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Hab.1:1. The vision of Habakkuk the prophet. Vision here refers to the perception of a vision or the acceptance of foreknowledge that someone received from the giving God, for He, according to what is written, “multiplied visions and spoke to the prophets” (Hos. 12:10), foretelling to them the future through the Holy Spirit and presenting it as if it were present and taking place before their eyes. And that he (Habakkuk) had no intention of saying anything from his heart, on the contrary, he intends to convey to us the words of God - he clearly convinces us of this in advance, calling himself a prophet and showing himself to be filled with the grace necessary for this. Hab.1:2. How long, Lord, will I call and you will not hear? I will offend you when I cry to you, and will you not deliver? The prophet contemplates the face of one who is oppressed and suffering insult and mockery from those who are accustomed to do injustice, and very skillfully testifies to the ineffable love for mankind inherent in God, for he portrays Him as very long-suffering, although he hates the wicked. And that He does not immediately punish those who sin, He clearly showed, saying that His silence and long-suffering reach such a point that a cry to Him is finally needed, so that some do not commit unbearable oppression on others and do not unhinderedly inflict offense on the weakest. And by the fact that he seems to reproach the long-suffering God, he testifies to His immeasurable love for mankind: “How long,” he says, “will I cry, and you will not hear? When we cry to you, we will offend you, and you will not deliver?” ; although He threatens very many and severe punishments for those who want to break the law. Hab.1:3. What kind of labor and illness did you show me, look at passion and wickedness? From this you can see that the saints hate evil, for they call the sufferings of others their own. Therefore, the wise Paul says: “Who is faint, and does not faint? Who is tempted, and I am not relieved?” (2 Cor. 11:29); and he commanded us ourselves to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15), showing that compassion and mutual love are most becoming of saints. He says that God “showed” him “works and illnesses” (obviously, the wickedness of transgressors of the law, accustomed to doing unrighteously) not by causing him suffering himself, but by being patient with those who committed evil; or by the fact that he did not save him from life, although he could, so as not to be a spectator of truly terrible deeds. Saints, in the midst of such severe spiritual sorrows, usually want to get rid of life, as for example, blessed Jonah says: and now, Lord, take my soul from me, because “I would rather die than live” (Jon. 4:9). And the wise Paul writes that it is better to “be determined to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). And truly, for those who want to live a holy life, liberation from the affairs taking place in the world and deliverance from the terrible worries here is precisely the postponement of sorrows. Hab.1:3–4. There will be a trial against me, and the judge will seize me. For this reason the law is ruined, and judgment is not carried out: for the wicked will wrong the righteous, for this reason judgment will come forth corrupted. That in his own life there is nothing conducive to sorrow, but that he becomes despondent, as a saint and lover of truth, at the sight of people who neglect the divine commandment, and, moreover, not just any ordinary people, but glorified with the highest honors, leaders of the people and endowed with the dignity of judges, this is clearly shown by saying that righteous sentences (courts) have ceased, although the law clearly commands: they did not accept persons in court, “for the judgment of God is” ( Deut.1:17). So, the execution of a trial is a great matter, and an incorruptible judge, who does not allow the verdict to be perverted over a righteous person, becomes a wise imitator of divine height and glory; and a judge who accepts gifts is an insulter to God and an opponent of the very Divine virtues, because he disfigures the beauty of the truth and is concerned about perverting the truth, saying “the evil is good, and the good is evil,” and wickedly considering darkness as light and light as darkness (Is. 5:20). So, the prophet shows how with the violation of this one most excellent and most glorious commandment, the whole law was immediately trampled upon; for he who has violated the highest of duties, how can he refrain from violating the lesser? The Prophet made himself a witness and spectator of oppression. Since, he says, the just court is neglected, the law loses its force, and the justice of the courts is not carried out to please You, Master, and “the wicked will wrong the righteous.” For the same crime, God reproaches the Jewish host through the mouths of other prophets, for he says that “their elders gave judgment” (Mic. 3:11) and again says to him through the mouth of Isaiah: “Your money is untested, your innkeepers mix