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Selected Verse: Habakkuk 2:6 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Hab 2:6	Strong Concordance	Shall not all these take up [05375] a parable [04912] against him, and a taunting [04426] proverb [02420] against him, and say [0559], Woe [01945] to him that increaseth [07235] that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth [03513] himself with thick clay [05671]!
	King James	Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Shall not all these--the "nations" and "peoples" (Hab 2:5) "heaped unto him" by the Chaldean. take up a parable--a derisive song. Habakkuk follows Isaiah (Isa 14:4) and Micah (Mic 2:4) in the phraseology. against him--when dislodged from his former eminence. Woe--The "derisive song" here begins, and continues to the end of the chapter. It is a symmetrical whole, and consists of five stanzas, the first three consisting of three verses each, the fourth of four verses, and the last of two. Each stanza has its own subject, and all except the last begin with "Woe"; and all have a closing verse introduced with "for," "because," or "but." how long?--how long destined to retain his ill-gotten gains? But for a short time, as his fall now proves [MAURER]. "Covetousness is the greatest bane to men. For they who invade others' goods, often lose even their own" [MENANDER]. CALVIN makes "how long?" to be the cry of those groaning under the Chaldean oppression while it still lasted: How long shall such oppression be permitted to continue? But it is plainly part of the derisive song, after the Chaldean tyranny had passed away. ladeth himself with thick clay--namely, gold and silver dug out of the "clay," of which they are a part. The covetous man in heaping them together is only lading himself with a clay burden, as he dares not enjoy them, and is always anxious about them. LEE and FULLER translate the Hebrew as a reduplicated single noun, and not two words, "an accumulation of pledges" (Deu 24:10-13). The Chaldean is compared to a harsh usurer, and his ill-gotten treasures to heaps of pledges in the hands of a usurer.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Shall not all these--the "nations" and "peoples" (Hab 2:5) "heaped unto him" by the Chaldean.

take up a parable--a derisive song. Habakkuk follows Isaiah (Isa 14:4) and Micah (Mic 2:4) in the phraseology.

against him--when dislodged from his former eminence.

Woe--The "derisive song" here begins, and continues to the end of the chapter. It is a symmetrical whole, and consists of five stanzas, the first three consisting of three verses each, the fourth of four verses, and the last of two. Each stanza has its own subject, and all except the last begin with "Woe"; and all have a closing verse introduced with "for," "because," or "but."

how long?--how long destined to retain his ill-gotten gains? But for a short time, as his fall now proves [MAURER]. "Covetousness is the greatest bane to men. For they who invade others' goods, often lose even their own" [MENANDER]. CALVIN makes "how long?" to be the cry of those groaning under the Chaldean oppression while it still lasted: How long shall such oppression be permitted to continue? But it is plainly part of the derisive song, after the Chaldean tyranny had passed away.

ladeth himself with thick clay--namely, gold and silver dug out of the "clay," of which they are a part. The covetous man in heaping them together is only lading himself with a clay burden, as he dares not enjoy them, and is always anxious about them. LEE and FULLER translate the Hebrew as a reduplicated single noun, and not two words, "an accumulation of pledges" (Deu 24:10-13). The Chaldean is compared to a harsh usurer, and his ill-gotten treasures to heaps of pledges in the hands of a usurer.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him? - Nebuchadnezzar gathered, Dan 3:4-5, "all people, nations, and languages, to worship the golden image which he had set up." The second Babylon, pagan Rome, sought to blot out the very Christian Name; but mightier were the three children than the King of Babylon; mightier, virgins, martyrs, and children than Nero or Decius. These shall rejoice over Babylon, that, Rev 18:20, "God hath avenged them on her." Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! - Truly wealth ill-gotten by fraud or oppression, "is not his," who winneth it, before he had it, nor when he hath it, but a woe. It is not his; the woe is his. "Woe unto him." He shall have no joy in what he gaineth, and what he hath he shall lose. How long? - What is the measure of thine impiety and greediness and cruelty? Yet if these are like hell, without measure, there remains another "How long?" How long will the forbearance of God endure thee, which thou art daily exhausting? This is then the end of all. The conqueror sweeps to him "all nations" and gathereth to him "all peoples." To what end? As one vast choir in one terrible varied chant of all those thousand thousand voices, to sing a dirge over him of the judgments of God which his ill-doings to them should bring upon him, a fivefold Woe, woe, woe, woe, woe! Woe for its rapacity! Woe for its covetousness! Woe for its oppression! Woe for its insolence to the conquered! Woe to it in its rebellion against God! It is a more measured rhythm than any besides in Holy Scripture; each of the fivefold woes comprised in three verses, four of them closing with the ground, because, for. The opening words carry the mind back to the fuller picture of Isaiah. But Isaiah sees Babylon as already overthrown; Habakkuk pronounces the words upon it, not by name, but as certainly to come, upon it and every like enemy of God's kingdom. With each such fall, unto the end of all things, the glory of God is increased and made known. Having, for their own ends, been unconscious and even unwilling promoters of God's end, they, when they had accomplished it, are themselves flung away. The pride of human ambition, when successful, boasts "woe to the conquered." Since "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth," the ungodly saying of the pagan is reversed, and it stands, "Man sympathizes with the conquering side, God with the conquered." It is a terrible thought that people should have been the instruments of God, that they should, through ambition or other ends short of God, have promoted His ends which they thought not of, and then should be "weighed in the balance and found wanting," and themselves be flung away. Cyr: "Gentiles also departed from their worship under Satan, and having deserted him who aforetime called them, ran unto Christ. For Satan gathered what was not his; but Christ received what was His. For, as God, He is Lord of all." And to him that ladeth himself with thick clay - It is the character of these proverbs to say much in few words, sometimes in one, and more than appears. So the word translated "thick-clay," as if it were two words, in another way means in an intensive sense, "a strong deep pledge." At best gold and silver are, as they have been called, red and white earth. Bern. Serm. 4. in Adv: "What are gold and silver but red and white earth, which the error of man alone maketh, or accounteth precious? What are gems, but stones of the earth? What silk, but webs of worms?" These he "maketh heavy upon" or "against himself" (so the words strictly mean). "For He weigheth himself down with thick clay, who, by avarice multiplying earthly things, hems himself in by the oppressiveness of his own sin, imprisons and, as it were, buries the soul, and heaps up sin as he heaps up wealth." With toil they gather what is not worthless only, but is a burden upon the soul, weighing it down that it should not rise Heavenwards, but should be bowed down to Hell. And so in that other sense while, as a hard usurer, he heaps up the pledges of these whom he oppresses and impoverishes, and seems to increase his wealth, he does in truth "increase against himself a strong pledge," whereby not others are debtors to him, but he is a debtor to Almighty God who careth for the oppressed Jer 17:11 "He that gathereth riches had not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days and at his end shall be a fool."

