Cap. 2, 5. But the one who entrusts a proud man, so that he cannot stay, who opens his soul like hell, and is just like death, which cannot be satisfied, but draws to himself all the nations, and gathers to himself all the peoples.
In the first chapter, the prophet mourned over the people of Israel, proclaiming the destruction and lamenting over the destroyer, the king of Babylon. In the second chapter he comforted them again by word and outward signs, with the future of Christ and his kingdom. In this third chapter, he now condemns the king of Babylon and his kingdom with many words and sayings, and all this so that the Jews will not despair, as if their prison would remain forever, but will be comforted, so that their enemy will be destroyed again, and they will be redeemed and become much more glorious. As he will also comfort them in the fourth chapter with the previous miracles of God.
(2) For, as has been said, it is the chief desire of him and of all the other prophets to comfort the people and keep them in faith and hope in the Christ who is to come, so that they will not despair of him because things are going so badly for them, and so that they will not lose hope in him.
It seems as if it is lost and nothing will come of it, just as the apostles also comfort us Christians that under the cross we nevertheless hope in firm faith of an eternal life and kingdom in heaven.
3. above [v. 15] he compares the king of Babylon to a fisherman who snatches up everything and eats and devours it. Here he compares him to a drunkard who drinks so much that he spits. And thus he wants to say: Just as the wine at first comes down so smooth and sweet, especially when the drunkard is defiant and wants to be praised for his drinking as a beer hero or wine knight, so the wine can be drunk confidently, and the drunkard wants to chase the prize with drinking. But at last the drunken wine becomes master in the head, and throws the boozer under the bench, that he becomes a sow cook, fpeiet and unflatet therefore, that house and yard stink. There the proud man and fine hero lies as a dumb, unreasonable animal, like a sow, so that there is nothing more human about him than his outward appearance. And that is shameful to see and to hear, so much more, so much more honest the man should be. So wine has deceived him, that is, as it says in Hebrew, it has disgraced him so that he is despised and no one thinks anything of him, so that even a child is disgraced.
not afraid of him, yes, not even the swine, which nevertheless eat his gurgle soups around him. For what should a full man do? He can neither speak nor create, as he is deprived of all reason, senses, language, wit and strength; there he lies as a block. If he were the cruel Hector or Achilles before, then he is also the mockery and song of the children, who point at him with their fingers, laugh and mimic him with mocking words as they wish. So also the Latin sages wrote that a drunken man is neither alive nor dead.
4 The king of Babylon is a great and proud drunkard, not one who drinks wine, but, as Habakkuk says, "he opens his mouth as wide as hell, and cannot be satisfied, like death," and he takes, drinks, and devours all the land and all the people. Well then, the wine is sweet to the taste; for it is pleasant to see so great a land and people thrown under one another, and to become so powerful, that is, to become so full and drunk. But in the end it is shameful when he has to spit them all out again and give them away, so that he is destroyed and retains no kingdom, land, people or city, as happened to the king of Babylon when he was destroyed by the Persians. Then it happened, as Habakkuk writes here, that he had to spit again with all the shame everything he had drunk. For he had to lose all land and people, and he also had to be destroyed. This is what it means, "the wine depresses or disgraces the proud man, so that he cannot remain. For the word "afflicted" is just that of which we said above, Cap. 1, 14, boged or woged, when one is so utterly destroyed or despised that one is immediately certain that he is and counts for nothing. Item, where he says, "that he cannot remain," means that he keeps no house, nor dwelling, as he is driven out of his kingdom.
(5) We Germans have a proverb that is almost equal to this saying of Habakkuk, because we say: A drunken house spits out the host. If, as Habakkuk does, we were to draw such a line and point to a tyrant who flays and scrapes the people as some bishops and princes do now, we would also say: "Awe, he drinks too much, and gets too full, the drunken house will
The king will spit out the host, that is, he will rob and squeeze so hard that he will be despised, and in the end he will have to perish; yes, he will not only be despised, but also hostile, to whom no one will be friendly and everyone will be hostile. But such an empire, which is maintained by fear and violence through hostile tyrants, and not also with love and favor of the subjects, it cannot exist, as all history testifies, and all experiences prove daily.
(6) And Habakkuk's saying is true, that wine despises and disgraces proud tyrants, when they drink too much and are so full of the goods of the land and the people. For his neighbors do not like his power, because they fear that it will become too great over them. Therefore they put their heads together and sit down against him. Then his power is over. Because he has his own people, land and people against him, that they are hostile to him, they want other lords; then his enemies rely on that. So he is worthless inside and out, and must spit out what he has drunk. Likewise it happened to the king of Babylon, that both the Medes and the Persians set themselves against him as his neighbors, and disturbed him, which gladly saw much of his land and people.
(7) Now watch how the prophet scolds the king's tyranny with sharp, bitter words. First he calls him "a proud man. For so are tyrants, so proud by force that the common man must become an enemy to them, because they not only oppress and oppress, but also act proudly and arrogantly with the people, and do it with all their might.
(8) Secondly, he compares it to "the mouth of hell," which is so wide that it swallows up the whole world, and yet it does not close. So too, death, though it strangles all the world, is not satisfied. These words speak powerfully of the insatiable avarice of tyrants. The prophet also shows how 1) a human heart is minded when it desires good and honor, namely, that the more it has, the more it wants to have; if it had the whole world, it would gladly have two; if it had two, it would gladly have two.
1) Wittenberg and Erlanger: what.
have ten. Summa, if death and hell become full, a stingy heart will also have enough, and not before.
(9) Therefore it is not to be done how to satisfy avarice, death, hell, and give so much that they say: Enough; but avarice must be put to death, as well as death and hell. But as no one but Christ kills death and hell, so no one but Christ can kill avarice, like all other sins, unless bodily death takes away the avaricious man, so that he can never practice avarice, as it is said, "You will be full one day when they hit you with shovels. But the miser goes with him nevertheless, and remains with him, like other sin. Otherwise the miser can do no good on earth (as the pagans say) without dying.
