PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible — Habakkuk
Gill, John, 1697-1771 · 35,884 words · 30 reading sections
Habakkuk 1:1
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Habakkuk 1:1 INTRODUCTION TO HABAKKUK This book is called, in the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions, "the Prophecy of Habakkuk". Of this prophet, Aben Ezra and Kimchi say, we know neither his age nor his family; which shows they paid no regard to a tradition of their natio…
1,424 wordsSECTION 2Habakkuk 1:2
Habakkuk 1:2 Ver. 2. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!.... The prophet having long observed the sins and iniquities of the people among whom he lived, and being greatly distressed in his mind on account of them, had frequently and importunately cried unto the Lord to put a stop to the abounding of …
174 wordsSECTION 3Habakkuk 1:3
Habakkuk 1:3 Ver. 3. Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance?.... That is, wicked men, and such as give a great deal of trouble vexation, and grief to others, by their rapine and oppression; suggesting that he could not turn his eyes any where, but such persons presented themselves to his vi…
278 wordsSECTION 4Habakkuk 1:4
Habakkuk 1:4 Ver. 4. Therefore the law is slacked,.... Is not put into execution against offenders: the civil magistrates, whose office it is to do justice according to law, are dilatory, and do not proceed with vigour and spirit against the transgressors of it, and in favour of honest and good men oppressed: or "it i…
282 wordsSECTION 5Habakkuk 1:5
Habakkuk 1:5 Ver. 5. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard,.... This is the Lord's answer to the prophet's complaint, or what he directs him to say to the Jews, guilty of the crimes complained of, which should not go long unpunished; and who are called upon to look around them, and see what was doing among the natio…
516 wordsSECTION 6Habakkuk 1:6
Habakkuk 1:6 Ver. 6. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans,.... A people still of late mean and low, famous only for their soothsaying, divination, and judicial astrology; but now become a powerful and warlike people, rising up under the permission of Providence to universal monarchy, and who would quickly add Judea to th…
320 wordsSECTION 7Habakkuk 1:7
Habakkuk 1:7 Ver. 7. They [are] terrible and dreadful,.... For the fierceness of their countenances; the number and valour of their troops; the splendour of their armour; the victories they had obtained, and the cruelty they had exercised; the fame of all which spread terror wherever they came: their judgment and the…
162 wordsSECTION 8Habakkuk 1:8
Habakkuk 1:8 Ver. 8. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards,.... Creatures remarkable for their swiftness: these are creatures born of the mating of a he panther and a lioness, and not of a lion and a she panther, as some have affirmed; and which adultery is highly resented by the lion; nor will he suffer it …
1,323 wordsSECTION 9Habakkuk 1:9
Habakkuk 1:9 Ver. 9. They shall come all for violence,.... Or, "the whole of it" {s}; the whole army of the Chaldeans, everyone of them; this would be their sole view, not to do themselves justice, as might be pretended, or avenge any injuries or affronts done to them by the Jews; but purely for the sake of spoil and …
278 wordsSECTION 10Habakkuk 1:10
Habakkuk 1:10 Ver. 10. And they shall scoff at the kings,.... Or, "he shall" {u}, Nebuchadnezzar king of the Chaldeans, and the army with him; who would make a jest of kings and their armies that should oppose them, as being not at all a match for them; as the kings of Judah, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, they carried capti…
325 wordsSECTION 11Habakkuk 1:11
Habakkuk 1:11 Ver. 11. Then shall [his] mind change,.... The mind of the king of Babylon; not that, when he had taken Jerusalem, he altered his purpose, and laid aside his designs of attacking other nations, and returned to his own country; where he became guilty of gross idolatry, in setting up the golden image in th…
624 wordsSECTION 12Habakkuk 1:12
Habakkuk 1:12 Ver. 12. [Art] thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine holy One? .... The prophet, foreseeing these calamities coming upon his nation and people, observes some things for their comfort in this verse; and expostulates with God in the following verses Hab 1:13 about his providential dealings, in ord…
932 wordsSECTION 13Habakkuk 1:13
Habakkuk 1:13 Ver. 13. [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity,.... The Lord with his eyes of omniscience beholds all things good and evil, and all men good and bad, with all their actions; but then he does not look upon the sins of men with pleasure and approbation; since they a…
476 wordsSECTION 14Habakkuk 1:14
Habakkuk 1:14 Ver. 14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea,.... That is, sufferest them to be used as the fishes of the sea, which are easily taken in the net, and are common to everyone; whosoever will may take them up, and kill them, and use them for their food; and which also among themselves are often hardly u…
1,188 wordsSECTION 15Habakkuk 2:1
Habakkuk 2:1 INTRODUCTION TO HABAKKUK 2 This chapter contains an answer from the Lord to the expostulations, pleadings, and reasonings of the prophet, in the name of the people. The preparation of the prophet to receive this answer is described, Hab 2:1 then follows the answer itself, in which he is bid to write and …
838 wordsSECTION 16Habakkuk 2:2
Habakkuk 2:2 Ver. 2. And the Lord answered me,.... As he does his ministers and people sooner or later, in one way or another, when they call upon him with humility and reverence, with faith and fervency: and said, Write the vision; which the prophet now had from him, concerning the coming of the Messiah, and the des…
704 wordsSECTION 17Habakkuk 2:3
Habakkuk 2:3 Ver. 3. For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time,.... Not the present vision only, but vision or prophecy in general: it was a doubt that arose in the minds of the prophet and other good men, upon the notice given that the Chaldeans would be raised up to the destruction of the Jews; that then the law…
1,667 wordsSECTION 18Habakkuk 2:4
Habakkuk 2:4 Ver. 4. Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him,.... This and the following clause describe two sorts of persons differently affected to the Messiah, and the promise of his coming. Here it points at such as were "incredulous", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; that disbelieved h…
1,885 wordsSECTION 19Habakkuk 2:5
Habakkuk 2:5 Ver. 5. Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine,.... Or rather, "how much less" or "more {o}, wine dealing treacherously": or "a man of wine", as Aben Ezra supplies it; that is, a winebibber, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it: and the sense in connection with the preceding verse Hab 2:4 is, if a Je…
1,145 wordsSECTION 20Habakkuk 2:6
Habakkuk 2:6 Ver. 6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him,.... A proverbial expression, a short sentence, a laconic speech, delivered in a few words, which contains much in them concerning the vices of these emperors, and imprecating judgments upon them for them; took up and expressed by the nations broug…
841 wordsSECTION 21Habakkuk 2:7
Habakkuk 2:7 Ver. 7. Shall not they rise up suddenly that shall bite thee,.... Or, "thy usurers", or "creditors" {d}, as some render it; the Christians, whose money, goods, and substance, they had spoiled them of, but now should be repaid with great usury and gain; these, that is, their princes and emperors, as Consta…
330 wordsSECTION 22Habakkuk 2:8
Habakkuk 2:8 Ver. 8. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee,.... Those that survived the persecutions of the Roman emperors; those that were left of the great numbers put to death by them; those under Constantine rose up, and by just retaliation spoiled them of all their…
308 wordsSECTION 23Habakkuk 2:9
Habakkuk 2:9 Ver. 9. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house,.... The bishops of Rome, being enriched by the donations of Constantine, were not satisfied, but coveted more; these are the greedy dogs Isaiah speaks of, that could never have enough, Isa 56:11 but were still seeking and gaping after mor…
5,332 wordsSECTION 24Habakkuk 3:1
Habakkuk 3:1 INTRODUCTION TO HABAKKUK 3 The title of this chapter is a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, composed after the manner of a psalm of David, and directed to the chief singer, Hab 3:1. The occasion of it is expressed, Hab 3:2 in which the prophet declares his concern for the work of the Lord, and the promotio…
658 wordsSECTION 25Habakkuk 3:2
Habakkuk 3:2 Ver. 2. O Lord, I have heard thy speech, [and] was afraid,.... Or, "thy hearing" {p}; which the Lord had caused to be heard from and of himself; the report that had been made to him, and other prophets before him, particularly Isaiah, who says, "who hath believed our report?" Isa 53:1 where the same phras…
2,068 wordsSECTION 26Habakkuk 3:3
Habakkuk 3:3 Ver. 3. God came from Teman,.... Or, "may God come from Teman" {t}; since it is part of the prayer of Habakkuk: or, as "from Teman" {u}; as he of old came from thence, a city in the land of Edom, Jer 49:7 it was five miles from Petra, in Idumea, where was Mount Seir, from whence the Lord arose, and shone …
1,718 wordsSECTION 27Habakkuk 3:4
Habakkuk 3:4 Ver. 4. And [his] brightness was as the light,.... Of fire, of devouring fire on the top of the mount, to which the sight of his glory was like, Ex 24:16 to which Kimchi refers it. Aben Ezra thinks the pillar of fire is intended, in which the Lord went before his people in the wilderness, Ex 13:21 or as t…
738 wordsSECTION 28Habakkuk 3:5
Habakkuk 3:5 Ver. 5. Before him went the pestilence,.... Either in the land of Egypt, when he marched through that, and slew all their firstborn, Ps 78:50 or rather which he sent before him, and Israel his people among the nations of the land of Canaan, with other diseases and judgments, and destroyed them to make way…
294 wordsSECTION 29Habakkuk 3:6
Habakkuk 3:6 Ver. 6. He stood and measured the earth,.... This alludes to the ark of the Lord, the symbol of his presence, standing and abiding at Gilgal for the space of fourteen years, while the land of Canaan was subdued by Joshua; and then measured out by him, and divided by lot, as an inheritance to the children …
652 wordsSECTION 30Habakkuk 3:7
Habakkuk 3:7 Ver. 7. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction,.... The same with Cush or Ethiopia; hence the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it, "the tents of the Ethiopians"; and these are the same with "the curtains of Midian" in the next clause, tents being made of curtains, and the Ethiopians and Midia…
8,404 wordsSource & rights
Public domain; John Gill (1697–1771). Source item is marked Public Domain on Internet Archive.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.