31 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Habakkuk 2 This chapter contains an answer from the Lord to the expostulations, pleadings, and reasonings of the prophet, in the name of the people. The preparation of the prophet to receive this answer is described, Habakkuk 2:1 then follows the answer itself, in which he is bid to write and make plain the vision he had, that it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I will stand upon my watch,.... These are the words of the prophet: so the Targum introduces them, "the prophet said;'' and this he said in character as a watchman, as all the prophets were: as a watchman takes the proper place he watches in and looks out, especially in time of danger and distress, if he can spy anyone bringing tidings, that he...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have an answer expected by the prophet (ver. 1), and returned by the Spirit of God, to the complaints which the prophet made of the violences and victories of the Chaldeans in the close of the foregoing chapter. The answer is, I. That after God has served his own purposes by the prevailing power of the Chaldeans, has tried the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. “I shall look to God, and I shall also look to myself. There shall be an expectation as I gaze upward to my Lord, and there shall also be an examination as I look within at my empty, guilty,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord answered me,.... As he does his ministers and people sooner or later, in one way or another, when they call upon him with humility and reverence, with faith and fervency: and said, Write the vision; which the prophet now had from him, concerning the coming of the Messiah, and the destruction of the enemies of the church and people of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. The prophets were accustomed to write their messages upon wax tablets, and the Lord bade Habakkuk thus write what he had seen. God would have both his law and his gospel plainly revealed to men, so that they might know and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time,.... Not the present vision only, but vision or prophecy in general: it was a doubt that arose in the minds of the prophet and other good men, upon the notice given that the Chaldeans would be raised up to the destruction of the Jews; that then the law of God would cease, his worship would not...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Is that a contradiction,—“Though it tarry,.... it will not tarry” ? No; to us, it appears to tarry; but, in God’s way of reckoning, it does not really tarry. To our impatient...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him,.... This and the following clause describe two sorts of persons differently affected to the Messiah, and the promise of his coming. Here it points at such as were "incredulous", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; that disbelieved his coming, and mocked and scoffed at the promise of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. This grand text was quoted by Paul when he wrote his Epistles to the Romans, the Galatians, and the Hebrews. It proves that Old Testament saints understood New Testament life. David and Abraham lived by faith, even as Paul and Peter and the other...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine,.... Or rather, "how much less" or "more (o), wine dealing treacherously": or "a man of wine", as Aben Ezra supplies it; that is, a winebibber, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it: and the sense in connection with the preceding verse Habakkuk 2:4 is, if a Jew, elated with his works of righteousness, his...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: This was spoken of the Chaldeans, an ambitious nation so exceedingly greedy that it seemed as if the whole world...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Shall not all these take up a parable against him,.... A proverbial expression, a short sentence, a laconic speech, delivered in a few words, which contains much in them concerning the vices of these emperors, and imprecating judgments upon them for them; took up and expressed by the nations brought into subjection unto them, and especially by the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
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! That which is said of ambition may also be said of covetousness. What an idle task it is for a man to go on perpetually hoarding,— heaping...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Shall not they rise up suddenly that shall bite thee,.... Or, "thy usurers", or "creditors" (d), as some render it; the Christians, whose money, goods, and substance, they had spoiled them of, but now should be repaid with great usury and gain; these, that is, their princes and emperors, as Constantine and Theodosius, rose up suddenly, and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? So it happened to Chaldea that the nations, which they had spoiled, by-and- by grew strong enough to take vengeance upon them, and to spoil them in their turn. Usually, when men do wrong, it comes home to them sooner or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee,.... Those that survived the persecutions of the Roman emperors; those that were left of the great numbers put to death by them; those under Constantine rose up, and by just retaliation spoiled them of all their power and wealth: because of men's blood; the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! He fancies, when...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house,.... The bishops of Rome, being enriched by the donations of Constantine, were not satisfied, but coveted more; these are the greedy dogs Isaiah speaks of, that could never have enough, Isaiah 56:11 but were still seeking and gaping after more for themselves and families, and for their own...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast consulted shame to thy house,.... Instead of bringing real honour and glory to their church, and that into the esteem of men, by such covetousness, ambition, and arrogance, they brought it into shame and disgrace, especially with all good men; and which they as effectually did as if they had studied it, and as if this was the thing they...