V. 6. But what is the matter? All these will make a saying of him, and a legend and a proverb, and will say.
(10) The prophet continues in the similitude of a full, drunken man, how he becomes disgraced, and (as said [§ 3]) that one points fingers at him, laughs and mocks him, when before he was so strong that everyone feared him, but now he is so full that he lies there like a sow; or, when he walks, he staggers and staggers so foolishly that one has to laugh at him. He wants to do a lot and can't stand on his legs. The tyrant's splendor is the same in the end, that they not only lose power and property, and, like the drunkards, can neither stand nor stay anywhere, but that they are also mocked and laughed at with pointed and colorful, mocking words: Where are you now, Squire? Where is your anger? In short, they show him the figs, and as highly as he was feared, so deeply is he now despised, as we fehen in the course of the world. As it is now with the pope and his servants, everyone sings, writes, laughs, mocks, and scorns, who before was not allowed to gape or murmur. Just such mockery and laughter Habakkuk announces here also about the king of Babylon in all countries (since he is cruel now) in the future. But who would have told it to him, he would have thought: It is impossible, and are foolheidings.
Yet it is proclaimed to the Jews for comfort, even though few believed it.
(11) God also makes it especially strange. He says that the tyrants will be laughed at, and yet they are so firmly established and deeply rooted, as Jeremiah says [Cap. 12, 2]; just as Ps. 2, 4 also says [Jer. 12, 13] that God laughs at and mocks the nations, princes and kings who oppose His Christ. Does this mean that they laughed and mocked, when they were so powerful that they crucified Christ and persecuted and killed all his disciples, but they still remained in the land and in their power? Yes, therefore faith belongs to it. These are sermons of faith, which do not declare what they say, but promise in the future, contrary to that which is before the eyes and stands. Christ's gospel has never been stronger in any place than when it was least wanted. For when the hour came, the tyrants perished, and the word remained on the scene. And now also, when the princes and bishops most vehemently resist the gospel, there it must come and go the most. So they will mock and say: Where are they now, who did not want to suffer this? In the grave they lie, the worms devour them, the word of God nevertheless stands and goes in their dominion. So Annas and Caiphas had to let Christ remain in Jerusalem with the word, and have the mockery of it. But where Christ's word is and remains, there it is said: Christ's victory and kingdom remain; he keeps the field with his teaching, and other teachings must remain silent, like mice, as we see in experience.
Woe to him who increases his wealth with the wealth of others. How long shall it last? And only loads a lot of mud on himself.
(12) Here he counts in order some of the mocking words that would go against the Babylonian tyrant in the land. There are four of them; Habakkuk adds the fifth for himself. And that he makes such a mockery, and has his mockery of the mighty king, we must always understand, where his heart stands, namely, to comfort the Jews, so that they do not despair of the future of Christ. For, as has been said, this is the prophet's foremost cause and opinion,
That he would comfort the weak and endure in the disturbance Jerusalem etc.
The first mocking song that will be said and sung about this impotent, drunken tyrant in all countries is about his avarice, so that he has scorned great goods from all countries. For this is the louse and order of the world, that it first seeks money and goods; after that one builds, after that one seeks pleasure and joy, at last power and honor. We will also see these four pieces here one after the other in the mockery of the drunken tyrant. He has made his possessions great, not by God's blessing and gift, as the kings of Israel and Judah did in their own land, but he has taken them by force from others, that is, he has conquered all the lands and put interest and all kinds of valuations on them, until he has seized all that was in the land. And this not by God's command, but out of avarice and arrogance (though by God's decree), as the tyrants use to do, and all kingdoms do, which arise by strife and violence, without God's command. Therefore such kingdoms are also called "mountains of robbery", Ps. 76, 5.
Fourteenth, "How long shall it last?" That is, he does not act differently, as if it should last forever. Such mockery should not have been sung when the king sat in the kingdom, he would not have suffered it. For tyrants want to be right, and what they gain in this way should not be a foreign good. But now he is gone, they sing it freely, and mock his avarice with all certainty, to his great shame, that he has perished cheaply, as a public land robber, and so long possessed foreign property, which he must now return with shame. And he calls such property much and thick mud, not only because of the property, but because he thereby incurs the hatred, envy and enmity of all people and countries, under which he must be suffocated and crushed, and cannot turn it away or throw it away. For in the mud no one can stand either behind or in front of him, and must stand. So, whoever loses the common prayer and favor, he is badly lost without all comfort.
V. 7. O how suddenly those who bite you will wake up, and those who push you away will awaken, and you must be given to them.
(15) Habakkuk 1) speaks these things for the future, and yet they shall be words of mockery to them that shall see Babylon disturbed, saying, Behold, how soon are they come that have bitten thee. But because it had not happened yet, he comforts the Jews with it, and gives comfort to the king. He describes how it happens when a tyrant is safely asleep and suddenly comes into trouble, and takes a likeness of a sleeping or snoring man, who lies safely there in sleep and does not move; but comes that bites him hard or stings him, as a horn or worm, he wakes up from sleep, is frightened and starts up, as if the country were full of enemies.
(16) The same thing happened to the king of Babylon. When he was safe, sitting and drinking, and had good courage, as Daniel writes, the Persians and Medes came suddenly, won Babylon, and killed the king in one night, Daniel 5:30. Then the king rose up and became brave, and, as the text says here, he was pushed away, chased out of the secure camp, and yet could not escape, but had to give himself to them, so that the Persians and Medes divided up his property, land and people. It is a great pity that a man would like to escape, but he cannot escape and must be given to his enemies. This is how he pays for what he has done to others, as follows.
V. 8 For thou hast robbed many nations; so shall all the remnant of the people rob thee again, for the blood of men, and for the iniquity of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
(17) He accuses the tyrant of robbing other nations and oppressing them by force as the least of it, but for the comfort of the Jews he especially accuses him of destroying the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem with its people in order to increase his wealth. For when he says, "for the blood of men," he means all the other Gentiles, who were not Jews but were like other men, over whom he shed much blood without cause, only that he might become rich and a great lord. That he might call him an abominable murderer, because of his shameful avarice.
