Habakkuk 1:4

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. THEREFORE - because thou dost suffer such crimes to go unpunished. THE LAW IS SLACKED - is chilled [ taapuwg (H6313)]. It has no authority, and secures no respect. AND JUDGMENT DOTH NEVER GO FORTH - "judgment," justice. WRONG JUDGMENT PROCEEDETH - decisions are given contrary to right....

The Prophet confirms here what I have already said, and brings an excuse for his zeal; he proves that he was not without reason led to so great a warmth; for he saw that the law of God was trodden as it were under foot; he saw men so hardened in every kind of sin, that all religion and the fear of God had nearly been extinguished. Hence I have already said, that the Prophet was not here impelled by a carnal passion, as it often happens to us, when we defend ourselves from wrongs done to us; for when any one of us is injured, he immediately becomes incensed, while, at the same time, we suffer God’s law to be a sport, His whole truth to be despised, and everything that is just to be violated. We are only tender on what concerns us individually, and in the meantime we easily forgive when God is wronged, and His truth despised. But the Prophet shows here that he was not made indignant throug...

1-11 The servants of the Lord are deeply afflicted by seeing ungodliness and violence prevail; especially among those who profess the truth. No man scrupled doing wrong to his neighbour. We should long to remove to the world where holiness and love reign for ever, and no violence shall be before us. God has good reasons for his long-suffering towards bad men, and the rebukes of good men. The day will come when the cry of sin will be heard against those that do wrong, and the cry of prayer for those that suffer wrong. They were to notice what was going forward among the heathen by the Chaldeans, and to consider themselves a nation to be scourged by them. But most men presume on continued prosperity, or that calamities will not come in their days. They are a bitter and hasty nation, fierce, cruel, and bearing down all before them. They shall overcome all that oppose them. But it is a grea...

Verse 4. _THE LAW IS SLACKED_] They pay no attention to it; it has lost all its vigour, its restraining and correcting power, it is not executed; right _judgment_ is never _pronounced_; and the _poor_ _righteous man_ complains in vain that he is grievously oppressed by the _wicked_, and by those in power and authority. That the utmost depravity prevailed in the land of Judah is evident from these verses; and can we wonder, then, that God poured out such signal judgments upon them? When _judgment doth not proceed_ from the seat of judgment upon earth, it will infallibly _go forth_ from the throne of judgment in heaven....

THEREFORE - i. e., Because God seemed not to awake to avenge His own cause, people promised themselves that they might sin on with impunity. Sin produces sin, and wrong produces wrong; it spreads like an infectious disease, propagating itself, and each, to whom it reaches, adds to its poison. At last, it reached those also, who should be in God’s stead to restrain it. The divine law itself is silenced, by the power of the wicked, by the sin of the judge, the hopelessness of all. When all around is evil, even those not yet lost are tempted to think; “Why should I be other than they? What evil befalls them? Why stand alone?” Even a Psalmist Psalms 73:15, Psalms 73:12 speaks as if tempted to “speak even as they. These are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they increase in r

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 THE LAW IS SLACKED,.... Is not put into execution against offenders: the civil magistrates, whose office it is to do justice according to law, are dilatory, and do not proceed with vigour and spirit against the transgressors of it, and in favour of honest and good men oppressed: or "it intermits" r, or is "intermitted"; it is like a man whose pulse beats low, and is scarce perceived, which is a sign that he is not in good health as the body politic is not, when the law, which is the soul of it, is not suffered to take place, and do its office. So the Targum, "the law languishes;'' loses its force and vigour, and is ready to expire; which is a sad symptom of the bad estate of a commonwealth. AND JUDGMENT DOTH NEVER GO FORTH; at least not right, to the justifying of the righteous, acquitting the innocent, and giving the cause on the right side; condemning the wicked, and punis...

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

COMPLAINT AGAINST YAHWEH FOR HIS TOLERANCE OF WRONG-DOING. In bitter remonstrance with Yahweh, the prophet asks how long he must cry Violence! and look on wretchedness and trouble, robbery, strife and contention, the failure of justice and the general paralysis of law, while Yahweh remains silent, indifferent, or powerless. Habakkuk 1:2. violence: probably the burden of the cry. Habakkuk 1:3. iniquity. perverseness: rather wretchedness or misery..·. trouble. Habakkuk 1:4. law: moral direction or instruction from Yahweh. SLACKED: lit. benumbed, paralysed. COMPASS ABOUT: _i.e._ circumvent in his plans, and impede in his rights....

SLACKED. benumbed. JUDGMENT. justice. THE WICKED. a lawless one: looking forward from the Chaldeans to the future Antichrist. Hebrew. _rasha'._ App-44. THE RIGHTEOUS. the just one (Art. with Hebrew. _'eth)_ WRONG. perverted. PROCEEDETH. goeth forth....