wine with water. Your princes do not repent, they are common to you, loving gifts, persecuting recompense, not judging the orphans and not heeding the judgment of widows” (Is. 1:22-23). It seems that the prophet Habakkuk now wants to do what is indicated in the book of Proverbs: “What Your eyes have seen, they have spoken” (Proverbs 25:8). He explains and shows, finally, the basis of the unspeakable meekness characteristic of God, long-suffering as much as is fitting for Him, for God is good; however, from the point of view of the human mind, His long-suffering extends even beyond any measure. And “judgment was carried out on Christ, the law was corrupted, and the law was destroyed.” Who should have been revered as God, and therefore as a miracle worker, the Jewish leaders incessantly slandered Him and strained all their strength to slander Him. There was nothing indecent that they did not dare to say against Him. They either thought that He was casting out demons with Beelzebub, or they called Him a wine drinker and demon-possessed. Then: He should have been called the Savior and Redeemer of all, but they, pitiful ones, wickedly killed Him, pronouncing an unrighteous sentence on him, although the law clearly commands: “If she is innocent and righteous, let her not kill” (Ex. 23:7). Christ also accused them because they did not want to think about truth and holiness, but were silent and, as it were, closed their mental eyes to what Moses was talking about. Once, repealing the Sabbath law, when they attacked Him, and very severely, because He was doing something befitting God on the Sabbath, He said this: “He has done one thing, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses gave you circumcision, not as it is from Moses, but from the father: and on the Sabbath ye circumcise a man. If a person accepts circumcision on the Sabbath, lest the law of Moses be destroyed: are you angry with me, because I made all man healthy on the Sabbath? Do not judge personally, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:21-24). Hab.1:5. You see, you who are contemptuous, and look, and wonder at the miracle, and disappear: for the work I do in your days, you will not believe it, even if someone confesses it to you. When the prophet cried out against the cruelty of the lawbreakers and, as it were, blamed (God) for the length of his long-suffering attitude towards them (for a righteous and virtue-loving soul hates evil), then God of all finally appeals to the despisers of the law, commanding them to see, consider and admire what deserves surprise. And these were disasters, as if hanging over their heads and irresistibly approaching with terrible force and terrible swiftness, about which he ordered to warn them for their benefit - disasters capable of destroying those on whom they fall - amazing because they are unexpected and unexpected, and unbearable, and with their excessive force they are capable of striking and, perhaps, even arousing mistrust. And indeed, when any great disasters approach, distrust of them usually appears, especially if these disasters threaten people who hoped never to be subjected to them. Who would have ever thought that beloved Israel, the firstborn among the children, for whose sake Egypt perished, countless nations of Canaanites and Essenes and Amorites and Perizzites and Jebusites fell, would come to such a calamity that he would leave his entire country and be subjected to an inglorious and painful slavery, wandering in a foreign country after military disasters, for the depiction of which, if anyone wanted to do this, it was not enough no word? – there were fires, murders of husbands, captivity of women, beating of infants to the ground and, as the prophet Jeremiah says, “the hands of merciful women brought down their children” (Pl. 4:10); the most sacred places were devastated, and the victors left not a single possible evil uncommitted. So, they seem incredible and the story about them is implausible due to the extreme cruelty of the perpetrators. Therefore, he says, in their days I will do a deed that they would not believe if anyone told them about it. By saying: “in your days,” he makes it clear that not much time remains before these events, but that war is, as it were, at the door, close and in the neighborhood, and punishment is not far away. Hab.1:6. Zane, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and greyhound tongue that walks across the latitudes of the earth, whose villages are not theirs to inherit. What is incredible if the narrator immediately explained it? For he threatened to bring the Babylonians against them - a warlike and very savage tribe, in cruelty in no way inferior to wild beasts and subject to censure for their unbridled fury. He called them greyhound (fast) people because they are almost all horsemen, and also “bitter” and angry, very heavy, not without knowledge of the art of war and very experienced in military tricks. And physical strength, combined with prudence in relation to military needs, I think, can carry out the intentions of the attackers and easily