1) Wittenberg and Erlanger: the Habakuk.
for the sake of it. How still today worldly bishops and princes pay no attention to how much human blood it costs that they only become rich and great lords, how the course of the world and the devil's rule goes.
018 But the iniquity of the land of Judah, and of the city of Jerusalem, he reckoned greater, because God dwelt there, who had his worship, his people, his temple, and his word. Because of this, the king there sinned the most iniquitously, that is, with violence and injustice, against divine and holy things. Therefore he does not call the land, the city and the people by their own names, but speaks of them by common names, as if there were no more land, city or people that the king had corrupted. For what he has done to other godless lands and cities and people is small compared to this land.
19 The histories also write that all sacrilege committed against sacred things is commonly quick and soon smelled. Hence the saying: It is not good to joke with saints, they like to draw. Item: You do not believe the saints, they draw. So it is said of Cn. 1) Pompejo, the most blessed prince of Rome, that he never had any more luck, since he had defiled the temple at Jerusalem. And it had also been Babylon, which [it] should become, 2) since the king had disturbed Jerusalem; soon after that it decreased, that he himself became an unreasonable animal, and no one more so powerful, and his kingdom after his son even fell away, in the third member, as Daniel writes at the 5th chapter.
(20) For God is so firm about His name that He does not allow it to be blasphemed in the idols, since all idols bear God's name and are called God. Those who have mocked the idols or blasphemed them are often punished, as the pagan books testify. Hence also such fear came among the people that they also feared the idols; not that therefore idolatry was right or unpunishable, but that a heart that is so rough and impudent to mock the idol, also mocks the right and wrong idol so much.
1) The Wittenbergers, and the Erlangers: "C."
2) That is, to have come to the pinnacle of his power.
God, because God's name is there. For they do not do it out of faith, as the Christians do, but out of sacrilege and presumption. So God lets the devil punish and torment them. Just as in our times St. Anthony, St. Ballen, and the like have often plagued the sacrilegious, that is, the devil has done it out of God's decree, so that such blasphemers and sacrilegious people would do the same to the right saints and to God Himself, as they do to the saints whom they consider holy. So I said that this proverb comes from this: The saints like to draw. For what one considers holy, even if it is not holy in itself, it is still holy to him who considers it so. For he takes God's name, which alone is holy, and misuses it, and blasphemes it, and does it wrong. Enough of that.
V. 9 Woe to him who is stingy to the misfortune of his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may escape disaster.
21 The other mocking song that will be sung is about his solid building. For that is how it is: When one has gained great money and property, land and people, one thinks how it will be preserved and kept. Here avarice has first of all to do, yes, as much or more, than how he gains it; 3) then he drives that one builds firm, strong chambers, castle and cities, so that one is safe from the enemies. For since they did not receive the property from God by faith, but brought it to themselves with avarice, they cannot trust or command God, but seek themselves with great wit, counsel and art how to preserve and defend it. Thus miracle after miracle is written of kings, how they built strong cities, as Judith 1:2-4 Arbaces king of Media built Egbathanis, that the walls were thirty cubits thick, and seventy cubits high, and the towers a hundred cubits high. People listened to this, and I believe that work was done.
22. still one says of this Babylon much greater thing, what an excellent, unbelievable thing it was, that Aristotle says it was
3) In the editions: gewinnet. In Latin: luerstur.
would not be a city, but a whole country, enclosed in the ring walls. For the circular wall had around it sixty thousand paces, as Pliny writes, which makes fifteen German miles. Fifteen miles within the ring wall would make a city five miles long and wide. Thus the walls were fifty shoes thick, and two hundred shoes high, to reckon a shoe almost as long as an elbow, that is, three great fingers long, and there were six hundred council houses in it, and many other things. Therefore Babylon was counted as one of the seven wonders that were in the world. Of course, it is a miracle that people were able to build such a structure.
23) Now the king and the Babylonians defied such a city, and were proud, as certain that it should be impossible to win it, or to disturb the kingdom. Just as Isaiah 1) Cap. 47, 8. tells how Babylon boasts and says: "I am alone, and there is none else, I will never become a widow, or be without children" etc. And it is no wonder that a human heart relies on such mighty power and good, if it relies on lesser good and defies it. But it was hard for the Jews to believe that they should come again from Babylon, after they had been so captivated by great power, corrupted and disturbed. That is why the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and here Habakkuk cry out with all their might against this city, so that they may keep the people with comfort in the faith in the future Christ. For who could believe it now, if such a sermon were preached, that such a mighty kingdom should be so easily destroyed, and the captives loosed? It is so high and far above all reason and sense.
24) But if God did not perform miracles otherwise, He would have proven enough here in this city and in the kingdom how no power nor force helps when He turns away His hand, and no building nor fortress exists. 2)
1) So correctly in all old editions. In Walch by mistake "Jeremias". This has been reprinted by the Erlangen dona üäs and makes the note: "In the Origg.: Jesaia."
2) In the editions: bestehet. In Latin: wnkturs possit.
Where he ceases to protect, as the 127th Psalm, v. 1, says: "Where the Lord does not keep the city, the keeper keeps in vain. In this way he has shown how he is to be feared, even by all the great lords of the earth, and that they should not be proud of their possessions and power. For if Babylon has not remained, where will the Turk, where will our emperor, kings and princes remain, who hardly want to be citizens of Babylon?
25 Again, all those who are persecuted, imprisoned and tormented by tyrants are comforted. For if he was able to deliver the Jews from Babylon, where there were such proud, mighty and wicked tyrants, how should he not also deliver them from many lesser ones? This is why Habakkuk comforts the Jews with a future redemption, mocking the tyrant of Babylon, and sings: "Just as the great good of Babylon, made up of all the nations, has been destroyed, cut in two and brought to nothing, so let the great, strong, precious building be destroyed and torn in two when the hour has come.
