THE PROPHECY OF HABACUC

         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.

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