overcome those who decide to resist them. Since the Babylonians did not have the custom of constantly staying at home and, defending themselves, repelling the attacks of their enemies, but they preferred to spread, as it were, throughout the whole earth and devastate the countries of others, and turned into their property something that was not at all appropriate for them, therefore he rightly says: “the tongue that walks across the latitudes of the earth is not its own to inherit the villages.” They loved, as I said, to attack the countries of others and constantly spread their dominion. Something similar happened to the Jews who killed the Lord. Although they could live freely in their land, because no one oppressed them; but they are delivered into the hands of their conquerors, they pay taxes and taxes and are under the rule of those who are constantly spreading and conquering all under heaven. Renouncing the kingdom of Christ, they directly said: “not the imams of the king except Caesar” (John 19:15). You need to know that if the human soul puts divine laws into nothing; then he will find himself under the rule of cruel tyrants - unclean demons, and will serve the evil forces, constantly thirsting to “inherit a village that is not their own.” Man belongs to God; therefore He dwells in the saints and makes His home in the souls of the righteous. Hab.1:7. He is terrible and revealed; from him his judgment will come, and his capture will come from him. The speech turns to the leader of the people, that is, to the tyrant of Babylon, perhaps to Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered Judea and, having set the most divine church on fire, took Judah to his country as a captive. So, he calls him terrible because of his ferocity and indomitability in anger, unbridledness in thoughts and harshness in revenge. “Revealed” calls him as ambitious and vain, and an insatiable lover of glory, for the kings of Babylon were always arrogant and very glory-loving. Since in every business and enterprise they were guided by their own arbitrariness, demanding from their subordinates simply the fulfillment of their commands, he therefore says: “His judgment will come from him,” that is, he acts on self-willed motives and, due to excessive arrogance, does not tolerate the opinions of others, even if he demands something impossible; for the plans of the Persians are arrogant. But since they had the custom of making fortune-telling before battles and, with the help of the art of magicians, tried to find out how the enterprise would end, he again says: “and the taking of it will come from him.” Divination is called taking. For those skilled in divination, he says, he will not send to other nations or to other countries; on the contrary, he will always have among those living with him those who tell lies and do not know anything true, but always only incite him and usually herald his victory. The Babylonian state was very famous for this. That is why Balak, the king of Moab, when he wanted to curse the Israelites and tried to find out the future, called Balaam from Mesopotamia. He thought that the Magi of Babylon were skillful and insightful and, being very powerful with the help of their magical art, could do anything. But, if you like, we can accept a different meaning of the passage being explained. Having depicted the Babylonian tyrant, saying that he was terrible and famous, he immediately added that “from him his judgment will come and his capture will come from him.” It can be understood this way. The God of all determined to punish Israel, who led a shameful and unclean life. Therefore, this expression means: judgment will be on him from the Babylonian himself; he seems to be saying this: he will be an instrument of my wrath and through him I will punish you. A prediction about you means: whatever decision and determination I make, “will come from him”, that is, will be carried out; for he will bring into execution what comes from my will and discretion. Hab.1:8. And his horses will ride faster than lynxes and faster than the wolves of Arabia: and his cavalry will ride, and rush from afar, and fly like an eagle ready to poison. Again he amazes them with the extremeness of the terrible events and tries to show that the multitude of enemies is strong and invincible; encourages them to repentance and to the knowledge of what they should do. And that the Babylonians were very fast in running, very bold and daring and did not differ at all from wild animals, and rushed very quickly towards possible prey - this is again indicated by likening their horses to leopards. The leopard makes very fast jumps and can attack prey very easily. He also likens them to the Arabian wolves, of which they say that they surpass all others in their ferocity and with great swiftness attack what they want to catch. And not only, he says, are they similar to wolves, but also to eagles, immediately rushing and flocking to dead bodies, as I said. And the minds of the Jews became very susceptible, and their hearts, to weak and compliant carnal passions, and to