(26) Thus sounds the mocking song, "Woe to him who is stingy to the misfortune of his house," that is, how sore it will turn out, how they will mock thee, that thou hast been so cruelly stingy to build thy house, and to make the city of Babylon strong and firm. What is the use? It is nothing, but that thou cause the more mischief to thyself and to thy house. For if thou buildest much, much shall be broken; if thou spendest much, much shall be lost, and thy shame and loss shall be the greater, because thou shalt be destroyed with such a beautiful building; and thou shalt have built in vain, so that all the world shall mock thee, saying, Where is the goodly building? Where is the strong city that would be safe from the whole world? How useful has such food and labor been? How finely it has been preserved! All the world has throbbed and defied it, and it is so shamefully won and destroyed. It would have been less misfortune and disgrace if they had not built so firmly, and had not been so stingy, so hard-working, and had not done so much harm to make themselves strong.
27 Did it not happen the same way in the next uprising? There were castles and houses that had previously wanted to surrender to the Turk; but since the peasants only knocked, they went away.
there. Why? Were they not strong enough? Certainly, but the right builder and protector were missing, he was not at home. That's why neither a building nor a hat helped. One does not yet want to recognize it, so blind and hard is the human heart.
28 By saying, "He who is stingy," he shows how the king of Babylon did not build his edifice with proper goods, but stinted the land and the people, that is, he did not let him have the cheap and fair income of the land and the people, but put on them tax money, building money, estimated here and estimated there with various surcharges, as it is customary to do. When lords undertake great buildings, it is over the common man; so that this saying may be painted and written over all such buildings: "Woe to him who is stingy to the misfortune of his house. For it does not end well what is built with unrighteous goods, especially if one also wants to rely on it, and does not have God in mind as the right protector.
29 Thus, when he says, "That he may lay his nest on high, that he may escape the calamity," he indicates that this building was done for a fortress against the enemies. For he felt in his conscience that he did not have much good prayer among the common people, because of his tyranny, avarice, and arrogance, so he had to be afraid, and could trust no one, but worried about accidents everywhere. To prevent and ward off this, he sows and calls on wood and stone, builds and fortifies himself with the same, which shall protect him. But it is a miserable guard and protection, where stone and wood are to guard, since God and men abandon and hate, as the tyranny, even much have known.
(30) He calls the kingdom "a nest," and its fortress "the height," and its security "escaping the accident. For thus speaks the Hebrew language, that it calls dwellings or houses nests, which the birds, especially what are great birds, as the hawk, the sparrowhawk, the eagle, are wont to make high, that they may be secure to hedge, feed, and keep their young. So do the rich and great lords, as Obadiah, v. 4, also says of Esau: "If you make your nest among the stars
I will cast you down, saith the Lord. For even if we build and create for a long time, it is no more than a nest that we have on earth, even if it were the world's good, in which we nurture and wait for our young. Next to it comes some animal or accident, and spoils nest and young with each other, or is taken away with young and with all. So it goes with the temporal life and being; it is temporal, and must go as it comes.
V. 10. But the council will be a disgrace to your house.
(31) That is, such building and fortifying is in vain, as it has been said that the harm and shame will only be the greater, because it is a man's counsel and undertaking, without God and His counsel. "Your counsel," he says, as if to say, O you attack it almost wisely, and suggest it 1) well with your building and fortifying. But they are own suggestions, as one says: It is an oak attack; as one wants to say: It is an own attack; as one says: Oak leaves stink; as one wants to say: Own praise stinks; therefore all own counsels are certainly missing. But one's own counsel means that which God does not give, and one's own reasoning and thinking, of which all Scripture says that they are in vain; as 1 Cor. 3:20: "God knows the counsels of men to be vain"; and again 1 Cor. 1:19: "I will reject the wisdom of the prudent." And the whole of Ecclesiastes Solomon rejects such vain 2) suggestions. For man is vain, (that is,) nothing; therefore his counsels are nothing. But the counsel of the Lord stands [Ps. 33, 11].
32 So this attack of the Babylonians was with all shame, for they thought it was an everlasting kingdom. But before they knew it, it lay in ashes. The Romans also thought that their empire would last forever, and they had much advice and counsel about it, but it is all gone. And still today I see no fine carnival play, for the pope, Kai-
1) "it" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) Only the Erlanger has "own" here. Even the Latin brings: Hu "rna.
How many times have they failed and are still lacking, so that one can grasp it, as it goes according to the second Psalm, v. 2, 4, 5. How many times they have failed, and still fail, that one can grasp it, as it goes according to the 2nd Psalm, v. 2. 4. 5: "The kings rebel, and princes counsel against Christ. But the Lord in heaven mocks them" etc. But they do not stop because of this, although they often become lies and disgrace, so that they even go to ruin with sins and disgrace; as also the same Psalm, v. 10, says: "His wrath will soon burn.
V.10. For you have broken too many nations, and have sinned with all your might.
33 Therefore, he says, your strong building will not help. For thou hast done too much, God and man are enemies to thee, because thou hast been so tyrannical, and hast so violently oppressed the people, and taken their goods unto thee. And Habakkuk stirred his conscience with these words, that he might terrify him with the wrath of God. For when he says, "You have crushed too many nations," he shows the greatness of their sins, that he has crushed too many, and the crushing here means that he has crushed their goods and made their food scarce, so that he might be rich and have strong dwellings. Just as it happens to people who are so oppressed with goods and services that they do not want them; their food is also shortened, and it is just as much as if they were damaged and crushed by robbers.
34 And when he says, "And you have sinned with all your might," in Hebrew it means, "And you have sinned with your soul," which means, to sin with all your might, so that one immediately cools his evil temper with people, and it does him good and good to exercise such pride, as if his soul, that is, his life, were in it. In the same way, Ezekiel Cap. 25, 15: "The Philistines have smelled themselves with their souls," that is, from the heart, and to cool their courage. Also Exodus 15:9: "My soul shall be filled," that is, I will cool my temper with them. The king also did this. Where one is aware of his avarice
and treasures, he dealt with them in such a way that he also cooled his temper and exercised all his courage over them, just as we now see our bishops and tyrants dealing with the poor people.