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
In Hab 2:6-20 the destruction of the Chaldaean, which has been already intimated in Hab 2:4, Hab 2:5, is announced in the form of a song composed of threatening sentences, which utters woes in five strophes consisting of three verses each: (1) upon the rapacity and plundering of the Chaldaean (Hab 2:6-8); (2) upon his attempt to establish his dynasty firmly by means of force and cunning (Hab 2:9-11); (3) upon his wicked ways of building (Hab 2:12-14); (4) upon his base treatment of the subjugated nations (Hab 2:15-17); and (5) upon his idolatry (Hab 2:18-20). These five strophes are connected together, so as to form two larger divisions, by a refrain which closes the first and fourth, as well as by the promise explanatory of the threat in which the third and fifth strophes terminate; of which two divisions the first threatens the judgment of retribution upon the insatiableness of the Chaldaean in three woes (Hab 2:5), and the second in two woes the judgment of retribution upon his pride. Throughout the whole of the threatening prophecy the Chaldaean nation is embraced, as in Hab 2:4, Hab 2:5, in the ideal person of its ruler. (Note: The unity of the threatening prophecy, which is brought out in the clearest manner in this formal arrangement, has been torn in pieces in the most violent manner by Hitzig, through his assumption that the oracle of God includes no more than Hab 2:4-8, and that a second part is appended to it in Hab 2:9-20, in which the prophet expresses his own thoughts and feelings, first of all concerning king Jehoiakim (Hab 2:9-14), and then concerning the Egyptians (Hab 2:15-20). This hypothesis, of which Maurer observes quite correctly, Qua nulla unquam excogitata est infelicior, rests upon nothing more than the dogmatic assumption, that there is no such thing as prophecy effected by supernatural causality, and therefore Habakkuk cannot have spoken of Nebuchadnezzar's buildings before they were finished, or at any rate in progress. The two strophes in Hab 2:9-14 contain nothing whatever that would not apply most perfectly to the Chaldaean, or that is not covered by what precedes and follows (compare Hab 2:9 with 6b and 8a, and Hab 2:10 with 5b and 8a). "The strophe in Hab 2:9-11 contains the same fundamental thought as that expressed by Isaiah in Isa 14:12-14 respecting the Chaldaean, viz., the description of his pride, which manifests itself in ambitious edifices founded upon the ruins of the prosperity of strangers" (Delitzsch). The resemblance between the contents of this strophe and the woe pronounced upon Jehoiakim by Jeremiah in Jer 12:13-17 may be very simply explained from the fact that Jehoiakim, like the Chaldaean, was a tyrant who occupied himself with the erection of large state buildings and fortifications, whereas the extermination of many nations does not apply in any respect to Jehoiakim. Lastly, there is no plausible ground whatever for referring the last two strophes (Hab 2:15-20) to the Egyptian, for the assertion that Habakkuk could not pass over the Egyptian in silence, unless he meant to confine himself to the Chaldaean, is a pure petitio principii; and to any unprejudiced mind the allusion to the Chaldaean in this verse is placed beyond all possible doubt by Isa 14:8, where the devastation of Lebanon is also attributed to him, just as it is in Hab 2:17 of our prophecy.) Hab 2:6-8 Introduction of the ode and first strophe. - Hab 2:6. "Will not all these lift up a proverb upon him, and a song, a riddle upon him? And men will say, Woe to him who increases what is not his own! For how long? and who loadeth himself with the burden of pledges. Hab 2:7. Will not thy biters rise up suddenly, and thy destroyers wake up, and thou wilt become booty to them? Hab 2:8. For thou hast plundered many nations, all the rest of the nations will plunder thee, for the blood of men and wickedness on the earth, the city, and all its inhabitants." הלוא is here, as everywhere else, equivalent to a confident assertion. "All these:" this evidently points back to "all nations" and "all people." Nevertheless the nations as such, or in pleno, are not meant, but simply the believers among them, who expect Jehovah to inflict judgment upon the Chaldaeans, and look forward to that judgment for the revelation of the glory of God. For the ode is prophetical in its nature, and is applicable to all times and all nations. Mâshâl is a sententious poem, as in Mic 2:4 and Isa 14:4, not a derisive song, for this subordinate meaning could only be derived from the context, as in Isa 14:4 for example; and there is nothing to suggest it here. So, again, melı̄tsâh neither signifies a satirical song, nor an obscure enigmatical discourse, but, as Delitzsch has shown, from the first of the two primary meanings combined in the verb לוּץ, lucere and lascivire, a brilliant oration, oratio splendida, from which מליץ is used to denote an interpreter, so called, not from the obscurity of the speaking, but from his making the speech clear or intelligible. חידות לו is in apposition to מליצה and משׁל, adding the more precise definition, that the sayings contain enigmas relating to him (the Chaldaean). The enigmatical feature comes out more especially in the double meaning of עבטיט in Hab 2:6, נשׁכיך in Hab 2:7, and קיקלון in Hab 2:16. לאמר serves, like לאמר elsewhere, as a direct introduction to the speech. The first woe applies to the insatiable rapacity of the Chaldaean. המּרבּה לא־לו, who increases what does not belong to him, i.e., who seizes upon a large amount of the possessions of others. עד־מתי, for how long, sc. will he be able to do this with impunity; not "how long has he already done this" (Hitzig), for the words do not express exultation at the termination of the oppression, but are a sign appended to the woe, over the apparently interminable plunderings on the part of the Chaldaean. וּמכבּיד is also dependent upon hōi, since the defined participle which stands at the head of the cry of woe is generally followed by participles undefined, as though the former regulated the whole (cf. Isa 5:20 and Isa 10:1). At the same time, it might be taken as a simple declaration in itself, though still standing under the influence of the hōi; in which case הוּא would have to be supplied in thought, like וחוטא in Hab 2:10. And even in this instance the sentence is not subordinate to the preceding one, as Luther follows Rashi in assuming ("and still only heaps much slime upon himself"); but is co-ordinate, as the parallelism of the clauses and the meaning of עבטיט require. The ἁπ. λεγ. עבטיט is probably chosen on account of the resemblance in sound to מכבּיד, whilst it also covers an enigma or double entendre. Being formed from עבט (to give a pledge) by the repetition of the last radical, עבטיט signifies the mass of pledges (pignorum captorum copia: Ges., Maurer, Delitzsch), not the load of guilt, either in a literal or a tropico-moral sense. The quantity of foreign property which the Chaldaean has accumulated is represented as a heavy mass of pledges, which he has taken from the nations like an unmerciful usurer (Deu 24:10), to point to the fact that he will be compelled to disgorge them in due time. הכבּיד, to make heavy, i.e., to lay a heavy load upon a person. The word עבטיט, however, might form two words so far as the sound is concerned: עב טיט, cloud (i.e., mass) of dirt, which will cause his ruin as soon as it is discharged. This is the sense in which the Syriac has taken the word; and Jerome does the same, observing, considera quam eleganter multiplicatas divitias densum appellaverit lutum, no doubt according to a Jewish tradition, since Kimchi, Rashi, and Ab. Ezra take the word as a composite one, and merely differ as to the explanation of עב. Grammatically considered, this explanation is indeed untenable, since the Hebrew language has formed no appellative nomina composita; but the word is nevertheless enigmatical, because, when heard from the lips, it might be taken as two words, and understood in the sense indicated. In Hab 2:7 the threatening hōi is still further developed. Will not thy biters arise? נשׁכיך = נשׁכתם אתך, those who bite thee. In the description here given of the enemy as savage vipers (cf. Jer 8:17) there is also an enigmatical double entendre, which Delitzsch has admirably interpreted thus: "המּרבּה," he says, "pointed to תּרבּית (interest). The latter, favoured by the idea of the Chaldaean as an unmerciful usurer, which is concentrated in עבטיט, points to נשׁך, which is frequently connected with תּרבּית, and signifies usurious interest; and this again to the striking epithet נשׁכתם, which is applied to those who have to inflict the divine retribution upon the Chaldaean. The prophet selected this to suggest the thought that there would come upon the Chaldaean those who would demand back with interest (neshek) the capital of which he had unrighteously taken possession, just as he had unmercifully taken the goods of the nations from them by usury and pawn." יקצוּ, from יקץ, they will awake, viz., מזעזעך, those who shake or rouse thee up. זעזע, pilel of זוּע, σείω, is used in Arabic of the wind (to shake the tree); hence, as in this case, it was employed to denote shaking up or scaring away from a possession, as is often done, for example, by a creditor (Hitzig, Delitzsch). משׁסּות is an intensive plural. So far as this threat applies to the Chaldaeans, it was executed by the Medes and Persians, who destroyed the Chaldaean empire. But the threat has a much more extensive application. This is evident, apart from other proofs, from Hab 2:8 itself, according to which the whole of the remnant of the nations is to inflict the retribution. Gōyı̄m rabbı̄m, "many nations:" this is not to be taken as an antithesis to kol-haggōyı̄m (all nations) in Hab 2:5, since "all nations" are simply many nations, as kol is not to be taken in its absolute sense, but simply in a relative sense, as denoting all the nations that lie within the prophet's horizon, as having entered the arena of history. Through ישׁלּוּך, which is placed at the head of the concluding clause without a copula, the antithesis to שׁלּות is sharply brought out, and the idea of the righteous retaliation distinctly expressed. כּל־יתר עמּים, the whole remnant of the nations, is not all the rest, with the exception of the one Chaldaean, for yether always denotes the remnant which is left after the deduction of a portion; nor does it mean all the rest of the nations, who are spared and not subjugated, in distinction from the plundered and subjugated nations, as Hitzig with many others imagine, and in proof of which he adduces the fact that the overthrow of the Chaldaeans was effected by nations that had not been subdued. But, as Delitzsch has correctly observed, this view makes the prophet contradict not only himself, but the whole of the prophetic view of the world-wide dominion of Nebuchadnezzar. According to Hab 2:5, the Chaldaean has grasped to himself the dominion over all nations, and consequently there cannot be any nations left that he has not plundered. Moreover, the Chaldaean, or Nebuchadnezzar as the head of the Chaldaean kingdom, appears in prophecy (Jer 27:7-8), as he does in history (Dan 2:38; 3:31; Dan 5:19) throughout, as the ruler of the world in the highest sense, who has subjugated all nations and kingdoms round about, and compelled them to serve him. These nations include the Medes and Elamites (= Persians), to whom the future conquest of Babylon is attributed in Isa 13:17; Isa 21:2; Jer 51:11, Jer 51:28. They are both mentioned in Jer 25:25 among the nations, to whom the prophet is to reach the cup of wrath from the hand of Jehovah; and the kingdom of Elam especially is threatened in Jer 49:34. with the destruction of its power, and dispersion to all four winds. In these two prophecies, indeed, Nebuchadnezzar is not expressly mentioned by name as the executor of the judgment of wrath; but in Jeremiah 25 this may plainly be inferred from the context, partly from the fact that, according to Jer 25:9, Judah with its inhabitants, and all nations round about, are to be given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and partly from the fact that in the list of the nations enumerated in Jer 25:18-26 the king of Sesach (i.e., Babel) is mentioned as he who is to drink the cup "after them" (Jer 25:26). The expression 'achărēhem (after them) shows very clearly that the judgment upon the nations previously mentioned, and therefore also upon the kings of Elam and Media, is to occur while the Chaldaean rule continues, i.e., is to be executed by the Chaldaeans. This may, in fact, be inferred, so far as the prophecy respecting Elam in Jer 49:34. is concerned, from the circumstance that Jeremiah's prophecies with regard to foreign nations in Jeremiah 46-51 are merely expansions of the summary announcement in Jer 25:19-26, and is also confirmed by Eze 32:24, inasmuch as Elam is mentioned there immediately after Asshur in the list of kings and nations that have sunk to the lower regions before Egypt. And if even this prophecy has a much wider meaning, like that concerning Elam in Jer 49:34, and the elegy over Egypt, which Ezekiel strikes up, is expanded into a threatening prophecy concerning the heathen generally (see Kliefoth, Ezech. p. 303), this further reference presupposes the historical fulfilment which the threatening words of prophecy have received through the judgment inflicted by the Chaldaeans upon all the nations mentioned, and has in this its real foundation and soil. History also harmonizes with this prophetic announcement. The arguments adduced by Hvernick (Daniel, p. 547ff.) to prove that Nebuchadnezzar did not extend his conquests to Elam, and neither subdued this province nor Media, are not conclusive. The fact that after the fall of Nineveh the conquerors, Nabopolassar of Babylonia, and Cyaxares the king of Media, divided the fallen Assyrian kingdom between them, the former receiving the western provinces, and the latter the eastern, does not preclude the possibility of Nebuchadnezzar, the founder of the Chaldaean empire, having made war upon the Median kingdom, and brought it into subjection. There is no historical testimony, however, to the further assertion, that Nebuchadnezzar was only concerned to extend his kingdom towards the west, that his conquests were all of them in the lands situated there, and gave him so much to do that he could not possibly think of extending his eastern frontier. It is true that the opposite of this cannot be inferred from Strabo, xvi. 1, 18; (Note: This passage is quoted by Hitzig (Ezech. p. 251) as a proof that Elam made war upon the Babylonians, and, indeed, judging from Jer 49:34, an unsuccessful war. But Strabo speaks of a war between the Elymaeans (Elamites) and the Babylonians and Susians, which M. v. Niebuhr (p. 210) very properly assigns to the period of the alliance between Media (as possessor of Susa) and Babylon.) but it may be inferred, as M. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. Assurs, pp. 211-12) has said, from the fact that according to Jeremiah 27 and 28, at the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, and therefore not very long after Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem in the time of Jehoiachin, and restored order in southern Syria in the most energetic manner, the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, entered into negotiations with Zedekiah for a joint expedition against Nebuchadnezzar. M. v. Niebuhr infers from this that troublous times set in at that period for Nebuchadnezzar, and that this sudden change in the situation of affairs was connected with the death of Cyaxares, and leads to the conjecture that Nebuchadnezzar, who had sworn fealty to Cyaxares, refused at his death to do homage to his successor; for fidelity to a father-in-law, with whose help the kingdom was founded, would assume a very different character if it was renewed to his successor. Babel was too powerful to accept any such enfeoffment as this. And even if Nebuchadnezzar was not a vassal, there could not be a more suitable opportunity for war with Media than that afforded by a change of government, since kingdoms in the East are so easily shaken by the death of a great prince. And there certainly was no lack of inducement to enter upon a war with Media. Elam, for example, from its very situation, and on account of the restlessness of its inhabitants, must have been a constant apple of discord. This combination acquires extreme probability, partly from the fact that Jeremiah's prophecy concerning Elam, in which that nation is threatened with the destruction of its power and dispersion to all four winds, was first uttered at the commencement of Zedekiah's reign (Jer 49:34), whereas the rest of his prophecies against foreign nations date from an earlier period, and that against Babel is the only one which falls later, namely, in the fourth year of Zedekiah (Jer 51:59), which appears to point to the fact that at the commencement of Zedekiah's reign things were brewing in Elam which might lead to his ruin. And it is favoured in part by the account in the book of Judith of a war between Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar) and Media, which terminated victoriously according to the Rec. vulg. in the twelfth year of his reign, since this account is hardly altogether a fictitious one. These prophetic and historical testimonies may be regarded as quite sufficient, considering the universally scanty accounts of the Chaldaean monarchy given by the Greeks and Romans, to warrant us in assuming without hesitation, as M. v. Niebuhr has done, that between the ninth and twentieth years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign - namely, at the commencement of Zedekiah's reign - the former had to make war not only with Elam, but with Media also, and that it is to this eastern war that we should have to attribute the commotion in Syria. From all this we may see that there is no necessity to explain "all the remnant of the nations" as relating to the remainder of the nations that had not been subjugated, but that we may understand it as signifying the remnant of the nations plundered and subjugated by the Chaldaeans (as is done by the lxx, Theodoret, Delitzsch, and others), which is the only explanation in harmony with the usage of the language. For in Jos 23:12 yether haggōyı̄m denotes the Canaanitish nations left after the war of extermination; and in Zac 14:2 yether hâ‛âm signifies the remnant of the nation left after the previous conquest of the city, and the carrying away of half its inhabitants. In Zep 2:9 yether gōi is synonymous with שׁארית עמּי, and our יתר עמּים is equivalent to שׁארית הגּוים in Eze 36:3-4. מדּמי אדם: on account of the human blood unjustly shed, and on account of the wickedness on the earth (chămas with the Genesis obj. as in Joe 3:19 and Oba 1:10). 'Erets without an article is not the holy land, but the earth generally; and so the city (qiryâh, which is still dependent upon chămas) is not Jerusalem, nor any one particular city, but, with indefinite generality, "cities." The two clauses are parallel, cities and their inhabitants corresponding to men and the earth. The Chaldaean is depicted as one who gathers men and nations in his net (Hab 1:14-17). And so in Jer 50:23 he is called a hammer of the whole earth, in Jer 51:7 a cup of reeling, and in Jer 51:25 the destroyer of the whole earth.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