the unclean spirits themselves, and, moreover, to the very powerful attacks of the Romans. They angered the One who says: “And I will be to him, says the Lord, a wall of fire all around, and I will be in the midst of him for glory” (Zechariah 2:5). Let us embrace, I think, and without difficulty overcome any mind that is deprived of reinforcement from above, for all our strength and firmness is from God: “In Him we will create strength: and He will also humble those who afflict us” (Ps. 59:14), according to what is written. Hab.1:9. The end of the wicked will come to those who resist their faces. This is the end of predictions and this is the conclusion of disasters. The Chaldeans will come, he says, and will be such, and will do this, and add other things to this, and the consequence of all this will be that those who led an ungodly life will perish to the ground and with their entire house, and along with the cities and villages themselves, because God will in no way have mercy on them and will give up to desolation those who wickedly rebelled against His commands and, as it were, directly going against Him, and openly opposing and clearly opposing the will of God with their own will. The Jewish synagogue also perished, hostile to Christ and rebelling against the Lord’s dogmas (and this is open), and shamelessly exalting Him, and doing and saying, so to speak, everything most shameful, and nailing Him Himself to the cross, and slandering His resurrection. After all, they not only killed the Savior and Redeemer of all, but also, when Christ was resurrected, Pilate’s soldiers were given money so that they could say that He never rose again, but that, on the contrary, His disciples secretly stole Him. Hab.1:9–10. And he will gather captives like sand, and he will laugh at the kings, and his tormenting games, and he will mock at every stronghold, and he will lay a rampart, and he will prevail over it. Despite the fact that the holy prophets comprehensively foreshadowed the coming disasters for the Jewish people and, as it were, constantly told them about these disasters, he reached such folly and such wicked thoughts that he was inflamed with insolence and, arrogantly raising his eyebrow, he dreamed that he would very easily overcome his enemies with his own numbers, then he thought that by calling on the neighboring kingdoms to help him, he could easily force his enemies to give him victory. Disregarding their fatherly customs and relying on the help of the Egyptians, Syrians, and Tyrians, they had a firm hope for unshakable prosperity and continued to live in delicacy and carelessness. Therefore, he again explains to them that such dreams of theirs were very vain and that the outcome of events will be completely different. A Babylonian will come, he says, and even if he finds the people of Israel equal to sand, he will return home with the inhabitants of Judah as prisoners of war. And at least the Jewish people had countless and powerful allies; but he will easily overcome them. “He will laugh at kings, and his tormenting game”; for he took Jeconiah and many other leaders of the countries bound to Babylon, who became objects of amusement for their conquerors. And over cities and even the most powerful, he discovered such power that taking each of them would seem like fun to him. Will carry out the construction of embankments; This is exactly how Alexander took Tire, although it jutted out far from solid land into the sea, like an island. And Satan took captive Israel, who disobeyed Christ, and all the leaders (of Israel) and those who were magnified with the glory of the priesthood became objects of amusement for him, whom, I think, it is not indecent to call tyrants because they ruled over the people and enjoyed great glory and power over them. But they would not have become an object of amusement for the devil’s cruelty if they had followed the commandments of the Savior and kept faith and sanctification by the Spirit; The Savior of all, who puts every enemy under his feet, would say to them: “Behold, I give you power to tread on the serpent, and on the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). Hab.1:11. Then he will change his spirit and go away and pray. That the people of Israel will not completely perish and will not be despised forever, but that a time of prosperity and deliverance from grave disaster will come for them after their return to their native country and after they have overthrown the yoke of slavery - this is meant by saying that a change of spirit will take place in the Lord of all, that is, a change of intentions and determinations. We do not want to say that He will condemn His decree that has already been accomplished over us as not entirely fair; but precisely that He, having demanded sufficient satisfaction from them and subjected them to punishment according to their sins, will bow to mercy, leave His anger and be merciful to those who suffered. This, I think, is what the word means: “to pray.” Hab.1:11–12. This is a fortress to my God. Do you carry it from time immemorial, O Lord God, my