Nebuchadnezzar ſet three ſeverall walles of brick about his Babylon,Joſeph. lib. 10. chp. 11. one within another: but all would not do, when once God took it to do. Oppreſſion is a bony ſin Am. 5.12, 13.

Verſe 13. Behold is it not of the Lord of hoſts, that the people ſhall labour in the fire] Labour in vaine to quench the fire, wherewith Babylon ſhall be burnt, Jer. 51.58. Or have laboured to no purpoſe in building that city, and enlarging that Empire, which now God will have down. Is it not evident, that they have loſt oleum & operam, yea hazarded their own lives, as thoſe do that ſt[illegible: 1 letter]ive againſt a flame. What profit hath he that laboureth for the wind Eccleſ. 5.16. much leſſe he that laboureth in the fire, that devouring element. See Eſay 33.14. Poſſibly he may beſaved himſelf, yet ſo as by fire, but his work ſhall be burnt, that loſſe he ſhall ſuffer 1 Cor. 3.15. As they that ſeek after the Philoſophers ſtone labour in the very fire to as little purpoſe as may be: for they muſt uſe ſo much gold, and ſpend ſo much gold, and then perhaps they can turn as much into gold by it, as they have ſpent in making of it. Hence One calles Alchymy A multiplying of ſomething by nothing; Another, an Omne, Aliquid, Nihil. Another an art without art, never taught by Moſes and Miriam, as ſome have doted, and delivered, that this was a peece of their Egyptian learning. But it is certain that thoſe holy ſoules never either learned or taught any ſuch laborious loſſe of time and money. Demetrius Phalereus complaineth of theſe Alchymiſts long agone not without indignation quod certis conſumptis incertorum gratiâ, Athenaeus quae ſe capturos ſperabant, non ceperunt, quod verò habebant abjecerint, that they caſt away certainties for uncertainties, that they attained not what they hoped for, but caſt away what they had. Julius Scaliger alſo Fornaculas iſt as odi, Ad Cardan. exerc. 83. p. 100. ſaith He, odio plus quam Vatiniano. Sunt enim noctuae ad aucupia crumenarum. I cannot abide thoſe fornaces: indeed they are pick-purſes &c. know there is a true Alchymy called by ſome the Spagirick art, being in great uſe in phyſick. This I condemne not, ſo it be warily and wiſely dealt in. But this by the way only. It ſeemed to ſome an impoſſible thing that Babylon ſhould ſo ſuddenly be deſtroyed as was foretold verſe. 7. It will be done certò, citò, penitùs, ſuddenly, ſurely, ſeverely, ſaith the Prophet, for the Lord of Hoſts hath undertaken the doing of it. Annon ecce à Domino exercituum? (ſo the Hebrew hath it by an emphaticall Apoſiopeſis) Is it not, (look you) of the Lord of Hoſts? The people ſhall labour in the very fire,

the nations alſo ſhall weary themſelves for very vanity] Viz. in ſeeking to ſave Babylon, which by a divine decree is to be deſtroyed without remedy, Pſa. 137.8. So is Rome that other Babylon Rev. 18.2. citò itidem caſura, De rem. ut. fort. dial. 118. ſi vos eſſetis viri, ſaid Petrarch long ſince. It would ſoon be down, would you but ſtand up as men. Neither ſhall the Jeſuites (that ultimus diaboli crepitus) be able to uphold it: there is a cold ſweat upon all the limbes of Antichriſt already.

Verſe 14. For the earth ſhall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord &c.] He ſhall make himſelf a glorious name among the nations of the earth, by executing vengeance upon Babylon, and ſo pleading the cauſe of his oppreſſed people (whom he ſeemed, during their captivity there to neglect) that men ſhall have cauſe to ſay, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth, Pſal. 58.11.

as the waters cover the ſea] the chanell of the ſea: that is plentifully, and abundantly, See a like promiſe, Iſay 11.9. but to another purpoſe. That's a famous promiſe of the comming and kingdome of Chriſt: and ſo ſome Interpreters apply this. Wherein though they ſeem to be miſtaken, conſidering the context: yet the Ancients rightly here-hence argued, that Chriſt would certainly come again to judgement, becauſe many wicked men eſcape in this world without condigne puniſhment, which then they ſhall be ſure of, 2 Theſ. 1.6, 9. Then all ſhall be ſet to right, though now they may ſeem leſſe equally carried: and the reaſon of Gods proceedings with men ſhall be cleared up, which now alſo we are bound to beleeve to be (ſometimes ſecret, but) ever juſt. At the day of judgement we ſhall ſee an excellent harmony in this diſcord of things: and all obſcure paſſages ſhall bee made as plain to us, as if they were written with the moſt glittering Sun-beam, upon a wall of Chryſtall. Then ſhall this ſweet promiſe have its full accompliſhment. The earth ſhall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the ſea, in greateſt abundance, and redundancy.

