I WILL STAND - , i. e. I would stand now, as a servant awaiting his master, UPON MY WATCH - or, keep (Isaiah 21:8. משׁמר in the same sense Jeremiah 51:12), and “set me (plant myself firmly) upon the tower” (literally, fenced place, but also one straitened and narrowly hemmed in), “and will watch” (i... [ Continue Reading ]
The answer is, that it is indeed for a long time yet. Write the vision, that it may remain for those who come after and not be forgotten, and make it plain upon the tables, whereon he was accustomed to write ; and that, in large lasting characters, that he may run that readeth it, that it may be pla... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE VISION IS YET FOR AN (THE) APPOINTED TIME - o Not for the present, but to develop itself in the course of time, down to a season which God only knows; as it is subsequently repeated (Daniel 11:27, for it is for the appointed time, Daniel 11:35), “for the end is yet for the appointed time Dan... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, HIS SOUL WHICH IS LIFTED UP - literally, swollen IS NOT UPRIGHT IN HIM - The construction is probably that of a condition expressed absolutely. Lo, swollen is it, not upright is his soul in him. We should say, “His soul, if it be swollen , puffed up, is not upright in him.” The source of all... [ Continue Reading ]
This general rule the prophet goes on to apply in words which belong in part to all oppressors and in the first instance to the Chaldaean, in part yet more fully to the end and to antichrist. “Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine” (or better, “Yea, how much more, since wine is a deceiver , as... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL NOT ALL THESE TAKE UP A PARABLE AGAINST HIM, AND A TAUNTING PROVERB AGAINST HIM? - Nebuchadnezzar gathered, Daniel 3:4, “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 mightie... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL NOT THEY RISE UP SUDDENLY THAT SHALL BITE THEE, AND AWAKE THAT SHALL VEX THEE? - The destruction of the wicked is ever sudden at last. Such was the flood Luke 17:26, the destruction of Sodom, of Pharaoh, of the enemies of God’s people through the Judges, of Sennacherib, Nineveh, Babylon by the... [ Continue Reading ]
Because (or For). The prophet assigns the reason of the woes he had just pronounced. “Thou (emphatic), thou hast spoiled many nations, all the resonant of the people shall spoil thee.” So Isaiah Isaiah 33:1, “When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; when thou shalt make an end to deal... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE TO HIM THAT COVETETH AN EVIL COVETOUSNESS TO HIS HOUSE - (or, with accents, “that coveteth covetousness or unjust gain, an evil to his house.”) What man coveteth seems gain, but is evil “to his house” after him, destroying both himself and his whole family or race with him . “That he may set his... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST CONSULTED SHAME TO THY HOUSE, THE CUTTING OFF MANY PEOPLE, AND SINNING AGAINST THY SOUL - The wicked, whether out of passion or with his whole mind and deliberate choice and will, takes that counsel, which certainly brings shame to himself and his house, according to the law of God, whereb... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE STONE SHALL CRY OUT OF THE WALL, AND THE BEAM OUT OF THE TIMBER SHALL ANSWER IT - All things have a voice, in that they are . God’s works speak that, for which He made them Psalms 19:1 : “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psalms 65:13 : “the valleys are clad with corn, they laugh, yea,... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE TO HIM THAT BUILDETH A TOWN WITH BLOOD, AND ESTABLISHETH A CITY BY INIQUITY! - Nebuchadnezzar “encircled the inner city with three walls and the outer city also with three, all of burnt brick. And having fortified the city with wondrous works, and adorned the gates like temples, he built another... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, IS IT NOT OF THE LORD OF HOSTS THAT (THE) PEOPLE (NATIONS) SHALL LABOR - o IN (FOR) THE VERY FIRE - literally, to suffice the fire? By God’s appointment, the end of all their labor is for the fire, what may suffice it to consume. This is the whole result of their labor; and so it is as if t... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE EARTH SHALL BE FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD - Habakkuk modifies in a degree the words of Isaiah which he embodies, marking that the destruction of Babylon was a stage only toward the coming of those good things which God taught His people to long for, not their very com... [ Continue Reading ]
From cruelty the prophet goes on to denounce the woe on insolence. “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor” (to whom he owes love) drink (literally, that maketh him drink); that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also , that thou mayest look (gaze with devilish pleasure) on their naked... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU ART FILLED WITH SHAME FOR GLORY - Oppressors think to make themselves great by bringing others down, to fill themselves with riches, by spoiling others. They loved shame Hosea 4:8, because they loved that, which brought shame; they were filled with shame, in that they sated themselves with sham... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE VIOLENCE OF LEBANON - i. e., done to Lebanon, whether the land of Israel of which it was the entrance and the beauty (See Isaiah 37:24, and, as a symbol, Jeremiah 22:6, Jeremiah 22:23; Ezekiel 17:3; but it is used as a symbol of Sennacherib’s army, Isaiah 10:34, and the king of Asshur is not... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT PROFITETH - (_Hath_ profited) הועיל מה. Samuel warned them, “Serve the Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not aside; for (it would be) after vanities which will not profit nor deliver for they are vain:” and Jeremiah tells their past; “their prophets prophesied by Baal; and after things יועי... [ Continue Reading ]
But then the greater is the “Woe” to him who deceiveth by them. The prophet passes away from the idols as “nothings” and pronounces “woe” on those who deceive by them. He . first expostulates with them on their folly, and would awaken them. “What hath it profited?” (As in Psalms 115:5; 1 Corinthians... [ Continue Reading ]
And now having declared the nothingness of all which is not God, the power of man or his gods, he answers again his own question, by summoning all before the presence of the majesty of God. BUT THE LORD - He had, in condemning them, pictured the tumult of the world, the oppressions, the violence, b... [ Continue Reading ]