In Hab 2:6-20 the destruction of the Chaldaean, which has been already intimated in Hab 2:4, Hab 2:5, is announced in the form of a song composed of threatening sentences, which utters woes in five strophes consisting of three verses each: (1) upon the rapacity and plundering of the Chaldaean (Hab 2:6-8); (2) upon his attempt to establish his dynasty firmly by means of force and cunning (Hab 2:9-11); (3) upon his wicked ways of building (Hab 2:12-14); (4) upon his base treatment of the subjugated nations (Hab 2:15-17); and (5) upon his idolatry (Hab 2:18-20). These five strophes are connected together, so as to form two larger divisions, by a refrain which closes the first and fourth, as well as by the promise explanatory of the threat in which the third and fifth strophes terminate; of which two divisions the first threatens the judgment of retribution upon the insatiableness of the Chaldaean in three woes (Hab 2:5), and the second in two woes the judgment of retribution upon his pride. Throughout the whole of the threatening prophecy the Chaldaean nation is embraced, as in Hab 2:4, Hab 2:5, in the ideal person of its ruler.

(Note: The unity of the threatening prophecy, which is brought out in the clearest manner in this formal arrangement, has been torn in pieces in the most violent manner by Hitzig, through his assumption that the oracle of God includes no more than Hab 2:4-8, and that a second part is appended to it in Hab 2:9-20, in which the prophet expresses his own thoughts and feelings, first of all concerning king Jehoiakim (Hab 2:9-14), and then concerning the Egyptians (Hab 2:15-20). This hypothesis, of which Maurer observes quite correctly, Qua nulla unquam excogitata est infelicior, rests upon nothing more than the dogmatic assumption, that there is no such thing as prophecy effected by supernatural causality, and therefore Habakkuk cannot have spoken of Nebuchadnezzar's buildings before they were finished, or at any rate in progress. The two strophes in Hab 2:9-14 contain nothing whatever that would not apply most perfectly to the Chaldaean, or that is not covered by what precedes and follows (compare Hab 2:9 with 6b and 8a, and Hab 2:10 with 5b and 8a). "The strophe in Hab 2:9-11 contains the same fundamental thought as that expressed by Isaiah in Isa 14:12-14 respecting the Chaldaean, viz., the description of his pride, which manifests itself in ambitious edifices founded upon the ruins of the prosperity of strangers" (Delitzsch). The resemblance between the contents of this strophe and the woe pronounced upon Jehoiakim by Jeremiah in Jer 12:13-17 may be very simply explained from the fact that Jehoiakim, like the Chaldaean, was a tyrant who occupied himself with the erection of large state buildings and fortifications, whereas the extermination of many nations does not apply in any respect to Jehoiakim. Lastly, there is no plausible ground whatever for referring the last two strophes (Hab 2:15-20) to the Egyptian, for the assertion that Habakkuk could not pass over the Egyptian in silence, unless he meant to confine himself to the Chaldaean, is a pure petitio principii; and to any unprejudiced mind the allusion to the Chaldaean in this verse is placed beyond all possible doubt by Isa 14:8, where the devastation of Lebanon is also attributed to him, just as it is in Hab 2:17 of our prophecy.)

