NOTES for Hab 2:1-20
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. |
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. |
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. |
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The answer received by Habakkuk can be applied not only to the events of his own days, but also to all those times when people will try to repeat the same thing. Then it was the Chaldeans, expanding the borders of their possessions by arms, but a little later the same thing happened to them that they had brought to others; and afterward, one after another, empires founded on violence and conquest changed and collapsed. So it has been until now, and so it will be until attempts to create and expand such empires cease.
But does not the evil rooted in the heart of the "peaceful" ordinary person continue in the deeds of conquerors? How different is the desire to conquer one more country from, say, the desire to grab one more room from a neighbor? Arguments of the sort "we are little people, this is not about us" should not calm us. For sin remains sin, however much we may want to divide it into "big" and "not so big."
And now, amid the triumph of lawlessness, when the law loses its force, the Lord reveals new depths of His Revelation. The words "the righteous shall live by his faith," proclaiming the primacy of faith over law, open to humanity the possibility of qualitatively new steps on the spiritual path. If we compare how many times the word "faith" is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, we will see that the New speaks of faith much more. But the two Testaments are interconnected, and it is important to understand that the gospel proclamation did not sound in a vacuum: it was prepared even in Old Testament times.
Among the denunciations of lawlessness, a prophecy of retribution unexpectedly sounds "for the destruction of frightened animals." When after the flood the Lord gave the animal world to human beings for food (Gen 9:2-4), He proclaimed that every living thing should fear the human being placed over nature. But it was not enough for the crown of creation to inspire fear; he began to destroy all living things in quantities immeasurably beyond what was necessary to sustain his life. In Habakkuk's time, not everyone could easily have understood the meaning of this prophecy. For us, however, contemporaries of the ecological crisis and witnesses to the destruction of whole species, this prophecy sounds especially threatening.
Readings for 19 June 2026
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