holy one? and we will not die. When God announced that he would have mercy on them and predicted a change in their sorrowful situation for the better; then the prophet seems to be jumping with excessive joy, saying that it is impossible for anyone else to return Israel, to free him from bonds and slavery and to have mercy on the broken one, except You, the only God, who can do everything without hindrance, who equalizes inequalities, who, as it were, spreads out the heights and steepness of the valley, who can fulfill everything that is said by every saint, and will not fail in anything. Then the prophet says: “Have you carried it from time immemorial, O Lord God, my holy one? and we will not die." If, he says, Israel was deceived and led astray and into strange idolatries, yet You, God of all, as a saint, had mercy on those who sinned and preserved, and did not allow Israel to complete destruction. So, the hope is not far away that if you take pity and command, he will be saved and the disasters will disappear. And the saints, knowing about the salvation of Israel in the last times, rejoiced, made prayers and offered thanksgiving voices and songs. Therefore, blessed David, foreknowing in spirit the future mercy towards them and as if seeing them delivered from the bonds of captivity, sings and says: “Thou hast pleased the Lord with thy land” and further (Ps. 84). Hab.1:12–13. Lord, you brought him to judgment, and created me to expose his punishment. A pure eye cannot see evil and look upon painful labors. Again the prophet's speech. But what he is talking about in the words: judgment brought by God is not very clear. Therefore, we need to carefully understand the meaning of what was said and explain it. If it is said about the king of Babylon that he was appointed to judgment by God, then we affirm that he was appointed to carry out the judgment determined from above on the Israelites, that is, devastation, captivity, burning of cities, in a word, the ruin of Judea. If this is not so, and we attribute the meaning of this passage to the person of Israel, then again we will say that he, too, was brought to judgment by God. By judgment we mean condemnation. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ nowhere said about the Jews: “I came to judgment in this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind” (John 9:39). So, Israel is condemned for having acted wrongly, disregarding the laws and having offended the Lord of all beyond measure. He says that he “created” or made me, that is, the prophet, and prepared to “convict the punishment” that he determined for them; for war was a punishment and a scourge to Israel, and what happened to them was a means of punishing them, and not simply the work of the Babylonians. If, he says, someone asks and says: why is the Babylonian chosen as an instrument of punishment, and Israel is sentenced to condemnation and suffering? - let the questioner listen to the answer. Since the eye of the Lord is pure and He cannot be a spectator of unclean and lawless deeds, and cannot look at the suffering of the weakest, resulting from untruths and their oppression, He turns His eye away from those who have acquired the habit of doing so. When this happens, disasters will certainly happen and the one who has incurred God’s disgust will be subjected to extreme suffering. Knowing this, the divine David begged: “Do not turn your face away from me, and do not turn away in anger from your servant” (Ps. 26:9); and God's disgust is necessarily accompanied by the consequences of (divine) wrath. Hab.1:13–14. How much do you despise the disdainful? keep silent when the wicked devours the righteous? And thou shalt make men like fish of the sea, and like creeping things that have no elders. Having proclaimed that the eye of the Divine is pure and cannot see those who commit evil, and look favorably on those who decide to oppress the weakest and cause them suffering, the prophet after this seems to be carried away by such reflections. Innumerable disasters and very serious suffering were inflicted on the Jewish people by the cruel army of the Babylonians, who stretched the excess of their unbridledness to such a degree of force and extremes that they did not stop even at the most sacred places and burned the sacred temple in Jerusalem, and together with the common people, they carried away into captivity the priests at the divine altars and desecrated the holy, according to what is written. Having returned home, they spent a cheerful life, taking advantage of the looted wealth, without being punished for their wicked deeds, without fear of enemies and without fear of war; on the contrary, they themselves rebelled against everyone and easily conquered whomever they wanted and enjoyed great prosperity, magnified by the misfortunes of the dead - immoderation in anger, unbridled oppression and dominance over everyone they considered a special honor. Therefore, the prophet, seeing their insensitive exaltation, was amazed and touches the most divine judgments, and tries to understand and comprehend what is