Hab 2:6-8

Introduction of the ode and first strophe. - Hab 2:6. "Will not all these lift up a proverb upon him, and a song, a riddle upon him? And men will say, Woe to him who increases what is not his own! For how long? and who loadeth himself with the burden of pledges. Hab 2:7. Will not thy biters rise up suddenly, and thy destroyers wake up, and thou wilt become booty to them? Hab 2:8. For thou hast plundered many nations, all the rest of the nations will plunder thee, for the blood of men and wickedness on the earth, the city, and all its inhabitants." הלוא is here, as everywhere else, equivalent to a confident assertion. "All these:" this evidently points back to "all nations" and "all people." Nevertheless the nations as such, or in pleno, are not meant, but simply the believers among them, who expect Jehovah to inflict judgment upon the Chaldaeans, and look forward to that judgment for the revelation of the glory of God. For the ode is prophetical in its nature, and is applicable to all times and all nations. Mâshâl is a sententious poem, as in Mic 2:4 and Isa 14:4, not a derisive song, for this subordinate meaning could only be derived from the context, as in Isa 14:4 for example; and there is nothing to suggest it here. So, again, melı̄tsâh neither signifies a satirical song, nor an obscure enigmatical discourse, but, as Delitzsch has shown, from the first of the two primary meanings combined in the verb לוּץ, lucere and lascivire, a brilliant oration, oratio splendida, from which מליץ is used to denote an interpreter, so called, not from the obscurity of the speaking, but from his making the speech clear or intelligible. חידות לו is in apposition to מליצה and משׁל, adding the more precise definition, that the sayings contain enigmas relating to him (the Chaldaean). The enigmatical feature comes out more especially in the double meaning of עבטיט in Hab 2:6, נשׁכיך in Hab 2:7, and קיקלון in Hab 2:16. לאמר serves, like לאמר elsewhere, as a direct introduction to the speech. The first woe applies to the insatiable rapacity of the Chaldaean. המּרבּה לא־לו, who increases what does not belong to him, i.e., who seizes upon a large amount of the possessions of others. עד־מתי, for how long, sc. will he be able to do this with impunity; not "how long has he already done this" (Hitzig), for the words do not express exultation at the termination of the oppression, but are a sign appended to the woe, over the apparently interminable plunderings on the part of the Chaldaean. וּמכבּיד is also dependent upon hōi, since the defined participle which stands at the head of the cry of woe is generally followed by participles undefined, as though the former regulated the whole (cf. Isa 5:20 and Isa 10:1). At the same time, it might be taken as a simple declaration in itself, though still standing under the influence of the hōi; in which case הוּא would have to be supplied in thought, like וחוטא in Hab 2:10. And even in this instance the sentence is not subordinate to the preceding one, as Luther follows Rashi in assuming ("and still only heaps much slime upon himself"); but is co-ordinate, as the parallelism of the clauses and the meaning of עבטיט require. The ἁπ. λεγ. עבטיט is probably chosen on account of the resemblance in sound to מכבּיד, whilst it also covers an enigma or double entendre. Being formed from עבט (to give a pledge) by the repetition of the last radical, עבטיט signifies the mass of pledges (pignorum captorum copia: Ges., Maurer, Delitzsch), not the load of guilt, either in a literal or a tropico-moral sense. The quantity of foreign property which the Chaldaean has accumulated is represented as a heavy mass of pledges, which he has taken from the nations like an unmerciful usurer (Deu 24:10), to point to the fact that he will be compelled to disgorge them in due time. הכבּיד, to make heavy, i.e., to lay a heavy load upon a person. The word עבטיט, however, might form two words so far as the sound is concerned: עב טיט, cloud (i.e., mass) of dirt, which will cause his ruin as soon as it is discharged. This is the sense in which the Syriac has taken the word; and Jerome does the same, observing, considera quam eleganter multiplicatas divitias densum appellaverit lutum, no doubt according to a Jewish tradition, since Kimchi, Rashi, and Ab. Ezra take the word as a composite one, and merely differ as to the explanation of עב. Grammatically considered, this explanation is indeed untenable, since the Hebrew language has formed no appellative nomina composita; but the word is nevertheless enigmatical, because, when heard from the lips, it might be taken as two words, and understood in the sense indicated.

In Hab 2:7 the threatening hōi is still further developed. Will not thy biters arise? נשׁכיך = נשׁכתם אתך, those who bite thee. In the description here given of the enemy as savage vipers (cf. Jer 8:17) there is also an enigmatical double entendre, which Delitzsch has admirably interpreted thus: "המּרבּה," he says, "pointed to תּרבּית (interest). The latter, favoured by the idea of the Chaldaean as an unmerciful usurer, which is concentrated in עבטיט, points to נשׁך, which is frequently connected with תּרבּית, and signifies usurious interest; and this again to the striking epithet נשׁכתם, which is applied to those who have to inflict the divine retribution upon the Chaldaean. The prophet selected this to suggest the thought that there would come upon the Chaldaean those who would demand back with interest (neshek) the capital of which he had unrighteously taken possession, just as he had unmercifully taken the goods of the nations from them by usury and pawn." יקצוּ, from יקץ, they will awake, viz., מזעזעך, those who shake or rouse thee up. זעזע, pilel of זוּע, σείω, is used in Arabic of the wind (to shake the tree); hence, as in this case, it was employed to denote shaking up or scaring away from a possession, as is often done, for example, by a creditor (Hitzig, Delitzsch). משׁסּות is an intensive plural.

So far as this threat applies to the Chaldaeans, it was executed by the Medes and Persians, who destroyed the Chaldaean empire. But the threat has a much more extensive application. This is evident, apart from other proofs, from Hab 2:8 itself, according to which the whole of the remnant of the nations is to inflict the retribution. Gōyı̄m rabbı̄m, "many nations:" this is not to be taken as an antithesis to kol-haggōyı̄m (all nations) in Hab 2:5, since "all nations" are simply many nations, as kol is not to be taken in its absolute sense, but simply in a relative sense, as denoting all the nations that lie within the prophet's horizon, as having entered the arena of history. Through ישׁלּוּך, which is placed at the head of the concluding clause without a copula, the antithesis to שׁלּות is sharply brought out, and the idea of the righteous retaliation distinctly expressed. כּל־יתר עמּים, the whole remnant of the nations, is not all the rest, with the exception of the one Chaldaean, for yether always denotes the remnant which is left after the deduction of a portion; nor does it mean all the rest of the nations, who are spared and not subjugated, in distinction from the plundered and subjugated nations, as Hitzig with many others imagine, and in proof of which he adduces the fact that the overthrow of the Chaldaeans was effected by nations that had not been subdued. But, as Delitzsch has correctly observed, this view makes the prophet contradict not only himself, but the whole of the prophetic view of the world-wide dominion of Nebuchadnezzar. According to Hab 2:5, the Chaldaean has grasped to himself the dominion over all nations, and consequently there cannot be any nations left that he has not plundered. Moreover, the Chaldaean, or Nebuchadnezzar as the head of the Chaldaean kingdom, appears in prophecy (Jer 27:7-8), as he does in history (Dan 2:38; 3:31; Dan 5:19) throughout, as the ruler of the world in the highest sense, who has subjugated all nations and kingdoms round about, and compelled them to serve him. These nations include the Medes and Elamites (= Persians), to whom the future conquest of Babylon is attributed in Isa 13:17; Isa 21:2; Jer 51:11, Jer 51:28. They are both mentioned in Jer 25:25 among the nations, to whom the prophet is to reach the cup of wrath from the hand of Jehovah; and the kingdom of Elam especially is threatened in Jer 49:34. with the destruction of its power, and dispersion to all four winds. In these two prophecies, indeed, Nebuchadnezzar is not expressly mentioned by name as the executor of the judgment of wrath; but in Jeremiah 25 this may plainly be inferred from the context, partly from the fact that, according to Jer 25:9, Judah with its inhabitants, and all nations round about, are to be given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and partly from the fact that in the list of the nations enumerated in Jer 25:18-26 the king of Sesach (i.e., Babel) is mentioned as he who is to drink the cup "after them" (Jer 25:26). The expression 'achărēhem (after them) shows very clearly that the judgment upon the nations previously mentioned, and therefore also upon the kings of Elam and Media, is to occur while the Chaldaean rule continues, i.e., is to be executed by the Chaldaeans. This may, in fact, be inferred, so far as the prophecy respecting Elam in Jer 49:34. is concerned, from the circumstance that Jeremiah's prophecies with regard to foreign nations in Jeremiah 46-51 are merely expansions of the summary announcement in Jer 25:19-26, and is also confirmed by Eze 32:24, inasmuch as Elam is mentioned there immediately after Asshur in the list of kings and nations that have sunk to the lower regions before Egypt. And if even this prophecy has a much wider meaning, like that concerning Elam in Jer 49:34, and the elegy over Egypt, which Ezekiel strikes up, is expanded into a threatening prophecy concerning the heathen generally (see Kliefoth, Ezech. p. 303), this further reference presupposes the historical fulfilment which the threatening words of prophecy have received through the judgment inflicted by the Chaldaeans upon all the nations mentioned, and has in this its real foundation and soil.