V. 11 For even the stones in the wall will cry out, and the beams on the bars will answer them.
35 How is this done? Is this the strong city and the high nest, where the stones and beams shout and crash against and over their master? If the house itself is repugnant to the owner, what will the enemies do? One would like to hear the words that the stones and beams are the king's own people and subjects, who should stand by him and help him, but he has taken it so with them that they themselves are against him, leave him in his distress, shout about him, and fall to the enemies, and help the same; Just as a house that cracks and bursts startles and frightens the inhabitant, so that he is more afraid of the house inside than outside, and just where he should seek and have protection and safety, he must flee from it the most. Therefore, it is not a good curse to say, "Let an old wall slay you.
(36) But I think that the prophet is reaching into the conscience of the king and his people, and that this is the opinion that his best and strongest building should not only be lost and in vain, but should also be harmful and against himself. For when his enemies fought against him, God gave him such a stupid, despondent courage that not only his building but also the whole world became too narrow for him, and where a beam or pillar cracked on the house, he thought that enemies were falling in.
For God can fight so masterfully that he first takes away heart and courage; as he says of him Ps. 76:13: "He is terrible among the kings of the earth, and takes away the courage of the princes. When the heart and courage are gone, the manhood is gone, and the man becomes cowardly and despondent; he does no good, and is of no use except to be beaten like a block. Even if he had all the walls and ramparts before him, with all kinds of defenses, it would not help.
When he hears the crash of a beam, he is frightened and thinks that it is falling on him with stones. So Habakkuk also wants to say here that the king should become so cowardly in his distress that his own building, on which he relied, should frighten and afflict him, if only a stone on the wall cries, that is, cracks, and the beams answer, that is, that stones and beams crack one after the other, or with each other. All this is taught by experience when a fearful, despondent person is alone in a house, for example, as he is frightened when a piece of wood cracks in the wall, and sometimes thinks he hears or sees what he neither sees nor hears.
38 Is this not a marvelous judgment of God, that this great king, who had conquered all the world, and was a terror to everyone, should turn back? that he should become so despondent when his hour comes, that he is not only uncertain in the land, but even his own building should frighten him with a crash in the lock? That is, of course, to chase one with a skinny bladder and three peas. Where is now the high solid nest? What is the use of big money, which has been wasted by all countries, to build a strong castle? I think that avarice has smelled that such fortresses turn back, and do as much with crashing alone as the enemies do with weapons. This is what happens to him who is stingy and builds with contempt for God, so that such construction does not result in happiness or salvation, but, as he says here, in misfortune and disaster for himself, with great disgrace. That is, wanting to be strong, and not in God.
39 So princes and lords should do, if they wanted to build fortresses 1) that they lay a right good foundation, that is, that they should first ask God for heart and courage, which could preserve the building in time of need, so that a castle would stand firmly on a right foundation. But since courage is not provided, but only wood and stone are erected, it must finally, when the hour comes, go, as the text says here, that a cracking of spars and a crashing of stones frightens them. I mean, we have also experienced this this year at the strong castles, so the peasants disturbed in the uproar.
1) Wittenberger: "sestunge"; Jenaer, Walch and Erlanger: "feste". In Latin: rruinitionek.
Woe to him who builds the city with blood and builds the city with injustice.
40 The third mocking song is about the beautiful building, so that the whole city was adorned and decorated for pleasure. For when he had plenty of money and goods, he first built his house, that is, his castle, solid and exquisite, as we have heard. Then he adorned the city with many beautiful buildings, much of which is written about how the king built Babylon. And among other things, it is said to be a great miracle that he led the great water Euphrates through the city; although the Greeks attribute this to Queen Semiramis, but they have little reason for it. For Daniel writes [Cap. 4, 27] how the king boasted that he had prepared the city of Babylon; item, the great pleasure gardens, 2) which he had built for the queen on high on vaults above the roofs, of which Josephus writes. How then the kings use to build much useless building:: whom: they have too much money, as those in Egypt with their large tops, towers and graves etc.
(41) Such a beautiful, glorious, delicious building, says Habakkuk, will all become a mockery and a disgrace. Why? Because he does all this with the sweat and blood of the poor, with unrighteous goods, won by means of tribulations and strangulation. Because, as we have heard, he had to win such great lands and people with much bloodshed and injustice, without any hardship. That is why Habakkuk says here that he built the city by or with blood, because the money was acquired by bloodshed, and he wronged the people with it. And Micah the prophet speaks almost the same words against the kings of the Jews, when he says Cap. 3:10: "Ye build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity," which seems to have been a common speech among the prophets against the tyrants.
V. 13. Is it not so, that it shall come to pass from the Lord of hosts? What the peoples have labored for you, fire will make the multitude, and at that the people have grown weary, empty places 3) will give enough.
2) In the editions: "the great pleasure garden". In Latin: De 6X8traoti8 NSlitiarum Norti8 6to.
3) Wittenb.: "stete"; Jenaer: "Siebte"; Walch and Erlanger: "Städte". In Latin. vaeuoruiu loeorum.
For where such great inhumane buildings are built, there must be many people who work on them; which work is of two kinds: one, of those who must give treasure for it, so that it may be built; the other, of those who must indulge in it and work with their own bodies. Both are difficult for the people, and they become lenient about it. So the tyrants of the people need work for their pleasure. But now, build freshly and make it fine, force the people and make them weary; it shall come to pass that we shall sing of thee, saying, Behold, the beautiful, delicious building is prepared only that the fire may consume the more; and in it the people must be weary, it is erected only that the empty, desolate courtyard 1) may become the greater. For thus it is said in Hebrew: Quae populi laboraverunt, in abundantia ignis erunt, et in quo lassati sunt, in abundantia inanitatis erit. For this is also what is said when one speaks mockingly of a great work, that it is undertaken in vain and does not end up where one thinks it will. For nowhere has the papacy accumulated so much good as to be taken away from it, and for this reason alone has it risen so high that it has fallen so low. So one would also scoff, if a lord made many bulwarks and fences around his castle, and yet the work was lost: It is good, let him build, it will be good fireworks out of it; that is so much said: It is a fool, the more he builds, the more he makes others burn.