Verſe 15. Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink] The Babylonians (among other their flagitious practiſes afore-mentioned) were much addicted to drunkenneſſe, as is recorded by Herodotus, Cteſias, and others. Their land was ſick of drink, and would therefore ſpew them out: Themſelves were men of wine, verſe 5. (See the Note) and ſhould therefore drink deep of the wine of Gods fierce wrath. They drank to their neighbours, or companions, not in a way, either of curteſie, or charity, but purpoſely to intoxicate them, to make them drunk, that they might either deride them, or abuſe them to filthy pleaſure, or both: they buckt them with drink, and then laid them out to be ſunn'd, and ſcorned, as Noah was by his grace[illegible: 1 letter]eſſe ſonne. Therefore as he curſed Ham (though Scaliger excuſe him) and it ſtuck to his poſterity for ever: ſo doth God here denounce a woe to drunkards, and ſo ſets it on, as no creature ſhall ever bee able to take it off.

that putteſt thy bottle to him] Not thy bowle onely, but thy bottle, that he may drink, and be drunk, and ſpew, and fall, &c. Jer. 25.27. This is ordinarily practiſed by our Roaring-boyes, (as they will needs be called by a wofull prolepſis, Here for hereafter) in their Cyclopicall, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Either by perſwaſions, or threats, the bottle is ſet to the mouth, and muſt be emptied, ere it come thence. The civil, ſober, and temperate man is urged, and it may be forced to ſwallow down long and needleſſe draughts (as a horſe doth a drench) by domineering drunkards, that they may ſee his nakedneſſe, triumph over him, as laid up, or (as the new terme is) ſatisfied. Their courſes are here graphically, and in lively colours deſcribed by the holy Ghoſt; to ſet forth the hatefulneſſe thereof, and how wofull will be the iſſue. There are that read the words thus. That putteſt thine anger to him, thy fervour, and thy fury, viz. if he pledge thee not whole-ones, and drink not all the Outs, as they call them. Domitius, the father of Nero, ſlew Liberius, Sueton. an honeſt Roman, becauſe he refuſed to drink ſo much as he commanded him. Others read it, That putteſt thy poyſon to him: and indeed, Ebrietas eſt blandus daemon, dulce venenum, ſuave peccatum, &c. Drunkenneſſe is a fair-ſpoken devil, a pleaſant poiſon, a ſweet ſinne, which he that hath in him, hath not himſelf, and which he that runs into, runs not into a ſingle ſinne, but is wholly turned into ſinne. How often, (ſaith a grave Divine) have I ſeen vermine ſucking the drunkards blood, as faſt as he, that of the grape, or mault, yet would he not leave his hold, or loſe his draught? Gualther reads it, Conjungens fervorem tuum, Joyning thine heat, inflaming thy ſelf, that thou mayeſt drink him under the board.De ſua bobacitate librum conſcripſit ſeu potius evomuit. [illegible: 1 letter]erod. This was great Alexanders ſinne, and ruine: ſo it was M. Anthonies, (who wrote a book of his abilities to drink down others) and before them both Darius's, as Athenaeus hath left recorded. How much better his ſucceſſour Ahaſhueroſh,, who made a law at his great feaſt, that every man ſhould drink according to his pleaſure, Eſth. 1.8. So Minos, king of Creet ordered, that his ſubjects ſhould not drink one to another, [non-Latin text not transcribed], unto drunkenneſſe. Quinetiam Spartae mos eſt laudabilis ille, Ʋt bibat arbitrio pocula quiſque ſuo. Among the old Germans, diem noctemque continuare potando, nulli probrum, ſaith Tacitus, It was no diſgrace to drink night and day together. It is ſtill the ſinne of that nation, as Gualther upon this text heavily complaineth; and it is grown to a proverb, the Drunken Dutch-man. Of them, the Engliſh, much commended for their ſobriety, learned in the Netherland-warres, to drown themſelves by immoderate drinking:Cam[illegible: 1 letter]d. Eliſ.231. and by drinking to others healths, to impair their own: ſo that in our dayes came forth the firſt reſtraint thereof by ſeverity of lawes, ſaith Camden: who yet, being ſo great an Antiquary, could not but know, that in the year 959. Edgar king of this land, made an Ordinance for putting pinnes in cups, that none ſhould quaſſe whole ones.