History also harmonizes with this prophetic announcement. The arguments adduced by Hvernick (Daniel, p. 547ff.) to prove that Nebuchadnezzar did not extend his conquests to Elam, and neither subdued this province nor Media, are not conclusive. The fact that after the fall of Nineveh the conquerors, Nabopolassar of Babylonia, and Cyaxares the king of Media, divided the fallen Assyrian kingdom between them, the former receiving the western provinces, and the latter the eastern, does not preclude the possibility of Nebuchadnezzar, the founder of the Chaldaean empire, having made war upon the Median kingdom, and brought it into subjection. There is no historical testimony, however, to the further assertion, that Nebuchadnezzar was only concerned to extend his kingdom towards the west, that his conquests were all of them in the lands situated there, and gave him so much to do that he could not possibly think of extending his eastern frontier. It is true that the opposite of this cannot be inferred from Strabo, xvi. 1, 18;

(Note: This passage is quoted by Hitzig (Ezech. p. 251) as a proof that Elam made war upon the Babylonians, and, indeed, judging from Jer 49:34, an unsuccessful war. But Strabo speaks of a war between the Elymaeans (Elamites) and the Babylonians and Susians, which M. v. Niebuhr (p. 210) very properly assigns to the period of the alliance between Media (as possessor of Susa) and Babylon.)

but it may be inferred, as M. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. Assurs, pp. 211-12) has said, from the fact that according to Jeremiah 27 and 28, at the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, and therefore not very long after Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem in the time of Jehoiachin, and restored order in southern Syria in the most energetic manner, the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, entered into negotiations with Zedekiah for a joint expedition against Nebuchadnezzar. M. v. Niebuhr infers from this that troublous times set in at that period for Nebuchadnezzar, and that this sudden change in the situation of affairs was connected with the death of Cyaxares, and leads to the conjecture that Nebuchadnezzar, who had sworn fealty to Cyaxares, refused at his death to do homage to his successor; for fidelity to a father-in-law, with whose help the kingdom was founded, would assume a very different character if it was renewed to his successor. Babel was too powerful to accept any such enfeoffment as this. And even if Nebuchadnezzar was not a vassal, there could not be a more suitable opportunity for war with Media than that afforded by a change of government, since kingdoms in the East are so easily shaken by the death of a great prince. And there certainly was no lack of inducement to enter upon a war with Media. Elam, for example, from its very situation, and on account of the restlessness of its inhabitants, must have been a constant apple of discord. This combination acquires extreme probability, partly from the fact that Jeremiah's prophecy concerning Elam, in which that nation is threatened with the destruction of its power and dispersion to all four winds, was first uttered at the commencement of Zedekiah's reign (Jer 49:34), whereas the rest of his prophecies against foreign nations date from an earlier period, and that against Babel is the only one which falls later, namely, in the fourth year of Zedekiah (Jer 51:59), which appears to point to the fact that at the commencement of Zedekiah's reign things were brewing in Elam which might lead to his ruin. And it is favoured in part by the account in the book of Judith of a war between Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar) and Media, which terminated victoriously according to the Rec. vulg. in the twelfth year of his reign, since this account is hardly altogether a fictitious one. These prophetic and historical testimonies may be regarded as quite sufficient, considering the universally scanty accounts of the Chaldaean monarchy given by the Greeks and Romans, to warrant us in assuming without hesitation, as M. v. Niebuhr has done, that between the ninth and twentieth years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign - namely, at the commencement of Zedekiah's reign - the former had to make war not only with Elam, but with Media also, and that it is to this eastern war that we should have to attribute the commotion in Syria.

From all this we may see that there is no necessity to explain "all the remnant of the nations" as relating to the remainder of the nations that had not been subjugated, but that we may understand it as signifying the remnant of the nations plundered and subjugated by the Chaldaeans (as is done by the lxx, Theodoret, Delitzsch, and others), which is the only explanation in harmony with the usage of the language. For in Jos 23:12 yether haggōyı̄m denotes the Canaanitish nations left after the war of extermination; and in Zac 14:2 yether hâ‛âm signifies the remnant of the nation left after the previous conquest of the city, and the carrying away of half its inhabitants. In Zep 2:9 yether gōi is synonymous with שׁארית עמּי, and our יתר עמּים is equivalent to שׁארית הגּוים in Eze 36:3-4. מדּמי אדם: on account of the human blood unjustly shed, and on account of the wickedness on the earth (chămas with the Genesis obj. as in Joe 3:19 and Oba 1:10). 'Erets without an article is not the holy land, but the earth generally; and so the city (qiryâh, which is still dependent upon chămas) is not Jerusalem, nor any one particular city, but, with indefinite generality, "cities." The two clauses are parallel, cities and their inhabitants corresponding to men and the earth. The Chaldaean is depicted as one who gathers men and nations in his net (Hab 1:14-17). And so in Jer 50:23 he is called a hammer of the whole earth, in Jer 51:7 a cup of reeling, and in Jer 51:25 the destroyer of the whole earth.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Shall not all these take up a parable against him - His ambition, derangement, and the final destruction of his mighty empire by the Persians, shall form the foundation of many sententious sayings among the people. "He who towered so high, behold how low he is fallen!" "He made himself a god; behold, he herds with the beasts of the field!" "The disturber of the peace of the world is now a handful of dust!"

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¹⁰ When thou dost lend [05383] thy brother [07453] any [03972] thing [04859], thou shalt not go [0935] into his house [01004] to fetch [05670] his pledge [05667].
¹¹ Thou shalt stand [05975] abroad [02351], and the man [0376] to whom thou dost lend [05383] shall bring out [03318] the pledge [05667] abroad [02351] unto thee.
¹² And if the man [0376] be poor [06041], thou shalt not sleep [07901] with his pledge [05667]:
¹³ In any case [07725] thou shalt deliver [07725] him the pledge [05667] again [07725] when the sun [08121] goeth down [0935], that he may sleep [07901] in his own raiment [08008], and bless [01288] thee: and it shall be righteousness [06666] unto thee before [06440] the LORD [03068] thy God [0430].

⁴ In that day [03117] shall one take up [05375] a parable [04912] against you, and lament [05091] with a doleful [05093] lamentation [05092], and say [0559], We be utterly [07703] spoiled [07703]: he hath changed [04171] the portion [02506] of my people [05971]: how hath he removed [04185] it from me! turning away [07725] he hath divided [02505] our fields [07704].

⁴ That thou shalt take up [05375] this proverb [04912] against the king [04428] of Babylon [0894], and say [0559], How hath the oppressor [05065] ceased [07673] ! the golden city [04062] ceased [07673] !

⁵ Yea also, because he transgresseth [0898] by wine [03196], he is a proud [03093] man [01397], neither keepeth at home [05115], who enlargeth [07337] his desire [05315] as hell [07585], and is as death [04194], and cannot be satisfied [07646], but gathereth [0622] unto him all nations [01471], and heapeth [06908] unto him all people [05971]:

¹¹ As the partridge [07124] sitteth [01716] on eggs, and hatcheth [03205] them not; so he that getteth [06213] riches [06239], and not by right [04941], shall leave [05800] them in the midst [02677] of his days [03117], and at his end [0319] shall be a fool [05036].

²⁰ Rejoice [2165] over [1909] her [846], thou heaven [3772], and [2532] ye holy [40] apostles [652] and [2532] prophets [4396]; for [3754] God [2316] hath avenged [2917] [2919] you [5216] on [1537] her [846].

⁴ Then an herald [03744] cried [07123] aloud [02429], To you it is commanded [0560], O people [05972], nations [0524], and languages [03961],
⁵ That at what time [05732] ye hear [08086] the sound [07032] of the cornet [07162], flute [04953], harp [07030] [07030], sackbut [05443], psaltery [06460], dulcimer [05481], and all [03606] kinds [02178] of musick [02170], ye fall down [05308] and worship [05457] the golden [01722] image [06755] that Nebuchadnezzar [05020] the king [04430] hath set up [06966]:

²⁵ Behold, I am against thee, O destroying [04889] mountain [02022], saith [05002] the LORD [03068], which destroyest [07843] all the earth [0776]: and I will stretch out [05186] mine hand [03027] upon thee, and roll thee down [01556] from the rocks [05553], and will make [05414] thee a burnt [08316] mountain [02022].

⁷ Babylon [0894] hath been a golden [02091] cup [03563] in the LORD'S [03068] hand [03027], that made all the earth [0776] drunken [07937]: the nations [01471] have drunken [08354] of her wine [03196]; therefore the nations [01471] are mad [01984].

²³ How is the hammer [06360] of the whole earth [0776] cut asunder [01438] and broken [07665] ! how is Babylon [0894] become a desolation [08047] among the nations [01471]!

¹⁴ And makest [06213] men [0120] as the fishes [01709] of the sea [03220], as the creeping things [07431], that have no ruler [04910] over them?
¹⁵ They take up [05927] all of them with the angle [02443], they catch [01641] them in their net [02764], and gather [0622] them in their drag [04365]: therefore they rejoice [08055] and are glad [01523].
¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice [02076] unto their net [02764], and burn incense [06999] unto their drag [04365]; because by them [01992] their portion [02506] is fat [08082], and their meat [03978] plenteous [01277].
¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty [07324] their net [02764], and not spare [02550] continually [08548] to slay [02026] the nations [01471]?

¹⁰ For thy violence [02555] against thy brother [0251] Jacob [03290] shame [0955] shall cover [03680] thee, and thou shalt be cut off [03772] for ever [05769].

¹⁹ Egypt [04714] shall be a desolation [08077], and Edom [0123] shall be a desolate [08077] wilderness [04057], for the violence [02555] against the children [01121] of Judah [03063], because they have shed [08210] innocent [05355] blood [01818] in their land [0776].

³ Therefore prophesy [05012] and say [0559], Thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Because they have made you desolate [08074], and swallowed you up [07602] on every side [05439], that ye might be a possession [04181] unto the residue [07611] of the heathen [01471], and ye are taken up [05927] in the lips [08193] of talkers [03956], and are an infamy [01681] of the people [05971]:
⁴ Therefore, ye mountains [02022] of Israel [03478], hear [08085] the word [01697] of the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069] to the mountains [02022], and to the hills [01389], to the rivers [0650], and to the valleys [01516], to the desolate [08074] wastes [02723], and to the cities [05892] that are forsaken [05800], which became a prey [0957] and derision [03933] to the residue [07611] of the heathen [01471] that are round about [05439];

⁹ Therefore as I live [02416], saith [05002] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635], the God [0430] of Israel [03478], Surely Moab [04124] shall be as Sodom [05467], and the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] as Gomorrah [06017], even the breeding [04476] of nettles [02738], and saltpits [04379] [04417], and a perpetual [05704] [05769] desolation [08077]: the residue [07611] of my people [05971] shall spoil [0962] them, and the remnant [03499] of my people [01471] shall possess [05157] them.

² For I will gather [0622] all nations [01471] against Jerusalem [03389] to battle [04421]; and the city [05892] shall be taken [03920], and the houses [01004] rifled [08155], and the women [0802] ravished [07901] [07693]; and half [02677] of the city [05892] shall go forth [03318] into captivity [01473], and the residue [03499] of the people [05971] shall not be cut off [03772] from the city [05892].

¹² Else if ye do in any wise [07725] go back [07725], and cleave [01692] unto the remnant [03499] of these nations [01471], even these that remain [07604] among you, and shall make marriages [02859] with them, and go in [0935] unto them, and they to you:

⁵⁹ The word [01697] which Jeremiah [03414] the prophet [05030] commanded [06680] Seraiah [08304] the son [01121] of Neriah [05374], the son [01121] of Maaseiah [04271], when he went [03212] with Zedekiah [06667] the king [04428] of Judah [03063] into Babylon [0894] in the fourth [07243] year [08141] of his reign [04427]. And this Seraiah [08304] was a quiet [04496] prince [08269].

³⁴ The word [01697] of the LORD [03068] that came to Jeremiah [03414] the prophet [05030] against Elam [05867] in the beginning [07225] of the reign [04438] of Zedekiah [06667] king [04428] of Judah [03063], saying [0559],

²⁴ There is Elam [05867] and all her multitude [01995] round about [05439] her grave [06900], all of them slain [02491], fallen [05307] by the sword [02719], which are gone down [03381] uncircumcised [06189] into the nether parts [08482] of the earth [0776], which caused [05414] their terror [02851] in the land [0776] of the living [02416]; yet have they borne [05375] their shame [03639] with them that go down [03381] to the pit [0953].

¹⁹ Pharaoh [06547] king [04428] of Egypt [04714], and his servants [05650], and his princes [08269], and all his people [05971];
²⁰ And all the mingled [06153] people, and all the kings [04428] of the land [0776] of Uz [05780], and all the kings [04428] of the land [0776] of the Philistines [06430], and Ashkelon [0831], and Azzah [05804], and Ekron [06138], and the remnant [07611] of Ashdod [0795],
²¹ Edom [0123], and Moab [04124], and the children [01121] of Ammon [05983],
²² And all the kings [04428] of Tyrus [06865], and all the kings [04428] of Zidon [06721], and the kings [04428] of the isles [0339] which are beyond [05676] the sea [03220],
²³ Dedan [01719], and Tema [08485], and Buz [0938], and all that are in the utmost [07112] corners [06285],
²⁴ And all the kings [04428] of Arabia [06152], and all the kings [04428] of the mingled people [06153] that dwell [07931] in the desert [04057],
²⁵ And all the kings [04428] of Zimri [02174], and all the kings [04428] of Elam [05867], and all the kings [04428] of the Medes [04074],
²⁶ And all the kings [04428] of the north [06828], far [07350] and near [07138], one [0376] with another [0251], and all the kingdoms [04467] of the world [0776], which are upon the face [06440] of the earth [0127]: and the king [04428] of Sheshach [08347] shall drink [08354] after [0310] them.

²⁶ And all the kings [04428] of the north [06828], far [07350] and near [07138], one [0376] with another [0251], and all the kingdoms [04467] of the world [0776], which are upon the face [06440] of the earth [0127]: and the king [04428] of Sheshach [08347] shall drink [08354] after [0310] them.

¹⁸ To wit, Jerusalem [03389], and the cities [05892] of Judah [03063], and the kings [04428] thereof, and the princes [08269] thereof, to make [05414] them a desolation [02723], an astonishment [08047], an hissing [08322], and a curse [07045]; as it is this day [03117];
¹⁹ Pharaoh [06547] king [04428] of Egypt [04714], and his servants [05650], and his princes [08269], and all his people [05971];
²⁰ And all the mingled [06153] people, and all the kings [04428] of the land [0776] of Uz [05780], and all the kings [04428] of the land [0776] of the Philistines [06430], and Ashkelon [0831], and Azzah [05804], and Ekron [06138], and the remnant [07611] of Ashdod [0795],
²¹ Edom [0123], and Moab [04124], and the children [01121] of Ammon [05983],
²² And all the kings [04428] of Tyrus [06865], and all the kings [04428] of Zidon [06721], and the kings [04428] of the isles [0339] which are beyond [05676] the sea [03220],
²³ Dedan [01719], and Tema [08485], and Buz [0938], and all that are in the utmost [07112] corners [06285],
²⁴ And all the kings [04428] of Arabia [06152], and all the kings [04428] of the mingled people [06153] that dwell [07931] in the desert [04057],
²⁵ And all the kings [04428] of Zimri [02174], and all the kings [04428] of Elam [05867], and all the kings [04428] of the Medes [04074],
²⁶ And all the kings [04428] of the north [06828], far [07350] and near [07138], one [0376] with another [0251], and all the kingdoms [04467] of the world [0776], which are upon the face [06440] of the earth [0127]: and the king [04428] of Sheshach [08347] shall drink [08354] after [0310] them.