43 Thus he also mocks the great king's building here. As if to say: O, you are building a beautiful thing; but what a beautiful fire it will be, now that so many people are working on it; and how many fine, unadorned courtyards 2) there will be, now that so many people are working on it, and your plan will turn around and not turn out as you want. If you want it to be an ornament and a decoration of the city, it shall become an unornament and a deformity, so that one finds a desolate burnt place where you are now building pleasure gardens. But this shall not be done by the subjects.
il Wittenberger: "hoffftat"; Jenaer: "Hofestat"; Erlanger: "Hofestadt". In Latin: vaouus 6t vustus illius roi loous.
2) In Latin: vuouu loou.
that there is no rebellion, but "from the Lord of hosts"; he will certainly find people for it, namely the Persians and Medes. And this is indeed a very fine judgment. He smote many people, and weakened and diminished their food, that his building might be great, and full, and strong; and he shall be again so diminished and weakened, that his building shall lie in ashes upon desolate places of fire. And because he hath built it with blood and iniquity, he will not wash it away with water, but burn it out with fire pure, that blood and iniquity be no more found there.
44 But how difficult it was to believe all this, since it was said and not yet seen, that such a mighty thing should be destroyed with fire. Therefore the spirit must be here, which speaks it, and also teaches to believe with the Jews. For the Babylonians would have mocked if they had heard it, and 3) especially because such punishment was to come "from the Lord of hosts," that is, from the Jews' God, whom they despised, as they destroyed his people. Just as it was a mockery to the Jews and Romans that Christ, the crucified God, should disturb them, whom they daily killed his saints; and now it is still a mockery to our Junkers that the God should do something to them, whose word is now preached, because they daily persecute it.
V. 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
45 The prophets took this saying from Moses, who says, Ex 9:16.This is why I raised you up, that I might show you my power, that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth," that is, you despise me as an incompetent god of a wretched people, who is not highly renowned; well, I will let you see a little, so that I will not be despised and held in low esteem, but all the earth will sing and speak of my power. Item, Deut. 14:21: "As I live, all the earth shall be full of my glory," that is, you tempt me and dishonor me; I will be
3) Wittenberger and Erlanger: and is.
But to prove it in you, and to attack you, that the world may be filled with my glory, that is, that they may sing of me, say of me, praise me, honor me, and fear me in all places, when they hear what I have done to you, whom you have so tempted. Isaiah also speaks of the kingdom of Christ, Cap. 11, 9: "The earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the sea is full of water," that is, all the world hears the gospel of Christ abundantly, and learns to know God in it. One must get used to speaking in this way. For they call it "full of honor" when one sings, preaches and says about God everywhere. As if one said of the great Alexander or Julio Caesare: "All the world praises the heroes, and their praise resounds in all places from their great deeds.
46 Habakkuk also rebuked the king of Babylon, saying, "You despise the Lord of hosts, our God, as if he were a mere fly compared to your God, because you do such great things, thinking that your God gives it to you, and that our God must suffer such things in us. But thou shalt see in a little while that our despised God shall also once honor thee and thy God, and deal with thee in such a way that all the world shall sing of it and say, mocking thee and thy God, but praising and extolling our God at all ends, as having done this to thee. All this was done in this way. For when Cyrus king of Persia had destroyed Babylon, he publicly confessed and proclaimed with writings in all the lands that the God from heaven who dwelt in Jerusalem had given him such victory, power and kingdom. Therefore, in thanksgiving, he again built the temple in Jerusalem with his own food and money, as Ezra writes in Cap. 1:2 ff.
47 That is, as the sea is full of water, so shall the world be full of the glory of the Lord of hosts; that is, such glory as is not like a brook full of water, which can be dried up or cut off 1) but like the sea full of water, which no one can dry up or cut off. So this honor and glory
1) Wittenberger: to deter.
of God go so mightily in all lands that no one can keep him silent nor hinder him. All this, as said, is proclaimed to comfort the Jewish people and to keep them in the faith.
V. 15: Woe to you who pour out your neighbor's drink and mix in your anger and make them drunk, so that their shame is seen.
This is the fourth mocking song, about his pride and iniquity. Good makes courage, they say. When tyrants are firmly established, when they have good and honor enough, when they have strong and merry houses, they still do not let them use them, but become proud and wicked, to exercise all kinds of violence and will of courage, they do not want to suffer nor listen, and where their mind is not on it, there is vain raging and choking. Read in Daniel Cap. 3, 1. ff. how this king erected a golden pillar and forced the people to worship it. Item, Cap. 2, 1. ff., how he wanted his dream to be guessed and interpreted by the wise men and scholars of Babylon, you will find out what kind of herb he was. He was a fine, prudent tyrant, who wanted his will to be taken for a king; in addition, he was highly intelligent and clever, who did not want to be rejected with words, nor to be led by the nose, but wanted to go through with the scholars, since they could not tell him the dream, and still meet the interpretation requirements. He probably thought that it would have to be a ruse.
49 Here we have to get used to the Hebrew way of speaking, which is almost rich in speaking with twisted words and similes. Thus we have just heard in the second chapter [Cap. 3, § 3] how the king of Babylon is accused of being a drunkard, who drinks up all the lands. There, "to drink" means as much as to take from others what is theirs, to rob and to snatch to oneself, as Christ also says of the Pharisees Matth. 23, 14, "that they devour widows' houses," and in Job the same custom is also in words. But here, in this and similar places, to drink or to make drunk is as much as to suffer misfortune; and to pour or to give to drink is as much as to punish, to torment, to torture, and to inflict all kinds of plagues. Hence the common word in the Psalter, the cup of the Lord; item, her cup.
is full of sulfur. Revelation 18:6, 7. It is also written about the red harlot: "Pour out to her as she has poured out to you," and measure her with the measure that she has measured you with. So the cup of the Lord is called the punishment, which he pours out and apportions to each one. Read Jer. 25:15, 16, where it says, "All kings and all men drink of the cup of the Lord, that they may drink, and spit, and fall.
