Habakkuk 1:16

Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. THEREFORE THEY SACRIFICE UNTO THEIR NET - i:e., their arms, power, and military skill, wherewith they gained their victories; instead of to God. Compare , Maurer's intepretation, 'as one to whom his power is his god.' They idolize themselves for their own cleverness and might (; ; ). BECAUSE BY THEM - by their net and drag net. THEIR PORTION IS FAT - image from a banquet: the pray which they have gotten....

The Prophet confirms the closing sentence of the last verse; for he explains what that joy was of which he had spoken, even the joy by which the wicked, as it were, designedly provoke God against themselves. It is indeed an abominable thing when the ungodly take delight in their vices; but it is still more atrocious when they deride God himself. Such, then, is the account now added by the Prophet, as though he had said, “Not only do the ungodly felicitate themselves while thou sparest them, or for a time bearest with them; but they now rise up against thee and deride all thy majesty, and openly blaspheme against heaven itself; for they sacrifice to their own net, and offer incense to their drag.” By this metaphor the Prophet intimates, that the wicked do not only become hardened when they succeed in their vices, but that they also ascribe to themselves the praise of justice; for they con...

12-17 However matters may be, yet God is the Lord our God, our Holy One. We are an offending people, he is an offended God, yet we will not entertain hard thoughts of him, or of his service. It is great comfort that, whatever mischief men design, the Lord designs good, and we are sure that his counsel shall stand. Though wickedness may prosper a while, yet God is holy, and does not approve the wickedness. As he cannot do iniquity himself, so he is of purer eyes than to behold it with any approval. By this principle we must abide, though the dispensations of his providence may for a time, in some cases, seem to us not to agree with it. The prophet complains that God's patience was abused; and because sentence against these evil works and workers was not executed speedily, their hearts were the more fully set in them to do evil. Some they take up as with the angle, one by one; others they...

Verse Habakkuk 1:16. _THEY SACRIFICE UNTO THEIR NET_] He had no God; he cared for none; and worshipped only his _armour_ and _himself_. King _Mezentius_, one of the worst characters in the _AEneid of Virgil_, is represented as invoking his own _right hand_ and his _spear_ in battle. AEn. x. 773. Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro, Nunc adsint. "My strong right hand and sword, assert my stroke. Those only gods Mezentius will invoke." DRYDEN. And _Capaneus_, in _Statius_, gives us a more decisive proof of this _self-idolatry_. _Thebaid_, lib.

THEREFORE THEY SACRIFICE UNTO THEIR NET, AND BURN INCENSE UNTO THEIR DRAG - literally he sacrifices unto his, etc. Whatever a man trusts in is his god. If a man relies to compass his end by his strength, or his wisdom, or his forethought, or his wealth, his armies or navies, these his forces are his God. So the Assyrian said Isaiah 10:13, Isaiah 10:15, “By the strength of my hand I did it; and by my wisdom, for I am prudent;” and God answered, “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?” The coarse forms of idolatry only embody outwardly the deep inward idolatry of the corrupt human mind. The idol is Ezekiel 14:4 “set up in the heart” first. There have not indeed been lacking

EXPOSITION VERSE 1:1-2:20 PART I. JUDGMENT UPON THE EVIL, IN THE FORM OF A COLLOQUY BETWEEN THE PROPHET AND GOD. HABAKKUK 1:1 § 1. _The inscription of the book. _THE BURDEN (see note on Nahum 1:1). The prophet (Habakkuk 3:1). This title, which is added in the inscriptions only to the names of Haggai and Zechariah, and cursorily to that of Jeremiah (46, 47; 50.), implies that he exercised the pr

THEREFORE THEY SACRIFICE UNTO THEIR NET, AND BURN INCENSE UNTO THEIR DRAG,.... Either to their idols, to fortune and the stars, as Aben Ezra; imagining they gave them success, and prospered them in the arts and methods they used: or to their arms, as the Targum; nor was it unusual with the Heathens to worship their spears, sacrifice to them, and swear by them g. So Justin says h, originally the ancients worshipped spears for gods, in memory of whose religion spears are still added to the images of the gods. Lucian i asserts that the Scythians sacrificed to a scimitar; and Arnobius k says the same; and Ammianus Marcellinus l reports, that the Quadi worship their swords or daggers instead of gods; and that it was usual to swear by the spear is evident from others m. Or else the sense is, they sacrificed to their own valour and courage, skill and conduct. BECAUSE BY THEM THEIR PORTION [IS]...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1 The Judgment of Judah Through the Chaldeans Announced _ 1. The prophet's cry to Jehovah (Habakkuk 1:1) _ 2. The answer (Habakkuk 1:5) 3. The prophet's plea (Habakkuk 1:12) Habakkuk 1:1. The prophet begins his message with a prayer-cry to Jehovah. He whose name is “the embracer” embraces the Lord and cries to Him on account of the conditions prevailing in Judah. The Spirit of God stirred up the heart of Habakkuk on account of the moral conditions in Judah. He is jealous for Jehovah's glory, which manifested itself in hating the evil. “There is no prophetic

REMONSTRANCE OVER THE INHUMANITY OF THE CHALDEANS. The execution of Divine judgment raises fresh questions: Why should the Holy One, whose eyes are too pure to look on evil, appoint as minister of justice a people still more faithless and corrupt than its victim? And why should He make the nations like leaderless swarms of fish, to be swept into the net, and gathered up in the seine (drag-net), then emptied out and slaughtered, while the oppressor in brutal joy offers sacrifice to his nets? HABAKKUK 1:12. Read probably, Yahweh, my Holy God, that diest not? (_cf. mg_.). The second part of the _verse_ should also perhaps be taken interrogatively, Was it thou that didst ordain (appoint) him. for judgment? For _tsur_, Rock (which reads very awkwardly), Duhm suggests _tsir_, messenger or minister: thus, and established him as a minister of chastisement.

FAT. fertile, or rich. PLENTEOUS. fat....