Habakkuk 1:13

1:12-17 However matters may be, yet God is the Lord our God, our Holy One. We are an offending people, he is an offended God, yet we will not entertain hard thoughts of him, or of his service. It is great comfort that, whatever mischief men design, the Lord designs good, and we are sure that his counsel shall stand. Though wickedness may prosper a while, yet God is holy, and does not approve the wickedness. As he cannot do iniquity himself, so he is of purer eyes than to behold it with any approval. By this principle we must abide, though the dispensations of his providence may for a time, in some cases, seem to us not to agree with it. The prophet complains that God's patience was abused; and because sentence against these evil works and workers was not executed speedily, their hearts were the more fully set in them to do evil. Some they take up as with the angle, one by one; others they catch in shoals, as in their net, and gather them in their drag, their enclosing net. They admire their own cleverness and contrivance: there is great proneness in us to take the glory of outward prosperity to ourselves. This is idolizing ourselves, sacrificing to the drag-net because it is our own. God will soon end successful and splendid robberies. Death and judgment shall make men cease to prey on others, and they shall be preyed on themselves. Let us remember, whatever advantages we possess, we must give all the glory to God.

Habakkuk 1:13-17 . Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil — Thou art of too just and pure a nature to approve of wickedness: it must ever be an abomination to thee. Thou canst not look upon iniquity — Except with infinite abhorrence. Wherefore lookest thou upon them — Seemest to connive at, or dost not show any particular dislike at the violence of those idolatrous Chaldeans? And makest men as the fishes of the sea, &c. — By delivering them to Nebuchadnezzar, who takes them in his net, as a fisherman takes fishes; which creatures suffer themselves to be taken without resistance, because they have no power to defend themselves. As the creeping things that have no ruler, &c. — No chief to conduct or guard them. The Hebrews give the common name of reptiles to all fishes. They take up all of them with the angle — The prophet, having in the preceding verse compared men to fishes, continues here, by way of metaphor, to describe the advantages which the Chaldeans gained over other nations, by the several ways used by fishermen in taking fishes, as by catching them with the angle, enclosing them in nets, and gathering them in drags. Therefore they rejoice and are glad — On account of the prey they take; that is, the Chaldeans rejoice in taking a great number of captives, and gathering rich spoils, as fishermen rejoice when they catch a great number of fishes.

Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, &c. — They impute all their victories to their own strength and skill, or to idols of their own making, and render no acknowledgments to God for their success. Because by them their portion is fat, &c. — Because by means of their victories they get abundance of rich spoil. Shall they therefore empty their net — Carry away the riches and spoils of their conquests, (see 2 Kings 24:13 ,) in order to undertake more; just as fishermen empty their nets to fill them again. But the words may be properly rendered, Shall he therefore spread his net? in which sense the Vulgate, as also the Greek and Chaldee, here interpret the Hebrew verb ירוק , a word often used of drawing or unsheathing a sword or spear. And not spare continually to slay the nations — Wilt thou suffer them to go on to make havoc continually of all other nations? Shall they never be stopped in their career?

13. purer … than to behold evil—without being displeased at it. canst not look on iniquity—unjust injuries done to Thy people. The prophet checks himself from being carried too far in his expostulatory complaint, by putting before himself honorable sentiments of God. them that deal treacherously—the Chaldeans, once allies of the Jews, but now their violent oppressors. Compare "treacherous dealers," (Isa 21:2; 24:16). Instead of speaking evil against God, he goes to God Himself for the remedy for his perplexity (Ps 73:11-17). devoureth the man that is more righteous—The Chaldean oppresses the Jew, who with all his faults, is better than his oppressor (compare Eze 16:51, 52).

13 . thou art of purer eyes ] lit. O thou of pure eyes so as not (to be able) to see evil, and who canst not look upon wrongdoing . Psalm 5:4-5 “evil cannot dwell with thee.” treacherously ] Or, ruthlessly , tyrannically. holdest thy tongue … devoureth ] holdest thy peace … swalloweth up . Isaiah 42:14 , “I have long time holden my peace, I have been still and refrained myself; now &c.” Psalm 50:21 . more righteous than he ] The “wicked” is the Chaldean conqueror; the “righteous” is generalized to include the other nations, victims of the Chaldean barbarities, though Israel may be specially in the prophet’s mind. But in Habakkuk 1:12-17 the prophet speaks out of the heart of mankind (cf. Nahum, Introd. § 4). The anomaly is that the righteous God, whose nature cannot endure wrong, looks on and is silent over this wrong which is as large as the human race.

Thou, O Lord, who hast raised and increased the Chaldean kingdom. Art of purer; of infinite purity and holiness. Eyes, ascribed unto God to express his knowledge; so his eves run to and fro, and his eye is upon the righteous. Than to behold: his omniscience doth behold all things, and so David expresseth it, Thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it, Psalm 10:14 ; but he doth not, will not, cannot, see with delight, with approbation, evil, of sin and violence. And canst not look on iniquity; the same thing repeated to confirm us. All this the prophet doth lay down as most undoubtedly true, and on which he stays himself (though he be amazed with the darkness of providences); and by this he will repress all undue murmurings, when he debates with God about his providences: most just and holy; but why thus or thus? Wherefore lookest; seest all the violence done, and bearest with them that do it; why doth not thy hand remove and avenge what thine eye is offended at, and thy heart abhorreth? Them that deal treacherously; the Chaldeans, who were a perfidious nation, and ruined many by their treacheries; fraud and force were both alike to them. And it is likely they dealt very falsely with the Jews. Holdest thy tongue; seemest unconcerned in such a degree as to be silent and say nothing. When, or whilst; it might seem a fit season to speak, when the violent are about their violence, when the prey is between the teeth and not swallowed.

The wicked; the Chaldean, an oppressor, bloody and treacherous against men, an atheist or idolater against God. Devoureth; swalloweth down whole, as the word imports, Numbers 16:30 Psalm 124:3 . The man; the Jew, or almost every one of us, as the phrase imports. More righteous than he: though the Jews were a very corrupt nation, yet, compared with the Chaldeans, they were the better, and of the two the Jew was the less evil. Now this riddle he desired might be unfolded, Why is the juster oppressed by the unjuster?

Verse 13. - Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil (comp. Habakkuk 1:3 ). God cannot look with complacency on evil ( Psalm 5:5, 6 ). Iniquity; Septuagint, πόνους ὀδύνης , "labours of pain." Injustice and the distress occasioned by it. God's holiness cannot endure the sight of wickedness, nor his mercy the sight of man's misery. And yet he permits these evil men to afflict the holy seed. This is the prophet's perplexity, which he lays before the Lord. Them that deal treacherously. The Chaldeans, so called from their faithless and rapacious conduct ( Isaiah 21:2 ; Isaiah 24:16 ). More righteous. The Israelites, wicked as they were, were more righteous than the Chaldeans (comp. Ezekiel 16:51 , etc.). Delitzsch and Keil think that the persons intended are the godly portion of Israel, who will suffer with the guilty. Habakkuk 1:13

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil - The prophet repeats his complaint (as troubling thoughts are accustomed to come back, after they have been repelled,), in order to answer it more strongly. All sin is hateful in God's sight, and in His Holy Wisdom He cannot endure to "look toward iniquity." As man turns away from sickening sights, so God's abhorrence of wrong is pictured by His not being able to "look toward it." If He looked toward them, they must perish Psalm 104:32 . Light cannot co-exist with darkness, fire with water, heat with cold, deformity with beauty, foulness with sweetness, nor is sin compatible with the Presence of God, except as its Judge and punisher. Thou canst not look. There is an entire contradiction between God and unholiness. And yet, Wherefore lookest thou upon - viewest, as in Thy full sight make the contrast stronger.

God cannot endure "to look toward" (אל) iniquity, and yet He does not only this, but beholdeth it, contemplateth it, and still is silent), yea, as it would seem, with favor , bestowing upon them the goods of this life, honor, glory, children, riches, as the Psalmist saith Psalm 73:12; "Behold these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches?" Why lookest thou upon "them that deal treacherously, holdest Thy tongue," puttest restraint , as it were, upon Thyself and Thine own attribute of Justice, "when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" Psalm 143:2 "in God's sight no man living can be justified;" and, in one sense, Sodom and Gomorrah were less unrighteous than Jerusalem, and Matthew 10:15; Matthew 11:24; Mark 6:11; Luke 10:12 "it shall be more tolerable for them in the day of Judgment," because they sinned against less light; yet the actual sins of the Chaldee were greater than those of Jerusalem, and Satan's evil is greater than that of these who are his prey. To say that Judah was more righteous than the Chaldaean does not imply any righteousness of the Chaldaean, as the saying that (Jeremiah 31:11, Del.) "God ransomed Jacob from the hand of one stronger than he," does not imply any strength remaining to Israel.