HABACUC was a native of Bezocher, and prophesied in JUDA,
some time before the invasion fo the CHALDEANS, which he
foretold. He lived to see this prophecy fulfilled, and for
many years after, according to the general opinion, which
supposes him to be the same that was brought by the ANGEL
to DANIEL in BABYLON, Dan. 14.
Habacuc Chapter 1
The prophet complains of the wickedness of the people: God
reveals to him the vengeance he is going to take of them by
the Chaldeans.
1:1. The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.
Burden... Such prophecies more especially are called
burdens, as threaten grievous evils and punishments.
1:2. How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear?
shall I cry out to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt
not save?
1:3. Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to see
rapine and injustice before me? and there is a judgment,
but opposition is more powerful.
1:4. Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment
cometh not to the end: because the wicked prevaileth
against the just, therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.
1:5. Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be
astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man
will believe when it shall be told.
1:6. For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter
and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth,
to possess the dwelling places that are not their own.
1:7. They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall
their judgment, and their burden proceed.
1:8. Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter
than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread
abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall
fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.
1:9. They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a
burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as
the sand.
1:10. And their prince shall triumph over kings, and
princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at
every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall
take it.
1:11. Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass,
and fall: this is his strength of his god.
Then shall his spirit, etc... Viz., the spirit of the king
of Babylon. It alludes to the judgment of God upon
Nabuchodonosor, recorded Dan. 4., and to the speedy fall of
the Chaldean empire.
1:12. Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my
holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed
him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.
1:13. Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst
not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do
unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked
devoureth the man that is more just than himself?
1:14. And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and
as the creeping things that have no ruler.
1:15. He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in
his drag, and gathered them into his net: for this he will
be glad and rejoice.
1:16. Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he
will sacrifice to his net: because through them his portion
is made fat, and his meat dainty.
1:17. For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and
will not spare continually to slay the nations.
Habacuc Chapter 2
The prophet is admonished to wait with faith. The enemies
of God's people shall assuredly be punished.
2:1. I will stand upon my watch, and fix my foot upon the
tower: and I will watch, to see what will be said to me,
and what I may answer to him that reproveth me.
Will stand, etc... Waiting to see what the Lord will
answer to my complaint, viz., that the Chaldeans, who are
worse than the Jews, and who attribute all their success
to their own strength, or to their idols, should
nevertheless prevail over the people of the Lord. The
Lord's answer is, that the prophet must wait with patience
and faith: that all should be set right in due time; and
the enemies of God and his people punished according to
their deserts.
2:2. And the Lord answered me, and said: Write the vision,
and make it plain upon tables: that he that readeth it may
run over it.
2:3. For as yet the vision is far off, and it shall appear
at the end, and shall notlie: if it make any delay, wait
for it: for it shall surely come, and it shall not be
slack.
2:4. Behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul shall not be
right in himself: but the just shall live in his faith.
2:5. And as wine deceiveth him that drinketh it: so shall
the proud man be, and he shall not be honoured: who hath
enlarged his desire like hell: and is himself like death,
and he is never satisfied: but will gather together unto
him all nations, and heap together unto him all people.
As wine deceiveth, etc... Viz., by affording only a short
passing pleasure; followed by the evils and disgrace that
are the usual consequences of drunkenness; so shall it be
with the proud enemies of the people of God; whose success
affordeth them only a momentary pleasure, followed by
innumerable and everlasting evils.
2:6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and
a dark speech concerning him: and it shall be said: Woe to
him that heapeth together that which is not his own? how
long also doth he load himself with thick clay?
Thick clay... Ill-gotten goods, that, like mire, both
burden and defile the soul.
2:7. Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee:
and they be stirred up that shall tear thee, and thou shalt
be a spoil to them?
2:8. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all that shall
be left of the people shall spoil thee: because of men's
blood, and for the iniquity of the land, of the city, and
of all that dwell therein.
2:9. Woe to him that gathereth together an evil covetousness
to his house, that his nest may be on high, and thinketh he
may be delivered out of the hand of evil.