(50) And that we may understand it fully and clearly, when one is drunk with wine in the flesh, he is a good example of two other drunkennesses. One is when someone becomes drunk with great pleasure. The other is when someone is drunk with great pain. Just as a person who is drunk in the flesh presents himself, so do the other two. A physically drunk person staggers, falls down, spits, talks foolishly, and is insolent, as we see every day. So also, if one is too well, has good and honor, lust and violence enough, he is a quite drunken man, he does not know what to do for courage, he staggers, falls, spits, washes, acts impudently, that is, Even if he does shameful, blasphemous things, which are bad for him and are a disgrace, he does not inquire, there is no fear, shyness or measure, he is covered behind and in front, that is, one can see his unrighteousness and disgrace everywhere: Nor does he pass through, nor pay any attention to him; as we also see now in our tyrants. The king of Babylon was also drunk with delight and pleasure, as is said above in 3. Here it is great prudence who can avoid such a drunken man, as it is said, "Even a cartload of hay should go out of the way of a drunken man. For fools are not to be dealt with.
51 Again, he who is drunk with pain also acts like a drunken man, staggering and going astray, complaining, crying out, and talking so badly that nothing but shame is seen in him. Some blaspheme both God and man, go out with impatience, also expose everything they are, what they know, and is vain foolish, unreasonable being there, like a drunken man.
52] In this way Habakkuk speaks of the king of Babylon, that he was much drunk.
He himself was full and drunk with pleasure, that is, he was a wanton tyrant and afflicted many people, and especially oppressed the Jewish people, without any mercy; as Isaiah Cap. 47, 6. Says to Babylon, "When I was wroth with my people, I made my inheritance foul, and delivered them into thine hand: but thou hadst no mercy upon them"; item. Zach. 1, 15: "I am angry with the great nations. For I was a little angry, but they help to mischief"; that is, I only wanted to punish, so they even want to destroy my people, and make it too much for me. But God's judgment is such that he who is drunk in the first way must also become drunk in the other way; as this prophet says that the king became drunk with all the people's goods, and made many drunk with grief; therefore they will mock him again, and sing and say in all countries how he also became drunk. Just as Isaiah Cap. 14, 10. says of him: "And you also are slain like us" (say the Gentiles), that is, you have crushed us, I mean, you are hit again and also crushed. Yes, who could hope for such a thing! It is especially high and unbelievable when the tyrants sit in the nest.
(53) Now this is what Habakkuk says here: You have filled your neighbor 1) and made him drunk. And so that no one doubts that he is talking about the other, that is, about the drunkenness of pain, he points to himself and says: "and mix your anger with it". This is said plainly enough, that he drank the people with the cup of his wrath, that is, with wanton tyranny, and made them ashamed, that one saw their shame, that is, he robbed them of all honors, that they became poor, captives, tormented people, of whom one has nothing glorious to say.
The prophet refers to the history of Genesis 9:21: "When Noah was drunk and lying naked, his shame was seen. This means nothing else than shameful suffering and misfortune. For to be subdued, to gain good and honor, is a glorious thing in the sight of the world, but to be subjected to the enemy, to be poor and to be shamed.
1) Erlanger: probably.
To be put to shame is a shameful thing. That is why it is called "seeing the shame" when one is overcome, corrupted and impoverished, and how this king had disgraced the Jews and many countries, and he kept the victory and the honor as a hero.
V. 16. You will also be filled with shame for honor.
This is: You will be made drunk again and made drunk, so that your shame will also be seen. For you also must be overcome, that your power may be destroyed and put to shame. Then thou shalt be filled with shame and filled for glory, that is, instead of the great honor and glory which thou now hast, thou shalt have vain shame, and wedged glory. And all this will be sung of thee with joy, and mocked, and laughed at thee. For everyone is pleased with you, and you deserve it.
So now you also drink so that you stagger.
(56) This is what drunkards do, so that they stagger and have nowhere to stand. Those who are full of pain and suffering do not know where to stay, and if the wide world is too narrow for them, they know neither advice nor help. This is also what he wishes and proclaims to this king, that the Persians and Medes will come and pour out heartache and all misfortune on him, so that he will have to drink and stagger until he can neither stand nor stay anywhere. Psalm 60:5 says: "You make the people see a hard thing, and you water us with staggering wine," that is, with wine that makes us stagger, so that we do not know where to stay. And Isaiah Cap. 51:22, "Behold, I have taken from thine hand the cup of staggering, and the cup of my wrath." Item, therein, v. 17. "Make thee fast, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk of the Lord the cup of his wrath; unto the ground hast thou drained the goblet, and unto the lees." From these and similar sayings it is easy to see what the prophets mean by such words when they say drink the cup, stagger, and what their manner of speaking was.
For you will be surrounded by the cup in the right hand of the Lord.
57 That is, you cannot resist nor escape the cup and the accident. For the Lord has become your gift, he will give it to you to drink, and you must drink it, there is no help for it; who can resist God? If it were man's will and counsel to give thee drink, thou mightest find help and counsel; but now the Lord himself sends thee such, thou must be ready. For the cup shall surround thee round about, that thou shalt not be able to resist it. Now all this is easy to understand from what has been said before.
And must spit shamefully for your glory.
(58) Just as you have violently drunk up much land and people, and have become drunk and angry, so you must shamefully spit it out again and give it back. The Book of Job also speaks in this way, that the wicked must spit out again what they have stolen, which tasted sweet when they drank it and took it. For it is true that to drink wine is sweet and good; but to spit again is bitter and grievous. So robbery and all sin are sweet in fact, but bitter in punishment. Habakkuk therefore says that the king must not only spit again what he has stolen, but must also be disgraced by it, so that it becomes a shameful spitting, in which all the world will mock and laugh at him, because he must lose it again. And this "for his glory" is: As great as your glory is now, because you drink and rob; so great will be your shame when you spit and lose it again.
