Habakkuk 1:17

Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? SHALL THEY THEREFORE EMPTY THEIR NET? - shall they be allowed without interruption to enjoy the fruits of their violence? THEREFORE - seeing that they attribute all their successes to themselves, and not to Thee. The answer to the prophet's question, he by inspiration gives himself in Habakkuk 2:1. Remarks: (1) The servants of Yahweh are deeply grieved in being constrained to behold violence and iniquity, strife and contention, so prevalent (Habakkuk 1:2). But instead of complaining to men, as is the way of the world, they, like the prophet, pour out their sorrows and distress before God, who is "a very present help in time of troubl...

This is an affirmative question, “Shall they therefore;” which, however, requires a negative answer. Then all interpreters are mistaken; for they think that the Prophet here complains, that he presently extends his net after having made a capture, but he rather means, “Is he ever to extend his net?” that is, “How long, O Lord, wilt thou permit the Assyrians to proceed to new plunders, so as to be like the hunter, who after having taken a boar or a stag, is more eager, and immediately renews his hunting; or like the fisherman, who having filled his little ship, with more avidity pursues his vocation? Wilt thou, Lord, he says, suffer the Assyrians to become more assiduous in their work of destruction?” And he shows how unworthy they were of God’s forbearance, for they slew the nations. “I speak not here,” he says, “either of fish or of any other animal, nor do I speak of this or that man,...

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 1:17. _AND NOT SPARE CONTINUALLY TO SLAY THE NATIONS?_] They are running from conquest to conquest; burning, slaying, sacking, and slaughtering. Like the fishermen, who throw cast after cast while any fish are to be caught, so Nebuchadnezzar is destroying one nation after another. This last sentence explains the allegory of the _net_....

SHALL THEY THEREFORE EMPTY THEIR NET, AND NOT SPARE CONTINUALLY TO SLAY THE NATIONS? - The prophet, like Isaiah Isaiah 18:4, stands at the very last point, before the fury and desire of the enemy was fulfilled. People, like fish, were gathered together for a prey; he who had taken them was rejoicing and exulting beforehand in his booty; his portion and meat were the choice of the earth; the prophet leeks on, as it were, and beholds the net full; there is but one step more; “Shall he empty it? Shall he then devour those whom he has caught? and so cast his emptied net again unceasingly, pitilessly, to slay the nations?” This question he answers in the next chapter - A Deliverer will come!...

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

SHALL THEY THEREFORE EMPTY THEIR NET,.... Or "thus", after this manner, so Noldius; as fishermen do, when they have had a good cast, and a large draught, spread the net, and take out the fishes, in order to throw it again, and catch more; and so it is asked, should these Chaldeans, when they have conquered one nation, and so filled their net or themselves with the spoil, carry it to Babylon, and there lay it up, and then proceed to fight against another kingdom and nation, and plunder it in like manner? AND NOT SPARE CONTINUALLY TO SLAY THE NATIONS? the inhabitants of them one after another, and subdue them under them, and make themselves master of all their treasure, until they are arrived to universal monarchy by such cruel and unmerciful methods. The Targum is, "shall he send his armies continually to consume nations, and that without mercy?'' This the prophet proposes in the name...

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.

_HABAKKUK SAW A TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION -- HABAKKUK 1:15-17:_ Habakkuk saw the Chaldeans dealing with the Jews like fish being caught in a net and consumed. The enemy would come and destroy and take them captive with hooks and nets. Some would be taken captive one by one while others Jews would be taken away in groups. The Chaldeans rejoiced and congratulated themselves on their victory over Judah. The enemy could only see their might and their power. They did not realize that God's hand was in this matter. They looked at the net, their power and might, as their god. They thought they had gained the victory on their own. They celebrate their strength and victory with a banquet "because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous." They did not know nor understand that God was using them to punish his people. Habakkuk asked God how long He was going to allow the Chaldea