2:10. Thou hast devised confusion to thy house, thou hast
cut off many people, and thy soul hath sinned.
2:11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall: and the
timber that is between the joints of the building, shall
answer.
2:12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and
prepareth a city by iniquity.
2:13. Are not these things from the Lord of hosts? for the
people shall labour in a great fire: and the nations in
vain, and they shall faint.
Are not these things, etc... That is, shall not these
punishments that are here recorded, come from the Lord
upon him that is guilty of such crimes.-Ibid. The people
shall labour, etc... Viz., the enemies of God's people.
2:14. For the earth shall be filled, that men may know the
glory of the Lord, as waters covering the sea.
2:15. Woe to him that giveth drink to his friend, and
presenteth his gall, and maketh him drunk, that he may
behold his nakedness.
2:16. Thou art filled with shame instead of glory: drink
thou also, and fall fast asleep: the cup of the right hand
of the Lord shall compass thee, and shameful vomiting shall
be on thy glory.
2:17. For the iniquity of Libanus shall cover thee, and the
ravaging of beasts shall terrify them because of the blood
of men, and the iniquity of the land, and of the city, and
of all that dwell therein.
The iniquity of Libanus... That is, the iniquity committed
by the Chaldeans against the temple of God, signified here
by the name of Libanus.
2:18. What doth the graven thing avail, because the maker
thereof hath graven it, a molten, and a false image?
because the forger thereof hath trusted in a thing of his
own forging, to make dumb idols.
2:19. Woe to him that saith to wood: Awake: to the dumb
stone: Arise: can it teach? Behold, it is laid over with
gold, and silver, and there is no spirit in the bowels
thereof.
2:20. But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth
keep silence before him.
Habacuc Chapter 3
3:1. A PRAYER OF HABACUC THE PROPHET FOR IGNORANCES.
For ignorances... That is, for the sins of his people. In
the Hebrew, it is Sigionoth: which some take to signify a
musical instrument, or tune; with which this sublime
prayer and canticle was to be sung.
3:2. O Lord, I have heard thy hearing, and was afraid. O
Lord, thy work, in the midst of the years bring it to life:
In the midst of the years thou shalt make it known: when
thou art angry, thou wilt remember mercy.
Thy hearing, etc... That is, thy oracles, the great and
wonderful things thou hast revealed to me; and I was
struck with a reverential fear and awe.-Ibid. Thy work...
The great work of the redemption of man, which thou wilt
bring to life and light in the midst of the years, when
our calamities and miseries shall be at their height.
3:3. God will come from the south, and the holy one from
mount Pharan: His glory covered the heavens, and the earth
is full of his praise.
God will come from the south, etc... God himself will come
to give us his law, and to conduct us into the true land
of promise: as heretofore he came from the South (in the
Hebrew Theman) and from mount Pharan to give his law to
his people in the desert. See Deut. 33.2.
3:4. His brightness shall be as the light: horns are in his
hands: There is his strength hid:
Horns, etc... That is, strength and power, which, by a
Hebrew phrase, are called horns. Or beams of light, which
come forth from his hands. Or it may allude to the cross,
in the horns of which the hands of Christ were fastened,
where his strength was hidden, by which he overcame the
world, and drove out death and the devil.
3:5. Death shall go before his face. And the devil shall
go forth before his feet.
Death shall go before his face, etc... Both death and the
devil shall be the executioners of his justice against his
enemies: as they were heretofore against the Egyptians and
Chanaanites.
3:6. He stood and measured the earth. He beheld, and
melted the nations: and the ancient mountains were crushed
to pieces. The hills of the world were bowed down by the
journeys of his eternity.
He beheld, etc... One look of his eye is enough to melt
all the nations, and to reduce them to nothing. For all
heaven and earth disappear when they come before his
light. Apoc. 20.11. Ibid. The ancient mountains, etc...
By the mountains and hills are signified the great ones of
the world, that persecute the church, whose power was
quickly crushed by the Almighty.
3:7. I saw the tents of Ethiopia for their iniquity, the
curtains of the land of Madian shall be troubled.
Ethiopia... the land of the Blacks, and Madian, are here
taken for the enemies of God and his people: who shall
perish for their iniquity.
3:8. Wast thou angry, O Lord, with the rivers? or was thy
wrath upon the rivers? or thy indignation in the sea? Who
will ride upon thy horses: and thy chariots are salvation.
With the rivers, etc... He alludes to the wonders wrought
heretofore by the Lord in favour of his people Israel,
when the waters of the rivers, viz., of Arnon and Jordan,
and of the Red Sea, retired before their face: when he
came as it were with his horses and chariots to save them
when he took up his bow for their defence, in consequene
of the oath he had made to their tribes: when the
mountains trembled, and the deep stood with its waves
raised up in a heap, as with hands lifted up to heaven:
when the sun and the moon stood still at his command,
etc., to comply with his anger, not against the rivers and
sea, but against the enemies of his people. How much more
will he do in favour of his Son: and against the enemies
of his church?
3:9. Thou wilt surely take up thy bow: according to the
oaths which thou hast spoken to the tribes. Thou wilt
divide the rivers of the earth.
3:10. The mountains saw thee, and were grieved: the great
body of waters passed away. The deep put forth its voice:
the deep lifted up its hands.
3:11. The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation,
in the light of thy arrows, they shall go in the brightness
of thy glittering spear.
3:12. In thy anger thou wilt tread the earth under foot: in
thy wrath thou wilt astonish the nations.
3:13. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people:
for salvation with thy Christ. Thou struckest the head of
the house of the wicked: thou hast laid bare his foundation
even to the neck.
The head of the house of the wicked... Such was Pharao
heretofore: such shall Antichrist be hereafter.
3:14. Thou hast cursed his sceptres, the head of his
warriors, them that came out as a whirlwind to scatter me.
Their joy was like that of him that devoureth the poor man
in secret.
3:15. Thou madest a way in the sea for thy horses, in the
mud of many waters.
Thou madest a way in the sea, etc... To deliver thy people
from the Egyptian bondage: and thou shalt work the like
wonders in the spiritual way, to rescue the children of the
church from their enemies.
3:16. I have heard and my bowels were troubled: my lips
trembled at the voice. Let rottenness enter into my bones,
and swarm under me. That I may rest in the day of
tribulation: that I may go up to our people that are
girded.
I have heard, etc... Viz., the evils that are now coming
upon the Israelites for their sins; and that shall come
hereafter upon all impenitent sinners; and the foresight
that I have of these miseries makes me willing to die, that
I may be at rest, before this general tribulation comes, in
which all good things shall be withdrawn from the wicked.
Ibid. That I may go up to our people, etc... That I may join
the happy company in the bosom of Abraham, that are girded,
that is, prepared for their journey, by which they shall
attend their Lord, when he shall ascend into heaven. To
which high and happy place, my Jesus, that is, my Saviour,
the great conqueror of death and hell, shall one day conduct
me rejoicing and singing psalms of praise, ver. 18 and 19.
3:17. For the fig tree shall not blossom: and there shall
be no spring in the vines. The labour of the olive tree
shall fail: and the fields shall yield no food: the flock
shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd
in the stalls.
3:18. But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God
my Jesus.
3:19. The Lord God is my strength: and he will make my feet
like the feet of harts: and he the conqueror will lead me
upon my high places singing psalms.
The text in this file was taken with permission from Catholic Software's Douay Bible program, a complete multimedia Bible for the PC. The complete product description follows:
Douay Bible ME: A multimedia Bible. Text and footnotes are from the 1899 version of the Douay-Rheims Bible. Supports unlimited cut and paste as well as searches. It also has a concordance, topical index, and maps. These features make it powerful and easy to use. Music and color photography make it a visual and auditory feast. However, if your computer doesn't support multimedia, you can suppress these features at installation time. Available for DOS, Windows, or Windows 95. $85.00. Order from: Catholic Software, P.O. Box 1914, Murray, KY 42071. Phone: 1-502-753-8198.
