The Pulpit Commentary — Habakkuk — Section 48

this form in England to-day to an appalling extent. Woe to our legislators, if they do not put it down by the strong arm of the law I Nothing else will do it. II. HAUOHTINEss. "Is a proud man." Babylon became inspired with a haughty insolence. She regarded herself as the queen of the world, and looked down with supercilious contempt upon all the other nations of the earth, even upon the Hebrew people, the heavenly-cho11en race. Nebuchadnezzar expresses the spirit of the kingdom as well as hi~ own, when he says," Is not this great Babylon, that I have built lor the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. iv. 30). It is suggested that the Chaldea.ns' love of wine had much to do in the developing of this haughty spirit. We read (Dan. v.) that Belshazzar at his feast dra,,k wine with the thousands of his lords, his princes, his wives, his concubines. " \nne is a mocker;" it cheats a beggar into the belief that he is a lord. "Strong urink is raging; " it lashes the passions into furious insolence. It is fabled that Accius the poet, though he was a dwarf, would be pictured a giant in stature. Pride is an evil that leads to ruin. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit belore a fall." III. RAPACITY. Two things are suggested concerning the rapacious form it assumed in Babylon. 1. It was restless. "Neither keepeth at home." Not content with it~ own grandeur, wealth, and luxuries, it goes from home in search of others; goes out into other countries to ri.ile and to rob. 2. It is insatiable. "\,Vho enlargeth his desire as hell [that is, 'as Sheol, the grave'], and is as death, and cannot be satisfied." "Hell and destruction," that is, the grave and death, says Solomon, "are never full." The grave cries for more and more, as its tenants multiply by millions. The earth seems to hunger and to J?ape for all the dust that enters into the frames of men. So it was with the Babylonian despot, though he gathered unto him all nations, nod heaped unto him all peoples, his greed and ambition remained unsatiated and insatiable. "This,'' says an old writer, "is one of the crying sins of our land, insatiable pride. This makes dear rents and great fines; this takes away the whole clothing of many poor to add one lace more in the suits of the rich ; this shortens the lahourer's wages, and adds much to the burden of his labour. This greediness makes the market of spiritual a.nd temporal offices and dignities, and puts well-deserving virtue out of countenance. This corrupts religion with opinions, justice with bribes, charity with cruelty; it turns peace into schism and contention, love into compliment, friendship into treason, and sets the mouth of hell yet more open, and gives it an appe1ite for more souls." Such are some of the forms that moral wrong took in Babylon, as indicated in these words. But these are not the only forms, a.s we shall see in proceeding through the chapter. Does not moral wrong assume these very forms here in England? Drunkenness, haughtiness, rapacity,-these fiends show their hideous shapes everywhere, and work their demon deeds in every circle of life.-D. T. Vers. fr.-B.-Kational wrongs ending in national woes. No. 1. "Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a. taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to Lim that increaseth that which is not his I how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay l Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?" etc. In these verses, up to the nineteenth inclusive, the prophet denounces upon the Chaldeans and Babylonians five different woes. One for their pride and insatiableness (vers. 6-8); another for their covetousness, etc., which would become ~he cause of their corruJJtion (vers. 9-11); another for the bloody and cruel means which they had employed for gratifying their thirst for acquiring possessions not their own (vers. 12- 14); and fourth, for their wickedness, etc., which would be recompensed to them (vers. 15----17); and the fifth, for their trust in idols, which would redound to their shame (vers. 18, 19). We sha.11 take each of the five sections separately under the title, National wrongs ending in natwnal woes. Notice- I. THE NATIONAL WRONGS. 1. Dishonest accumulation. "Woe to him that increaseth that which is not bis!" Babylon grew wealthy. Its treasures were varied and all but inexhaustible. But whence came they? Came they by honest industry? Were they the home prodt,ce of diligent and righteuus labour? Nu; from other lands. They were wrested frum other countries by violence and fraud. Even the golden and Cl/, II. 1--20.] THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK. 45