And makeſt him drunk alſo] Robbeſt him of himſelfe, and layeſt a beaſt in his roome. The ſame Hebrew word Zolel ſignifieth a drunkard and a vile perſon: filthy venemous creatures breed in thoſe fenniſh grounds Ich 40.21. Behemoth lieth in them; which Gulielmus Pariſienſis applyeth to the Devil in drunken hearts: whereas in dry places, ſober ſouls, he walketh about ſeeking reſt but ſindeth none Mat. 12.43.Natal. Comes E[illegible: 2 letters]iſt. 84. daemon meridianus The very Heathen in hatred of this ſinne fained that Cobali (an hurtfull and pernicious kind of Devils) accompanyed Bacchus: and that Acratus, or the intemperate Devil was their Captain. Seneca calleth it a voluntary madneſſe, another a noon-day Devill, no more a night-walker, as once, 1 Theſ. 5.7. The Lacedemonians puniſhed it ſeverely; ſo do the Turks at this day, powring ladle-fuls of boyling lead down their throats ſometimes: and at leaſt baſtinadoing of them on the bare feet, till they are diſabled for walking in haſte again to their conventicles of good-fellowſhip.Heyl. Geog. 793. Morat Baſſa commanded a pipe to be thruſt thorow the noſe of a Turk, which was found taking Tobacco: and ſo in deriſion to be led about Constantinople. Let men ſhun this ſhamefull ſinne; and be farre from drawing others to it: for have they not ſins enough of their own to anſwer for? Muſt they needs go to hell in company? Dives deſired that his brethren and companions in ſinne, might not come to that place of torment. Luke 16. This he did, not out of any good will to them, but becauſe he knew, if they were ever damned, he ſhould be double-damned.

That thou maist look on their nakedneſſe] Thoſe parts that nature would have covered are called nakedneſſe per Antiphraſin. To look on them with delight, is by ſome held a ſinne againſt Nature: the ground of their opinion is Gen. 3.7. To make men drunk for that purpoſe, is worſe. But if for further abuſe of their bodies to uncleanneſſe, (as Attalus the Macedonian dealt by Pauſanias a young Courtier, who afterwards ſlew King Philip, Panſudam ſo [illegible: 2 letters]um mero Al [illegible: 2 letters]lus non [illegible: 1 letter]uae tantuin verim & convivarum libi[illegible: 3 letters] velut ſcor[illegible: 2 letters]m. vrle ſubject, ludi [illegible: 5 letters] [illegible: 1 span] theat. [illegible: 1 span] vi[illegible: 2 letters]uti ſun[illegible: 1 letter]limus & rigidae inn [illegible: 2 letters] tiae. Vell. lib. 2. becauſe he would not puniſh Attalus, for ſo doing) that's worſt of all: and hath a woe, woe, woe, hanging at the heeles of it.

Verſe 16. Thou art filled with ſhame for glory] Or, more with ſhame then with glory. That is thou ſhalt be filled ſhortly with ignominy for that glory wherein thou preſently prideſt thy ſelfe: thy drunkeneſſe ſhall redound to thine utter diſgrace, as it was to Darius, Alexander, Autoninus, Bonoſus, Trajan (a good Emperor otherwiſe, but a drunkard, and a pederaſt, as Dio Caſſius reporteth him.) Yea Cato, that moſt ſevere cenſurer of other mens manners; to whom it was ſometime objected (how deſervedly I know not) quod nocturnis potationibus indulgeret, that by night he would drink ſoundly. This is a blurre to him, if true, and confutes that elogium given him by Paterculus, that he was omnibus humanis vitiis immunis, free from all vices, and as like vertue her ſelfe as might be. In Scripture, the drunkards ſtile begins in lawleſneſſe, proceeds in unprofitableneſſe, ends in miſery; and all ſh[illegible: 1 letter]t up in that denomination of his pedigree, A ſonne of Belial.

Drink thou alſo] Sith thou art ſo able at it (ſith thou haſt ſo well deſerved that infamous Epitaph of a certain drunkard.

Heus, hic ſitus eſt Offellius Buratius Bibulus, Qui dum vixit, aut bibit aut minxit. abi praeceps)Jo[illegible: 1 letter]nſi. de Natur. conſtant.

Drink another while of the cup of ſhame and ſorrow: take thy part of all manner of miſeries Jer. 25.26. Obad. 16. Snares, fire and brimſtone, and an horrible tempoſt ſhall one day be the portion of thy cup: For the righteous Lord loveth righteouſneſſe Pſal. 11.6.7. Yea he loveth to retaliate and will therefore make theſe drunkards drink alſo: and thoſe that made others drunk that they might look on their nakedneſſe, to lie with their fore-skins uncovered to their perpetual reproach. Uncircumciſion was a ſhameful ſpectacle indeed among that people.

The cup of the Lords right hand ſhall be turned to thee] Heb. turned about, or ſhall turn it ſelſe, quia rerum omnium viciſſitudo: thy turn is now come to take off the dregs of Gods cup of calamity Ier. 25.15. that hath eternity to the bottome.

And ſhamefull ſpewing ſhall be on thy glory] Kikalon a compound word, the vomit. of ignominy; a fit puniſhment for filthy drunkards, who break their heads as ſwine do their bellies, over-charge their ſtomacks as dogges do their gorges, and then diſgorge themſelves in a ſhamefull ſort, as Antonius did at Narbon amidſt his gueſts at a feaſt: and as Eccius, Luthers great adverſary, whom he merrily called Ieccius from his caſting: as Tiberius was nicknamed Biberius.

ſhall be on thy glory] The Hebrew word for glory, properly ſignifieth weightineſſe: as the word twice here uſed for ſhame, ſignifieth lightneſſe: an elegant oppoſition, ſhewing that whatſoever the Babylonians gloried in, and held themſelves honourable for, ſhould be lightly accounted of, and lie buried in the ſheet of ſhame, as in a dung-hill of filthy vomit.

Verſe 17. For the violence of Lebanon ſhall cover thee] Here, for the comfort of Gods people (which is the main ſcope of this propheſie) he repeateth the chief cauſes of Babylons calamity: viz. her cruelty to Lebanon, that is, to all Judaea (a part being put for the whole.) Or elſe he ſpeaketh of the violence done to the Temple, which was built of the cedars of Lebanon; as was likewiſe the Temple of Diana at Epheſus made of Cedar-wood. The devil loves to be Gods ape. This violence in firing the Temple, and deſolating the countrey, ſhall cover thee all over, as a garment doth the body: yea, it ſhall be as the ſhirt, made for the murthering of Agamemnon, where the head had no iſſue out.

and the ſpoil of beaſts which made them afraid] Men are here called beaſts, as the land, Lebanon: theſe were ſpoiled and terrified, theſe were murthered and maſſacred by the Chaldeans, who ſhall therefore be ſeverely puniſhed, and this written, as it were, over their heads, to ſignifie for what they ſuffer. Becauſe of mens blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. See the Note on verſe 8.

Verſ. 18. What profiteth the graven image] The Chaldees promiſed themſelves much help againſt their enemies from their idols: and were ready to ſay, as that Roman Emperour Antoninus the Philoſopher did, when he was to meet his enemie,Ita refer.- Vulcat. Galliz. in Avid. Caſſ. Non ſic deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret. We have not ſo ſerved the gods, as that he ſhould overcome us. The Prophet here rejecteth their confidence, and layeth open their folly. See the like, Jer. 10.8, 14, 15. Zech. 10.2. Eſay 44.16, 17, &c. Confer Jer. 51.47, 52. Ezek. 20.30, 32.

that the maker thereof hath graven it] And can he hope for help from the work of his own hands? can the image give that to others, which it hath not for it ſelf? In Henry the eights time, one Mr. Cotiſmore was accuſed of hereſie, for ſaying,Act & Mon 763. that Images were but Carpenters chips; and that when men go to offer to them, they did it to ſhew their new gear. The men of Cockram, not pleaſed with their new Rood, quarrelled with the joyner, and refuſed to pay him: he complained to the Major of Doncaſter, who gave them this counſell; Pay the poor man his money, and go your wayes home, and look on it, and if it will not ſerve for a god, make no more ado, but clap a pair of horns on his head, and ſo he will make an excellent devil. This the Pariſhioners took well in worth: the poor man had his money, and diverſe laughed well thereat: but ſo did not the Babyloniſh prieſts,Ibid. 1340, ſaith Mr. Fox. Horace brings in Priapus, that ridiculous garden god, ſaying, thus, Olim truneus eram ficulnus, &c. He thought no otherwiſe of the Images of Jupiter, and the reſt: but durſt not ſay ſo, for fear of the people So that of him it might be ſaid, as Auguſtine doth of Seneca, who wrote a book againſt ſuperſtitions, but colebat quod reprehendebat, De civ. D[illegible: 1 letter]i. lib.6. c. 10. agebat quod arguebat, quod culpabat, adorabat, he reproved them, but yet uſed them.

the molten image, and a teacher of lies] Pictura falſa veritas eſt, ſaith One. It is but a ſhadow of the perſon that it repreſenteth. God cannot be pictured, or expreſſed by any image. Images of Chriſt are not onely defects, but alſo lies, ſaith the Homily againſt perill of idolatry, ſet forth in Queen Elizabeths dayes. Irenaeus reproveth the Gnoſticks for carrying about the images of Chriſt, made in Pilates time, after his own proportion, Lactantius ſaith, that there is no religion where there is an image. Varro had ſaid the ſame long before him, as Auſtin reciteth him. Plutarch ſaith, it is ſacriledge to worſhip by images, &c. and telleth us, that Numa forbad the Romans the uſe of images in temples; neither had they any for the firſt 170. years together, no more had the Perſians, ſaith Strabo, nor the old Germanes, ſaith Tacitus. The old Britones indeed had their idols, Portenta diabolica (ſo Gildas calleth them) penè numero Aegyptiaca vincentia, ugly for ſhape, and almoſt as many as the Egyptians for number. Theſe all fell down together, when Chriſt was firſt known here (as they ſay the Egyptian idols did, when Chriſt with his parents fled thither, for fear of Herod) but Antichriſt ſoon ſet up others in their ſtead, and taught the people that they were Lay mens books. But if they be lying teachers, (as here they are called) they muſt be lying books too; and therefore not to be read by any that would receive the love of the truth, that they may be ſaved. Bern in Swiſſerland, was the firſt town, that after the Reformation, was purged of images; making a bone-fire of them, on an Aſhwedneſday. The like was done here in England, in King Edward 6. his raigne, on that very day wherein the victory was gotten at Muſcleborough in Scotland: and now I hope we are rid of them for ever. The Turks will not endure them, no not upon their coynes; becauſe of the ſecond Commandement: for they alſo do ſo honour Moſes his writings,Par. Porleg. in Geneſ. that they kiſſe any piece of Paper, wherein any thing of his is written, and do exceedingly hate Papiſts for their abominable idolatry: as do likewiſe the Jewes.

that the maker of his work truſteth therein] Which he would never do, if not bewitcht, and bereft of his right mind. To truſt in a god of a mans own making, is a prodigious errour, a ſtupendious ſtupidity.

to make dumb idols] In the Hebrew there is an elegant Agnomination, Elilim illemim, ſpeechleſſe, No-gods, that give no anſwer to their ſuitours, and —quorum ſunt numina nomina tant ùm.

Verſe 19. Woe unto him that ſaith to the wood, Awake] It is wood ſtill, and yet he ſaith to it, Awake, Ariſe, &c. as if he would deny his own reaſon, and un-man himſelf. When Hezekiah ſaw that ſuch was the venome of the Iſraelitiſh idolatry, that the brazen-Serpent ſtung worſe then the fiery, he pulled it down, and in contempt called it Nehuſhtan, that is, a piece of braſſe, 2 King 18.4. Pagnins rendreth it,Theſ. Ling. ſanct. aenuſum. Marinus, aeniculum, that is, parum quid aeris, a little piece of ſorry braſſe. The Jewes at this day ſay, that as long as they ſee the Preacher direct his ſpeech and prayer to that little wooden crucifix, that ſtandeth in the pulpit by him, to call it his Lord, and Saviour, to kneel to it, to embrace it, to kiſſe it, to weep upon it,Spec. Eur. (as is the faſhion of Italy) this is preaching ſufficient for them: and perſwadeth them more with the very ſight of it to hate Chriſtian religion, then any reaſon that the world can alledge to love it. Woe therefore to thoſe Popiſh Idolaters, becauſe of offences: deſtruction to them, that thus ſay to the wood, Awake, and to the dumb ſtone, Ariſe] A prayer, fit to be preferr'd to God onely, (as Pſal. 35.23.) who giveth not his glory to any other, nor his honour to graven images.Eſay 42.8. He that is the right object of mens prayers, muſt be omnipotent, omnipreſent, omniſcient, a God alſo in covenant with us, &c. Is any wood or ſtone ſo? Is it not inutile lignum a dead ſtock? Eben dumam, a dumb ſtone? Our Engliſh ſeems to come of the Hebrew.

It ſhall teach] Dumb, and yet teach? Others read it queſtionwiſe, Ipſe doceat? Can it teach? What better leſſon can ye learn from it then a lie, as verſe 18? Bid adieu to it therefore, as King Hen. 8. did to the Pope (if he had done ſo to Popery too, it had been better for him) in his Proteſtation againſt him. England is no more a babe, to be led and fed with lies—. Surely except God take away our right wits,Act. & Mon. 990. not onely the Popes authority ſhall be driven out for ever, but his name alſo ſhortly ſhall be forgotten in England. We will from henceforth ask counſell of him and his when we liſt to be deceived, when we covet to be in errour, when we deſire to offend God, truth and honeſty &c.

behold it is laid over with gold and ſilver] q. d. Come and ſee, beleeve your own eyes at leaſt, behold the matter, form, workmanſhip of this new-made god,Ibid. 1084. and grow wiſer. The Rood of Grace with all its trinkets, the blood of Hales (that notable impoſtor) was laid open at Pauls croſſe by Cromwell, and there viewed and torn in peeces by the people.

there is no breath at all in the middeſt of it] No ſoule,Aeſop. not ſo much as that of a beaſt. O pulchrum caput, ſed cerebrum non ineſt, ſaid the ape (in the fable) comming once into a ca[illegible: 1 letter]vers ſhop. The beſt thing that an image can teach a man is, that it ſelf is dumb and dead: and that the maker thereof cannot give life and breath to it, much leſſe a deity.

Verſe 20. But the Lord is in his holy Temple] It is not enough to condemne ſuperſtitions: but we muſt know and ſerve the true God in a true manner. Tully wiſhed that he could as eaſily find out the true religion, as diſprove the falſe ones.De nat. deos. Cambyſes deſtroyed the Egyptian idols, rather in ſcorne of all religion, then hatred of idolatry. Lucian ieared the heathen-gods: and yet was an enemy to Chriſtianity. Eraſmus was no Papiſt, nor yet good Proteſtant. Henry the 8. deſpiſed the old religion, and yet envied the new. There are many (ſaid He in Pa[illegible: 1 letter]liament) that are too buſy with their new Sumpſimus: and others that dote too much upon their old Mumpſimus &c. Hence it is that the Prophet here to thoſe dunghill-deities of the heathens, thoſe dead idols, oppoſeth the living and onely true God, Jehovah, ſaith he, is in his holy Temple: that Eſſentiator who hath his being of himſelf, and gives beeing to all things elſe [non-Latin text not transcribed] as St. Paul elegantly expreſſeth it Act. 17.25. He is in his holy Temple, ſc. in heaven by his power and glory and in his Church on earth by his grace and goodneſſe. The uſe of which doctrine followeth.

let all the earth keep ſilence before him] Heb. ſc. or be ſtill, all the earth &c. Reverentiae cauſe ſilete, Tremble at his judgements, truſt in his promiſes, wait upon him in his ordinances, walk before him in obedience, ſpeake not of him or to him, but as knowing your diſtance, your infancie. In ſpeaking of God, our beſt eloquence is ſilence, ſaith Mr. Hooker. In ſpeaking to him, quanta cum reverentia, quanto timore, quanta humilitate, Bern. de diverſ. 25. accedere debet è palude ſua procedens & repens vilis ranuncula, ſaith Bernard? with what reverence and godly feare, with what humility, ſhould a poor ſmall frog, creeping out of his mud, draw neer unto this great God, before whom Angels appeare with greateſt ſelf-abaſements? what abhorrency then and ſelf-annihilation can be ſufficient to accompany our approaches to this great God of heaven? And how ſhould the enemies of the Church ſtand in aw, and even quake before him, wriggling into their holes, as wormes do, when it thundreth, and beeing all huſht, as ſheep are before the wolfe, birds before the hawk, all the beaſts of the field before the lion when he roareth.