⁹ Behold, I will send [07971] and take [03947] all the families [04940] of the north [06828], saith [05002] the LORD [03068], and Nebuchadrezzar [05019] the king [04428] of Babylon [0894], my servant [05650], and will bring [0935] them against this land [0776], and against the inhabitants [03427] thereof, and against all these nations [01471] round about [05439], and will utterly destroy [02763] them, and make [07760] them an astonishment [08047], and an hissing [08322], and perpetual [05769] desolations [02723].

²⁵ And all the kings [04428] of Zimri [02174], and all the kings [04428] of Elam [05867], and all the kings [04428] of the Medes [04074],

²⁸ Prepare [06942] against her the nations [01471] with the kings [04428] of the Medes [04074], the captains [06346] thereof, and all the rulers [05461] thereof, and all the land [0776] of his dominion [04475].

¹¹ Make bright [01305] the arrows [02671]; gather [04390] the shields [07982]: the LORD [03068] hath raised up [05782] the spirit [07307] of the kings [04428] of the Medes [04074]: for his device [04209] is against Babylon [0894], to destroy [07843] it; because it is the vengeance [05360] of the LORD [03068], the vengeance [05360] of his temple [01964].

² A grievous [07186] vision [02380] is declared [05046] unto me; the treacherous dealer [0898] dealeth treacherously [0898], and the spoiler [07703] spoileth [07703]. Go up [05927], O Elam [05867]: besiege [06696], O Media [04074]; all the sighing [0585] thereof have I made to cease [07673].

¹⁷ Behold, I will stir up [05782] the Medes [04074] against them, which shall not regard [02803] silver [03701]; and as for gold [02091], they shall not delight [02654] in it.

¹⁹ And for [04481] the majesty [07238] that he gave [03052] him, all [03606] people [05972], nations [0524], and languages [03961], trembled [01934] [02112] and feared [01763] before [04481] him [06925]: whom he would [01934] [06634] he slew [01934] [06992]; and whom he would [01934] [06634] he kept alive [01934] [02418]; and whom he would [01934] [06634] he set up [01934] [07313]; and whom he would [01934] [06634] he put down [01934] [08214].

³⁸ And wheresoever [03606] the children [01123] of men [0606] dwell [01753], the beasts [02423] of the field [01251] and the fowls [05776] of the heaven [08065] hath he given [03052] into thine hand [03028], and hath made thee ruler [07981] over them all [03606]. Thou [0607] art this head [07217] of gold [01722].

⁷ And all nations [01471] shall serve [05647] him, and his son [01121], and his son's [01121] son [01121], until the very time [06256] of his land [0776] come [0935]: and then many [07227] nations [01471] and great [01419] kings [04428] shall serve [05647] themselves of him.
⁸ And it shall come to pass, that the nation [01471] and kingdom [04467] which will not serve [05647] the same Nebuchadnezzar [05019] the king [04428] of Babylon [0894], and that will not put [05414] their neck [06677] under the yoke [05923] of the king [04428] of Babylon [0894], that nation [01471] will I punish [06485], saith [05002] the LORD [03068], with the sword [02719], and with the famine [07458], and with the pestilence [01698], until I have consumed [08552] them by his hand [03027].

⁸ Because thou hast spoiled [07997] many [07227] nations [01471], all the remnant [03499] of the people [05971] shall spoil [07997] thee; because of men's [0120] blood [01818], and for the violence [02555] of the land [0776], of the city [07151], and of all that dwell [03427] therein.

¹⁷ For, behold, I will send [07971] serpents [05175], cockatrices [06848], among you, which will not be charmed [03908], and they shall bite [05391] you, saith [05002] the LORD [03068].

⁷ Shall they not rise up [06965] suddenly [06621] that shall bite [05391] thee, and awake [03364] that shall vex [02111] thee, and thou shalt be for booties [04933] unto them?

¹⁰ When thou dost lend [05383] thy brother [07453] any [03972] thing [04859], thou shalt not go [0935] into his house [01004] to fetch [05670] his pledge [05667].

¹⁰ Thou hast consulted [03289] shame [01322] to thy house [01004] by cutting off [07096] many [07227] people [05971], and hast sinned [02398] against thy soul [05315].

¹ Woe [01945] unto them that decree [02710] unrighteous [0205] decrees [02711], and that write [03789] grievousness [05999] which they have prescribed [03789];

²⁰ Woe [01945] unto them that call [0559] evil [07451] good [02896], and good [02896] evil [07451]; that put [07760] darkness [02822] for light [0216], and light [0216] for darkness [02822]; that put [07760] bitter [04751] for sweet [04966], and sweet [04966] for bitter [04751]!

¹⁶ Thou art filled [07646] with shame [07036] for glory [03519]: drink [08354] thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered [06188]: the cup [03563] of the LORD'S [03068] right hand [03225] shall be turned [05437] unto thee, and shameful spewing [07022] shall be on thy glory [03519].

⁷ Shall they not rise up [06965] suddenly [06621] that shall bite [05391] thee, and awake [03364] that shall vex [02111] thee, and thou shalt be for booties [04933] unto them?

¹⁷ For the violence [02555] of Lebanon [03844] shall cover [03680] thee, and the spoil [07701] of beasts [0929], which made them afraid [02865], because of men's [0120] blood [01818], and for the violence [02555] of the land [0776], of the city [07151], and of all that dwell [03427] therein.

⁸ Yea, the fir trees [01265] rejoice [08055] at thee, and the cedars [0730] of Lebanon [03844], saying, Since thou art laid down [07901], no feller [03772] is come up [05927] against us.

¹⁵ Woe [01945] unto him that giveth his neighbour [07453] drink [08248], that puttest [05596] thy bottle [02573] to him, and makest him drunken [07937] also, that thou mayest look [05027] on their nakedness [04589]!
¹⁶ Thou art filled [07646] with shame [07036] for glory [03519]: drink [08354] thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered [06188]: the cup [03563] of the LORD'S [03068] right hand [03225] shall be turned [05437] unto thee, and shameful spewing [07022] shall be on thy glory [03519].
¹⁷ For the violence [02555] of Lebanon [03844] shall cover [03680] thee, and the spoil [07701] of beasts [0929], which made them afraid [02865], because of men's [0120] blood [01818], and for the violence [02555] of the land [0776], of the city [07151], and of all that dwell [03427] therein.
¹⁸ What profiteth [03276] the graven image [06459] that the maker [03335] thereof hath graven [06458] it; the molten image [04541], and a teacher [03384] of lies [08267], that the maker [03335] of his work [03336] trusteth [0982] therein, to make [06213] dumb [0483] idols [0457]?
¹⁹ Woe [01945] unto him that saith [0559] to the wood [06086], Awake [06974]; to the dumb [01748] stone [068], Arise [05782], it shall teach [03384] ! Behold, it is laid [08610] over with gold [02091] and silver [03701], and there is no breath [07307] at all in the midst [07130] of it.
²⁰ But the LORD [03068] is in his holy [06944] temple [01964]: let all the earth [0776] keep silence [02013] before [06440] him.

¹³ They have sown [02232] wheat [02406], but shall reap [07114] thorns [06975]: they have put themselves to pain [02470], but shall not profit [03276]: and they shall be ashamed [0954] of your revenues [08393] because of the fierce [02740] anger [0639] of the LORD [03068].
¹⁴ Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] against all mine evil [07451] neighbours [07934], that touch [05060] the inheritance [05159] which I have caused my people [05971] Israel [03478] to inherit [05157]; Behold, I will pluck them out [05428] of their land [0127], and pluck out [05428] the house [01004] of Judah [03063] from among [08432] them.
¹⁵ And it shall come to pass, after [0310] that I have plucked them out [05428] I will return [07725], and have compassion [07355] on them, and will bring them again [07725], every man [0376] to his heritage [05159], and every man [0376] to his land [0776].
¹⁶ And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently [03925] learn [03925] the ways [01870] of my people [05971], to swear [07650] by my name [08034], The LORD [03068] liveth [02416]; as they taught [03925] my people [05971] to swear [07650] by Baal [01168]; then shall they be built [01129] in the midst [08432] of my people [05971].
¹⁷ But if they will not obey [08085], I will utterly [05428] pluck up [05428] and destroy [06] that nation [01471], saith [05002] the LORD [03068].

¹² How art thou fallen [05307] from heaven [08064], O Lucifer [01966], son [01121] of the morning [07837] [03213] ! how art thou cut down [01438] to the ground [0776], which didst weaken [02522] the nations [01471]!
¹³ For thou hast said [0559] in thine heart [03824], I will ascend [05927] into heaven [08064], I will exalt [07311] my throne [03678] above [04605] the stars [03556] of God [0410]: I will sit [03427] also upon the mount [02022] of the congregation [04150], in the sides [03411] of the north [06828]:
¹⁴ I will ascend [05927] above the heights [01116] of the clouds [05645]; I will be like [01819] the most High [05945].

¹⁰ Thou hast consulted [03289] shame [01322] to thy house [01004] by cutting off [07096] many [07227] people [05971], and hast sinned [02398] against thy soul [05315].

⁹ Woe [01945] to him that coveteth [01214] an evil [07451] covetousness [01215] to his house [01004], that he may set [07760] his nest [07064] on high [04791], that he may be delivered [05337] from the power [03709] of evil [07451]!
¹⁰ Thou hast consulted [03289] shame [01322] to thy house [01004] by cutting off [07096] many [07227] people [05971], and hast sinned [02398] against thy soul [05315].
¹¹ For the stone [068] shall cry out [02199] of the wall [07023], and the beam out [03714] of the timber [06086] shall answer [06030] it.
¹² Woe [01945] to him that buildeth [01129] a town [05892] with blood [01818], and stablisheth [03559] a city [07151] by iniquity [05766]!
¹³ Behold, is it not of the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] that the people [05971] shall labour [03021] in the very [01767] fire [0784], and the people [03816] shall weary [03286] themselves for very [01767] vanity [07385]?
¹⁴ For the earth [0776] shall be filled [04390] with the knowledge [03045] of the glory [03519] of the LORD [03068], as the waters [04325] cover [03680] the sea [03220].
¹⁵ Woe [01945] unto him that giveth his neighbour [07453] drink [08248], that puttest [05596] thy bottle [02573] to him, and makest him drunken [07937] also, that thou mayest look [05027] on their nakedness [04589]!
¹⁶ Thou art filled [07646] with shame [07036] for glory [03519]: drink [08354] thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered [06188]: the cup [03563] of the LORD'S [03068] right hand [03225] shall be turned [05437] unto thee, and shameful spewing [07022] shall be on thy glory [03519].
¹⁷ For the violence [02555] of Lebanon [03844] shall cover [03680] thee, and the spoil [07701] of beasts [0929], which made them afraid [02865], because of men's [0120] blood [01818], and for the violence [02555] of the land [0776], of the city [07151], and of all that dwell [03427] therein.
¹⁸ What profiteth [03276] the graven image [06459] that the maker [03335] thereof hath graven [06458] it; the molten image [04541], and a teacher [03384] of lies [08267], that the maker [03335] of his work [03336] trusteth [0982] therein, to make [06213] dumb [0483] idols [0457]?
¹⁹ Woe [01945] unto him that saith [0559] to the wood [06086], Awake [06974]; to the dumb [01748] stone [068], Arise [05782], it shall teach [03384] ! Behold, it is laid [08610] over with gold [02091] and silver [03701], and there is no breath [07307] at all in the midst [07130] of it.
²⁰ But the LORD [03068] is in his holy [06944] temple [01964]: let all the earth [0776] keep silence [02013] before [06440] him.

⁴ Behold, his soul [05315] which is lifted up [06075] is not upright [03474] in him: but the just [06662] shall live [02421] by his faith [0530].
⁵ Yea also, because he transgresseth [0898] by wine [03196], he is a proud [03093] man [01397], neither keepeth at home [05115], who enlargeth [07337] his desire [05315] as hell [07585], and is as death [04194], and cannot be satisfied [07646], but gathereth [0622] unto him all nations [01471], and heapeth [06908] unto him all people [05971]:
⁶ Shall not all these take up [05375] a parable [04912] against him, and a taunting [04426] proverb [02420] against him, and say [0559], Woe [01945] to him that increaseth [07235] that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth [03513] himself with thick clay [05671]!
⁷ Shall they not rise up [06965] suddenly [06621] that shall bite [05391] thee, and awake [03364] that shall vex [02111] thee, and thou shalt be for booties [04933] unto them?
⁸ Because thou hast spoiled [07997] many [07227] nations [01471], all the remnant [03499] of the people [05971] shall spoil [07997] thee; because of men's [0120] blood [01818], and for the violence [02555] of the land [0776], of the city [07151], and of all that dwell [03427] therein.

⁴ Behold, his soul [05315] which is lifted up [06075] is not upright [03474] in him: but the just [06662] shall live [02421] by his faith [0530].

¹⁸ What profiteth [03276] the graven image [06459] that the maker [03335] thereof hath graven [06458] it; the molten image [04541], and a teacher [03384] of lies [08267], that the maker [03335] of his work [03336] trusteth [0982] therein, to make [06213] dumb [0483] idols [0457]?
¹⁹ Woe [01945] unto him that saith [0559] to the wood [06086], Awake [06974]; to the dumb [01748] stone [068], Arise [05782], it shall teach [03384] ! Behold, it is laid [08610] over with gold [02091] and silver [03701], and there is no breath [07307] at all in the midst [07130] of it.
²⁰ But the LORD [03068] is in his holy [06944] temple [01964]: let all the earth [0776] keep silence [02013] before [06440] him.

¹² Woe [01945] to him that buildeth [01129] a town [05892] with blood [01818], and stablisheth [03559] a city [07151] by iniquity [05766]!
¹³ Behold, is it not of the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] that the people [05971] shall labour [03021] in the very [01767] fire [0784], and the people [03816] shall weary [03286] themselves for very [01767] vanity [07385]?
¹⁴ For the earth [0776] shall be filled [04390] with the knowledge [03045] of the glory [03519] of the LORD [03068], as the waters [04325] cover [03680] the sea [03220].

⁴ Behold, his soul [05315] which is lifted up [06075] is not upright [03474] in him: but the just [06662] shall live [02421] by his faith [0530].

⁶ Shall not all these take up [05375] a parable [04912] against him, and a taunting [04426] proverb [02420] against him, and say [0559], Woe [01945] to him that increaseth [07235] that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth [03513] himself with thick clay [05671]!
⁷ Shall they not rise up [06965] suddenly [06621] that shall bite [05391] thee, and awake [03364] that shall vex [02111] thee, and thou shalt be for booties [04933] unto them?
⁸ Because thou hast spoiled [07997] many [07227] nations [01471], all the remnant [03499] of the people [05971] shall spoil [07997] thee; because of men's [0120] blood [01818], and for the violence [02555] of the land [0776], of the city [07151], and of all that dwell [03427] therein.
⁹ Woe [01945] to him that coveteth [01214] an evil [07451] covetousness [01215] to his house [01004], that he may set [07760] his nest [07064] on high [04791], that he may be delivered [05337] from the power [03709] of evil [07451]!
¹⁰ Thou hast consulted [03289] shame [01322] to thy house [01004] by cutting off [07096] many [07227] people [05971], and hast sinned [02398] against thy soul [05315].
¹¹ For the stone [068] shall cry out [02199] of the wall [07023], and the beam out [03714] of the timber [06086] shall answer [06030] it.
¹² Woe [01945] to him that buildeth [01129] a town [05892] with blood [01818], and stablisheth [03559] a city [07151] by iniquity [05766]!
¹³ Behold, is it not of the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] that the people [05971] shall labour [03021] in the very [01767] fire [0784], and the people [03816] shall weary [03286] themselves for very [01767] vanity [07385]?
¹⁴ For the earth [0776] shall be filled [04390] with the knowledge [03045] of the glory [03519] of the LORD [03068], as the waters [04325] cover [03680] the sea [03220].
¹⁵ Woe [01945] unto him that giveth his neighbour [07453] drink [08248], that puttest [05596] thy bottle [02573] to him, and makest him drunken [07937] also, that thou mayest look [05027] on their nakedness [04589]!
¹⁶ Thou art filled [07646] with shame [07036] for glory [03519]: drink [08354] thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered [06188]: the cup [03563] of the LORD'S [03068] right hand [03225] shall be turned [05437] unto thee, and shameful spewing [07022] shall be on thy glory [03519].
¹⁷ For the violence [02555] of Lebanon [03844] shall cover [03680] thee, and the spoil [07701] of beasts [0929], which made them afraid [02865], because of men's [0120] blood [01818], and for the violence [02555] of the land [0776], of the city [07151], and of all that dwell [03427] therein.
¹⁸ What profiteth [03276] the graven image [06459] that the maker [03335] thereof hath graven [06458] it; the molten image [04541], and a teacher [03384] of lies [08267], that the maker [03335] of his work [03336] trusteth [0982] therein, to make [06213] dumb [0483] idols [0457]?
¹⁹ Woe [01945] unto him that saith [0559] to the wood [06086], Awake [06974]; to the dumb [01748] stone [068], Arise [05782], it shall teach [03384] ! Behold, it is laid [08610] over with gold [02091] and silver [03701], and there is no breath [07307] at all in the midst [07130] of it.
²⁰ But the LORD [03068] is in his holy [06944] temple [01964]: let all the earth [0776] keep silence [02013] before [06440] him.