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Summary

Habakkuk 2:1–5 – Watch, write, wait

What happens: Habakkuk takes his stand to watch for God’s reply. God tells him to write the vision plainly. The fulfillment may seem slow, but it comes. The proud person falls, but the righteous lives by faith. Arrogant desire and drunkenness lead to ruin.

What it means: God’s word is sure and public truth. Waiting is part of faith. “The righteous lives by faith” shows the way of trustful loyalty to God’s promises. God is faithful; human pride is unstable and devours itself.

Habakkuk 2:6–8 – Woe to the plunderer

What happens: A taunt song begins: woe to the one who piles up stolen goods. Those he robbed will rise and plunder him.

What it means: God’s justice fits the crime. Violence boomerangs. This affirms God’s moral order in history and warns against greed and exploitation.

Habakkuk 2:9–11 – Woe to unjust gain

What happens: Woe to the one who seeks security by evil profit and sets his nest high. The very stones and beams cry out against him.

What it means: Hidden sin still speaks. God hears the testimony of wrongs built into structures. He is just, and ill-gotten safety collapses.

Habakkuk 2:12–14 – Woe to blood-built empires

What happens: Woe to the one who builds a city with blood. Human toil for such vanity burns up. Yet the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD.

What it means: God overturns violent projects and replaces them with His lasting glory. History’s end is God-centered, not empire-centered. Hope rests in God’s promise.

Habakkuk 2:15–17 – Woe to shame and violence

What happens: Woe to the one who shames neighbors with drink to gaze at their nakedness. The cup of the LORD’s wrath returns to the shamer. Violence against Lebanon and its creatures will be repaid.

What it means: God defends dignity and creation. Abuse, sexual shame, and environmental violence provoke divine judgment. Holiness includes how we treat people and the world God made.

Habakkuk 2:18–20 – Woe to idols; the LORD reigns

What happens: Idols are mute and lifeless. The LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.

What it means: True worship centers on the living God, not human-made gods. Silence before God is humble trust and awe. God’s holiness calls the world to reverence.

Application

  • Write and hold to God’s promises; wait in faith when fulfillment seems slow.
  • Reject greed, humiliation of others, and any gain that harms people or creation.
  • Practice reverent silence before God, choosing worship over idols of power, wealth, or self.

Bible

1I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

2And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

3For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

4Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

5Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

6Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!

7Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?

8Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

9Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

10Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.

11For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

12Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!

13Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?

14For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

15Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

16Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.

17For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

18What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

19Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

20But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

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