Habakkuk 2:4

2:1-4 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.

(4) Behold his soul . . . .—Better, Behold his soul within him is puffed up, it is not upright. The soul of the Chaldæan invader is inflated with pride, self-dependence ousting from his mind all thoughts of God. It is therefore unsound and distorted. Habakkuk leaves the inference “and therefore it shall die” to be imagined, and hastens to the antithesis, “ But the righteous man shall live by his faith. ” The word live is emphatic. The reward promised to patient waitings on God is life —deliverance from destruction. How far the promise extends, and whether it includes that aspiration after future life which is plainly expressed by many Hebrew poets and prophets, we cannot determine. The student must be cautioned against such renderings as “he that is righteous-by-faith shall live,” or, “he that is justified-by-faith shall live,” which have been suggested by the Pauline quotations Romans 1:17 , Galatians 3:11 . If the adjective could be taken in this close collocation with the substantive, “he that is consistent in-his-confidence shall live” would be the only possible rendering. Thus whatever force we assign to St. Paul’s citation, here, at least, the words have no doctrinal significance. Their ethical importance is, however, undeniable. (See Introduction 4)

Habakkuk 2:4. Behold, his soul which is lifted up — That does not humbly adore and acquiesce in the justice and wisdom of the divine dispensations, but contends against them, and provides for his safety in a way of his own devising. The Vulgate renders this clause, Ecce qui incredulus est, non erit recta anima ejus in semetipso, “Behold he who is unbelieving, his soul will not be right in him.” And the version of the LXX. differs still more from our translation, Εαν υποστειληται , ουκ ευδοκει η ψυχη μον εν αυτω , If he (that is, the just man, as it follows) draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. As these translations do not accord with the present Hebrew text, it is supposed by some learned men that it was written otherwise in the ancient copies; especially as the rendering of the LXX. is sanctioned by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews 10:38 .

According to this translation the sense of the passage is, that God having, in the foregoing verse, ordered the Jewish nation confidently to expect the fulfilling of the prophecy, and assured them that it would most certainly come to pass, he in this verse declares that his soul should have no pleasure in the man who should draw back, or whose faith should fail him in waiting for the fulfilling of the prophecy; but that the just should live by his faith — That is, that the truly righteous man, as both the Hebrew and Greek expression signifies, namely, the humble and upright one, who, adoring the depths of the divine dispensations, and being persuaded of the truth of God’s promises, should confide in him for the fulfilment of them, and remain constant in the expectation thereof, as well as of whatever else God had spoken; that he should thereby be supported under all the seeming irregular and trying dispensations of providence, and also be blessed with God’s favour and peculiar love, through the means of his faith. Our rendering, however, (namely, his soul which is lifted up, &c.,) “furnishes,” as Bishop Newcome observes, “a good sense, if we understand the passage of the Chaldeans; who, as appears from Habakkuk 1:7 ; Habakkuk 1:12 ; Habakkuk 1:15-17 , may be addressed in the singular number throughout this chapter, though Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar (Daniel 5.) may be alluded to at the same time.

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 Heb 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 Hab 2:5, &c.; Hab 1:6, &c.; Hab 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 Heb 10:38 expresses it.

The sense, in Maurer's view, which accords better with the context (Hab 2:5, &c.). is: the Chaldean, though for a time seeming to prosper, yet being lifted up with haughty unbelief (Hab 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" (Heb 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.

4 . Habakkuk 2:4 gives the contents of the vision. The present text reads: Behold his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness. The term “puffed up” is perhaps properly said of ground, and means to be uneven, to have swelling heights, and when applied to the mind to swell, be puffed up or arrogant. The opposite idea is “upright,” properly even , without ruggedness or heights ( Isaiah 40:3-4 ). Cf. Proverbs 30:32 ; Psalm 131:2 . Instead of “is puffed up” the parallelism of the verse would naturally require a noun as subject, opposed to “the righteous” of next clause: Behold the …, his soul is not upright in him, but the righteous &c. No acceptable suggestion has been made. The Sept. took the clause as a conditional, if he draw back; reading also my soul for his soul. The term “faithfulness” is used in the sense of physical steadiness or firmness, as Exodus 17:12 of the hands of Moses (cf. Isaiah 33:6 ); then in the sense of trueness, e.g. as opposed to falsehood or lies in speech, Jeremiah 5:3 ; Jeremiah 7:28 ; and as equivalent to trustworthiness, honesty in conduct, 2 Kings 12:15-16 . The word is often coupled with “righteousness,” as 1 Samuel 26:23 ; Isaiah 59:4 ; Jeremiah 5:1 .

In Isaiah 11:5 it is said of the Messiah: “righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” So far as the expression is used of men it appears to mean integrity of character and conduct, and differs little from righteousness. Such a character has in it the principle of permanence, while the Chaldean, whose soul is not upright in him, shall perish. Comp. Proverbs 10:25 , “when the whirlwind passeth the wicked is no more, but the righteous is an everlasting foundation” ( Proverbs 10:2 ). Sept. rendered “faith,” and read in this way the passage became the text for St Paul’s doctrine of faith. The Heb. language has no word for “faith” as an active principle, though the term “believe” is derived from the same root as the present word. The situation here is similar to that described in Isaiah 8:17 , “Bind up the testimony … and I will wait for Jehovah, who hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him”; cf. here Habakkuk 2:3 “though it tarry wait for it.”

Behold; 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 inquire humbly, submitting themselves to God, and waiting for him. His soul, the heart and mind of every such one, which is lifted up; that proudly contests with the justice and wisdom of the Divine Providence, that slights promises of deliverance at so great a distance, and provides for his own safety by his own wit; is not upright; is very corrupt and wicked, full of (not only distrusts, but) positive conclusions against God’s future punishing the wicked: such a one is so wicked that he thinks God will not punish the violent and bloody, the superstitious and idolatrous Babylonian. The just; the humble, upright, and comparatively righteous one, who adores the depth of Divine providence, and is persuaded of the truth of Divine promises, and doth approve the season God chooseth. Shall live; supports himself, and quiets his own heart, whilst he foreseeth the approaching deliverance of Zion. By his faith; his well-grounded dependence on a persuasion of the truth of God’s 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.

Verse 4. - § 6. The great principle is taught that the proud shall not continue, but the just shall live by faith. The prophecy commences with a fundamental thought, applicable to all God's dealings with man. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; literally, behold, puffed up, his soul is not upright in him. This is a description of an evil character (especially of the Chaldean) in opposition to the character delineated in the following hemistich. One who is proud, presumptuous, thinks much of himself, despising others, and is not straightforward and upright before God, shall not live, shall not have a happy, safe life; he carries in himself the seeds of destruction. The result is not expressed in the first hemistich, but may be supplied from the next clause, and, as Knabenbauer suggests, may be inferred from the language in Hebrews 10:38, 39 , where, after quoting the Septuagint rendering of this passage, Ἐὰν ὑποστείληται οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ , the writer adds, "But we are not of them that shrink back ( ὑποσταλῆς ) unto perdition." Vulgate, Ecce , qui incredulus est, non erit recta anima ejus in semetipso , which seems to confine the statement to the case of one who doubts God's word. But the just shall live by his faith. The "faith" here spoken of is a loving trust in God, confidence in his promises, resulting in due performance of his will. This hemistich is the antithesis to the former.