V. 17 For the iniquity committed in Lebanon shall overtake thee, and the distressed beasts shall terrify thee.
59 This is what is said above in §36 ff. He will have neither heart nor courage, but will be despondent and feel that it is not the wrath of man, but the cup of the Lord. For his conscience will resist him and punish him "for the transgression committed against Lebanon. Then Mount Lebanon will come to Babylon, even if it were far from it; yes, it will come into his chamber and into his heart, and will oppress his conscience and make it cowardly, along with all the animals that it has brought there.
has disturbed itself. How does this happen? The conscience feels this, and thinks that Lebanon is there with all his beasts, and they want to devour him, whom he has offended before. For sin, when repentance comes, brings it with it, and puts, yes, presses into the heart with force all those who are offended. Some interpret here "Lebanon" the temple at Jerusalem etc., but I hold, he calls the whole country thus from the mountain Lebanon. Just as the 42nd Psalm, v. 7, calls it from the mountain Hermonim and from the water Jordan, when it says: "I remember you in the land of Jordan and the mountain Hermonim." For Lebanon is also the same mountain Hermon. This is the meaning: You have done great evil in the land of Lebanon, that is, in the land of Judah, and have disturbed the animals in it, that is, the people and the inhabitants; therefore such evil will oppress you and your conscience, and you will have to suffer the same and much more.
For the blood of men, and for iniquity, in the land, and in the city, and committed upon all that dwell therein.
The text has already been interpreted above [§ 17 ff]. For the prophet particularly points out the sin and iniquity he committed not only against Lebanon and the whole country, but most of all in the land of Judah and against the city of Jerusalem.
V.18. What good is the image that his master has made? And the false cast image, on which his master relies, -that he worships dumb idols?
The fifth song of mockery is about his worship. There the prophet of the king mocks very vehemently and with stinging words. For these are vain and very wicked words, when he says: The king has made an image 1) of God, and he is the master of such an image and of God, and yet he worships his own work. How could one be a greater fool? Pfni of God and worship, since the God is an image, and the worshiper is a master of the God he worships. Item, since he says: It is a false image,
1) In the original: Images.
that is, a deceit and a lie, so that people are deceived into thinking that they serve God, and rely on such lies and deceit rather than on the real truth. Item, that he worships dumb idols, which cannot speak, but do or make anything.
022 Therefore now he defieth, and saith, Alas, how well then shall thy God leave thee! if the cup of the Lord come upon thee, what shall it do thee? For it is an idol and an image. But still, let him help, call upon him, let us see how he will stand to help thee. Our God, even if he punishes us for a while, will redeem us again; but your God will never help you. I think Habakkuk means by this text, among other images and idols, the most prominent idol in Babylon, which is called Bel. For Isaiah calls the two highest, Bel and Nebo [Isa. 46:1]. To the same Bel he set up the great golden image, since Daniel writes Cap. 3, 1. that it was sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. The people had a great deal of useless gold. That is why the empire was so great and rich, and had seized the goods of all the countries.
Woe to him who says to the wood, "Wake up!" and to the dumb stone, "Get up!
(63) This is the mockery that shall be sung and said in the time of distraction: "Now call upon your wood and stone, which you have made and held to be gods; how wickedly and shamefully they leave you! For though thou call upon them, saying, Help my God, watch over my Bel, stand up my Nebo, save me; he heareth not, because he is wood and stone overlaid with gold.
Should he teach?
That is, how should he like to give good advice? After all, it is a mute stone. It is fitting for a true God to teach and counsel his people with his words.
Behold, he is covered with gold and silver, and there is no spirit in him.
65. a poor, wretched god, who lets himself be grasped and caught in gold, and has no breath nor life in him. Such mockery and
The prophet is comforting the Jewish people that they should be sure of their salvation, as has been said, so that they would not fall into unbelief and become angry at God's work and words, for which they had great cause and movement, because Babylon was so powerful and so firmly established, and they were so completely abandoned and disturbed.
V. 20. But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be still before his face.
(66) He is not wrought or set in silver or gold, but "is in his temple," that is, in his palace and royal hall, which is heaven, and where he dwells by his word; and yet so mighty and glorious that all the world must fear him, and be still, that he may do with them according to his will; that is, he is almighty, and rules as far as the world [is]. This may well be a true God. For though pagans and heretics rage and rage against him with violence and doctrine, he lets it happen for a while; but soon he can let them see a little, that they all perish and come to nothing, and so must be quiet before him when he comes. For this little word, "before him," or "before his face," in Hebrew is thus much as when he comes, or turns his face toward us, as he who is coming, as in [1] John it is written, "Behold, I send my angel before your face," that is, before your future, or when you come. So Habakkuk wants to say: "When our God comes and visits home, then all the world will be quiet. For then everyone will turn away, and pride and boasting and all exaltation will cease.
muth. For he punishes the wicked and helps the pious. Thus he makes it bad and quiet wherever he goes. No other God can do that.
67 Let this be enough of Habakkuk's prophecy. There we see how many words it takes to keep the faith in people, especially when they are weak, and the temptation is strong and powerful, as it was among the Jewish people. How he has punished, pleaded, fought, prophesied, admonished and comforted; in turn, he has crushed Babylon, mocked it, and grieved it with God's judgment and wrath. Yet few have been helped, for faith is not for everyone [2 Thess. 3:2].
(68) Now he adds a prayer, made in the manner of Sanglied, to comfort and strengthen the weak in faith even more, and reads and records many of the ancient miracles of God, which he demonstrated to the people in the past and so often miraculously delivered them, so that they may remember them and not doubt that their God, who delivered them so often and so mightily before, will also now deliver them from Babylon again. For it almost strengthens the heart and the faith when one remembers the previous miracles, as the prophet often confesses in the Psalter, and says [Ps. 119, 52]: "Lord, I remembered your judgments, and was comforted"; item [Ps. 77, 12. 13.]: "I remember your miracles of old, and speak of your doings." So also the pious Judith comforted her citizens, Judith 8, 19. 20., and Matathia his sons, the Maccabees, saying, "Remember how our fathers are redeemed etc. [Let us now see the same song, the title of which is thus: