The Pulpit Commentary — Habakkuk — Section 28

avidumque in tom pore f11mue." The" biters" to building and enriching towns, temples, rising up eU<lrlenly are the Persians who and palaces (see Josephus, 'Cont. Ap.,' i. destroyed the Bflbylonio.n power ae quickly 19. 7, etc.). From the power of evil; from nnd e.e unexpectedly as it had arisen. Vex; the hand of evil; i.e. from all calamity. literally, shal,e 'IJiolentlAJ, like 61a<Td<T71T• Ver. 10.-The very means he took to (Luko iii. 14), or like the violent arrest of e. secure hie power shall prove his ruin. Thou creditor (Mo.tt. xvili. 28); Septuagint, ol hast consulted shame to thy house. By thy brl/30,·>..ol <Tov, " thy plotters;" Vulgate, mee.eures thou hast really determined upon, lacerantes te. So of the mystic Babylon, devised shame anrl disgrace for thy family; her end comes suddenly (Rev. xviii. 10, 17). tf,at is the result of all thy schemes. By Ver. 8.-'fhe law of retaliation ie e.sserte<l. cutting off many people ('f,eoples). This is All the relll!lant of the people (peoples) shall virtually correct. The verb in the present spoil thee. The remnant of the nations text is in the infinitive, and may depend subjugated e.nd plundered by the Che.ldeane upon the verb in the first clause. The shall rise up against them. The downfall versions read the past tense, <Tvve1r,pava.s, of Babylon wae brought about chiefly by concidisti. So the Chaldee and Syria.c. the combined forces of Media, Persia, and This may be taken ae the prophet's expla- Ele.m (Isa. xxi. 2; Jer. 1. 9, etc.); and it nation of the shameful means employed. is certain the.t Nebnche.dnezzar, at one Hast sinned against thy soul (Prov. viii. 36 ; period of hie reign, conquered and o.nnexed xx. 2). Thou hast ende.ngererl thy own life Ele.m ; and there is every probability that by provoking retribution. The Greek and he warred successfully a.go.inst Media (see Latin Versions have, "Thy soul bath Jer. xxv. 9, 25; Judith i. 5, 13, etc.); and sinned." doubtless many of the neighbouring tribes, Ver. 11.-Even inanimate things shall which had suffered under these oppressors, raise their voice to denounce the Chal- joined in the attack. Because of men's deans' wickedness. The stone she.11 ory out blood. Because of the crueltv and blood- of the we.11. A proverbial expression to shed of which the Babylonians' were guilty. denote the horror with which their cruelty For the violence of ( done to) the land, of the and oppression were regarded; it ie par- oity (see ver. 17). The statement is general, ticularly appropriate here, as these crimes but with special reference to the Chaldeans' had been perpetrated in connection with treatment of J udl!la and Jerusalem, as in the buildings in which they prided them- lea. xliii.14; xiv. 4; Jer. Ii. 4, ll. Jerome eel ves, and which were raised by the en- takes "the violence of the land," etc., to forced labour of miserable captives and mean the wickedness of the Jews them- ad1Jrned with the fruits of fraud and pillage. selves, which is to be punished. He is led Compare another application of the expres- astray by the Septuagint, which gives, Ilia. sion in Luke xiL 40. Jerome quotes Cicero, • . • U<TE/3ela.s nr, . "through . . . the 'Orat. pro Marcello,' 10, "Parietes, medius iniquity of the land." fidius, ut mihi videntur, hujus curire tibi Vars. 9-11.-§ 9. The seaona woe: for gratias e.gere gestiunt, quod brevi tempore future. eit ilia 1rnctorit.as in his majorum their avarice, '11iolence, and cunning. euorum et suis eedibus" ( comp. Eurip., Ver. 9.-That coveteth an evil covetous- 'Hippo!.,' 418, Tepeµ.va .,, ot,cwv µ.I, 1ron ness to his house ; better, gaineth evil gains dJ9oyylw a.,pyi : Ovid, ' Metam. ,' ii. 696, for his house. T be " house " is the royal "Tutus eas: lo.pie iste prius tne. furte. family or dynasty, as in ver. 10; and the loquetur "). Wordsworth sees a literal ful- Chalclean is denounced for thinking to filment of these words in the nppo.lling cir- secure its stability and permanence by cumstunce at Belshazzar'e feast, when a amassing godless gnine. That he me.y set hand wrote on the palace wall the doom of hie nest on high, Thie ie ll figurative ex- Babylon (Dan. v.). And the beam out of the pression, denoting security as well as p1·ide timber shall e.nswer it. "The tie-bearu out and self-confidence (comp. Numb. xxiv. 21; of the timber work shall" t:tke up the Job xxxix. 27, etc.; Jer. xlix. 16; Obad. refrain, e.ud "nnswer" the stone from the 4), and denotes the ve.rious means which the wall. The Hebrew wore! (k,iphis) rendered Chaldeans employed to establish e.nd secure ".beam" is an li1ra( >..e-y&µ.,vov. It is explained their power (comp. Isa. xiv. 14). Some see 118 above by St. Jerome, being referred to n in the words an allusion to the formido.ble verb meaning "to biud." Thus Symmachus fortifico.tione ro.ised by Nebuchadnezzar for and Theodotion tro.nslate it by u~voeuµ.os. the protection of Babylon, and the wonder- Henderson e.nd others thiuk it menus "a ful po.lace erected by him as e. royal resi- half-brick," nnd Aquila renders it by .ua(a, dence (eee Rawliueon, •Ano.Mon.,' iii. 340, "something baked." But we have no etc., edit. 1865). It ie certain that N ebu- evidence that the Babylonians in their surup- chadnezzur and other monarohe, e.ftcr suc- tuous edifices interlaced timber and l,alr- cessful expeditious, turned their attention bricks (see Pust1y, p. 419, note 23). The  24 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK. [OH, n, 1-20,