inaccessible to anyone and incomprehensible to any mind. He tries to understand what is the meaning of such great long-suffering of the Almighty God, that He looks with a condescending and meek gaze at those who are accustomed to treating everything with contempt and leading an ungodly life, and is silent and inactive when an ungodly person seems to devour the pious and righteous. And since, he says, punishment does not immediately befall sinners, on the contrary, the wrath (of God) is diverted from them, the inhabitants of the earth have come to the point that they began to attack each other and, like fish, devour the weakest, and swallow each other with an incontinent and insatiable mouth - they lead such a rough and unsociable life as the life of reptiles in the mountains, and differ little from those who, due to great savagery and extreme ferocity, indomitable and do not imitate the properties of other animals, grazing in crowds and under the leadership of one leader of the herd and being, as it were, an army controlled by a military leader. But the Babylonians were unsociable and inaccessible to others, cruel, full of poison and destruction, and greedily devoured the weakest. It is not incredible that the words of the prophet are apparently directed against the devil and the evil forces that are with him. These truly despisers, who completely reject the fear of God, are very unclean and reach extreme cruelty, while God is very long-suffering. As soon as we fell under their dominion, we, unfortunate ones, began to devour each other; for then there was no mediator of peace, our leader, that is, Christ, Ruler of earth and heaven and all things. Therefore, we have become like fish: most dumb and completely voiceless; we had neither a word of piety nor a voice of praise to God; on the contrary, we killed each other, led the most unreasonable lives and lived in the world like fish. Each of them had such a coarse mind that, apparently, it had already gone completely wild and, as far as irritability and cruelty were concerned, it was either equal in this to poisonous animals, or even sought to surpass them in this. Hab.1:15–17. Delight him with his harvest and attract him with his nets and gather him with his nets: for this reason his heart will rejoice and rejoice: for this reason he will devour his flesh and cast his net, as with these he will indulge his portion and his chosen food. For this reason, he will stretch his boundaries and never spare the beating of tongues. Having mentioned fish, he continues to adhere to a figurative image of speech and speaks as if about one of the sailors and fishermen. Fishermen carry out their activities in many ways. They catch fish either with fishing rods and pull the trembling fish out of the water with hair cords (lines), surrounding them with nets, extract them in abundance, or do it with other snares. When they make a successful catch, then, having gathered in large numbers, they rejoice at their art and, as it were, make a sacrifice to the nets, as if they had brought them the richest prey. Something similar, says the prophet, was done by Nebuchadnezzar, who, as if with hooks and nets and seines, having caught Israel itself and other nations with it, carried them into his land and, as if offering his armor-bearers a dinner party, commanded them to indulge in pleasures, and the captives to be the richest part and prey of the victors. That is why, perhaps, he says: “he will serve his enemies,” his own troops, through which he captured the nations and overthrew that Israel, giving thanks. Since all this, he says, happened very successfully for him, then, he says, he will not stop killing peoples, taking tribes captive, subjugating countries and showing absolutely no mercy to anyone. Satan did exactly the same thing with the entire human race and, in particular, with Israel: as if with one snare and one net, the net of sin, I say, he surrounded everyone - and for the sake of lawlessness against Christ, and, especially, Israel; for he calls them “his chosen food.” The Jews are more pleasant (for him) in their lives than all others; for “when,” he says, “you divided the high tongues, as if the sons of Adam were scattered, you set the borders of the tongues according to the number of the angels of God. And Jacob became the portion of the Lord, his people: now his inheritance is Israel” (Deut. 32:8-9). So, Israel was chosen more than others, as the firstborn among children, as having come from the holy root, the root of the fathers, I say, as having the law as its guide and called to the knowledge of the one and truly existing God. But even having this advantage of glory and grace, he, along with others, fell into captivity; some because they got lost and became part of the devil; others because, having come to know the real God, who was born of Him according to the nature of the Son and who became in human image and likeness the same as we are, they wickedly put to death - they were betrayed into his snare; and his goal is to completely destroy everyone living on earth. You might be interested in: