Habakkuk 2:17

2:15-20 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.

Habakkuk 2:17 . For the violence of Lebanon [that is, the violence done to Lebanon ] shall cover thee — That is, says Grotius, thou shalt suffer the punishment of having destroyed the temple, which is here called Lebanon, because it was built, in a great measure, with the cedars of Lebanon. And the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid — The relative which, added by our translators, obscures the text, which might be more plainly rendered, The spoil of (or, made by) beasts shall make them afraid, or make thee afraid, as the LXX. and Chaldee, with very little alteration, read the text. As thou hast spoiled other, without any sense of common humanity, so the army of the conqueror shall deal by thee, and shall tear thee in pieces as wild beasts do their prey. See Isaiah 13:15-18 . Because of men’s blood — See note on Habakkuk 2:8 .

(17) For the violence of Lebanon. . . . —Better, For the violence done to Lebanon shall overwhelm thee, and the destruction of the beasts which it frightened away. The rest of the verse is a refrain taken from the first woe, that of Habakkuk 2:8 . The “destruction of beasts” points, we think, to a raid on the cattle feeding on the sides of Lebanon. But more than this is probably included in the phrase the violence done to Lebanon. Habakkuk probably foresees how the invader will cut down the cedar forests in Lebanon to adorn the palaces of Babylon. (Comp. Isaiah 14:7-8 .) All these outrages shall in due time be Avenged on himself. Some commentators, however, explain the expression as a bold synecdoche, Lebanon representing the Holy Land (of which it was the beauty), or even the Temple, both of which Nebuchadnezzar laid waste.

For the {o} 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 in it. (o) Because the Babylonians were cruel not only against other nations, but also against the people of God, which is meant by Lebanon and the beast in it, he shows that the same cruelly will be executed against them.

17. the violence of Lebanon—thy "violence" against "Lebanon," that is, Jerusalem (Isa 37:24; Jer 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 Hab 2:8.

17 . violence of Lebanon ] i.e. done to Lebanon. Lebanon is not a figure for the holy land, but used literally. Both Assyrians and Babylonians transported wood from Lebanon for their temples and other edifices. It is possible that their cutting down of wood may have been wanton, and perhaps the use of the cedars by the Chaldean in any form may have been considered desecration. Comp. Isaiah 14:8 . shall cover thee ] Obadiah 1:10 ; Jeremiah 3:25 . In Obadiah 1:10 shame covers the Edomites because of the violence; here the violence itself covers. The violence carries shame, its recompense, in itself. spoil … made them afraid ] and the destruction of the beasts shall terrify thee (or, break thee). The ancient versions read thee for them , no doubt rightly. The Chaldeans may have made Lebanon their hunting-ground, and possibly they carried the chase to excess, though “spoil” or destruction does not mean extermination but violent treatment. The earth, the woods and the beasts no less than man have rights; there is nothing that exists which is not moral; wanton excess on anything recoils on the head of the perpetrator. The ravage and terror carried into the world of creatures shall come back in terror and destruction on the Chaldean. The refrain is as in Habakkuk 2:11 .

The violence of Lebanon shall cover thee: this is added to all the rest, that God’s people might know this was the time of recompences for Zion, that the violence by Babylon done to Judea and its inhabitants should be avenged and no longer deferred, 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 Deu 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. Thee; Babylon. The spoil of beasts; such spoil as by hunters is made among wild beasts, when they endeavour to destroy the whole kind of them, such havoc, and by all the ways and methods that art and subtlety 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 insatiable beasts make where they prevail, they shall tear and devour all they seize, and seize all that peep abroad, and this shall make all men afraid continually. Because of men’s blood, & c.: see Habakkuk 2:8 .

Verse 17. - For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee; LXX., ἀσέβεια τοῦ Λιβάνου : iniquitas Libani (Vulgate). It would be plainer if translated, "the violence against," or "practised on, Lebanon," as the sentence refers to the devastation inflicted by the Chaldeans on the forests of Lebanon (comp. Isaiah 14:8 ; Isaiah 37:24 ). Jerome confines the expression in the text to the demolition of the temple at Jerusalem in the construction of which much cedar was employed; others take Lebanon as a figure for Palestine generally, or for Jerusalem itself; but it is best understood literally. The same devastation which the Chaldeans made in Lebanon shall "cover," overwhelm, and destroy them. And the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid. The introduction of the relative is not required, and the passage may be better translated, And the destruction of beasts made them (others read "thee") afraid. Septuagint, "And the wretchedness of the beasts shall affright thee." Jerome, in his commentary, renders, "Et vastitas animalium opprimet te." The meaning is that the wholesale destruction of the wild animals of Lebanon, occasioned by the operations of the Chaldeans, shall be visited upon this people. They warred not only against men, but against the lower creatures too; and for this retributive punishment awaited them. Because of men's blood, etc. The reason rendered in ver. 8 is here repeated. Of the land, etc., means "toward" or "against" the land. Habakkuk 2:17

For the violence of Lebanon - i. e., done to Lebanon, whether the land of Israel of which it was the entrance and the beauty (See Isaiah 37:24 , and, as a symbol, Jeremiah 22:6 , Jeremiah 22:23 ; Ezekiel 17:3 ; but it is used as a symbol of Sennacherib's army, Isaiah 10:34 , and the king of Asshur is not indeed spoken of under the name as a symbol (in Ezekiel 21:3 ,) but is compared to it), or the temple (See the note at Zechariah 12:1 ), both of which Nebuchadnezzar laid waste; or, more widely, it may be a symbol of all the majesty of the world and its empires, which he subdues, as Isaiah uses it, when speaking of the judgment on the world, Isaiah 2:13 , "It shall cover thee, and the spoil (i. e., spoiling, destruction) of beasts (the inhabitants of Lebanon) which made them afraid," or more simply, "the wasting of wild beasts shall crush , Proverbs 10:14 ; Proverbs 13:3 ; Proverbs 14:14 ; Proverbs 18:7 ) them (selves)," i. e., as it is in irrational nature, that "the frequency of the incursions of very mischievous animals becomes the cause that people assemble against them and kill them, so their (the Chaldaeans') frequent injustice is the cause that they haste to be avenged on thee" . Having become beasts, they shared their history.

They spoiled, scared, laid waste, were destroyed. "Whoso seeketh to hurt another, hurteth himself." The Chaldaeans laid waste Judea, scared and wasted its inhabitants; the end of its plunder should be, not to adorn, but to cover them, overwhelm them as in ruins, so that they should not lift up their heads again. Violence returns upon the head of him who did it; they seem to raise a lofty fabric, but are buried under it. He sums up their past experience, what God had warned them beforehand, what they had found.