Commentary - Habakkuk 2:5-8

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Habakkuk, the prophet has received his answer from the Lord. God has put him on the watchtower and told him to write the vision down so plainly that a man on the run can read it (Hab. 2:2). And what is this vision? It is a tale of two souls: the proud man whose soul is not upright, and the just man who shall live by his faith (Hab. 2:4). Our text is the beginning of a series of five woes pronounced against the proud man, here embodied by the Chaldeans. This is not abstract moralizing; it is a divine taunt-song against a specific historical arrogance. The Lord is setting up a great reversal. Babylon, the great plunderer, is about to become the plundered. This passage reveals the self-destructive nature of godless ambition and sets the stage for the central theme of the book: God's justice will prevail, even if it comes through inscrutable means.

The structure here is a taunt, a riddle, a proverb from the mouths of the very nations Babylon has crushed. It is poetic justice in its purest form. The insatiable lust for more, likened to the grave and death itself, is the very thing that undoes the proud man. God's economy is one of sowing and reaping, and Babylon has been sowing the wind. They are about to reap the whirlwind. This is not just a lesson for ancient empires; it is a perennial truth about the nature of sin. Sin is a credit bubble, and the day of reckoning always comes.

Outline

Context In Habakkuk

Habakkuk's prophecy is a dialogue between a perplexed prophet and a sovereign God. The prophet first complains about the rampant injustice within Judah (Hab. 1:2-4). God answers that He is raising up the Chaldeans to judge His people (Hab. 1:5-11). This only deepens the prophet's confusion: how can a holy God use a nation more wicked than Judah to execute His justice (Hab. 1:12-2:1)? Chapter 2 is God's second reply. He assures Habakkuk that the proud will not endure, but the righteous will live by faith. Then, beginning in our passage, God unpacks the coming judgment on Babylon itself. This section, from verse 6 to verse 20, is a series of five woes, a funeral dirge sung in advance for the Chaldean empire. Our text contains the first of these woes, setting the pattern for the rest. It is a direct answer to Habakkuk's second complaint, showing that God's use of Babylon as His instrument of judgment does not in any way excuse Babylon's sin.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 5 And indeed, wine betrays the haughty man So that he does not stay at home.

The verse begins by identifying the character of the man who is under God's judgment. He is first betrayed by wine. This is not simply a tut-tutting about drunkenness. Wine here is a symbol for a whole way of life. It represents luxury, excess, and the kind of intoxicating arrogance that makes a man think he is a god. As Solomon says, "Wine is a mocker" (Prov. 20:1). It promises wisdom and power, but it delivers folly and ruin. This man is haughty, puffed up. And because of this intoxicating pride, he "does not stay at home." This is a man possessed by a restless ambition. He cannot be content with what is his. His home, his borders, his God-given station are all too small for him. He is a globalist in the worst sense, driven by a lust for what is not his.

v. 5b He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied.

The imagery here is stark and powerful. His desire, his appetite, is as wide as Sheol, the grave. The grave is never full; it always has room for one more. Death is never satisfied. This is the nature of fallen human desire when it is untethered from God. It is a black hole. No matter how much you feed it, it only grows larger and more demanding. This is the engine of empire, the fuel of tyranny. It is the covetousness that the apostle tells us is idolatry (Col. 3:5). This man, this nation, has made an idol of "more," and that idol is a demanding and bloody god.

v. 5c He also gathers to himself all nations And assembles to himself all peoples.

Here is the outworking of that insatiable appetite. It is not content with personal gluttony. It must manifest itself on the world stage. He gathers, he assembles, he heaps up nations and peoples as though they were cords of wood. People are not seen as image-bearers of God but as resources to be exploited, pawns in his great game. This is the pride of Babel, the ambition of every tyrant from Nimrod to Nebuchadnezzar to the present day. It is the attempt to build a man-centered unity in defiance of the God who scattered the nations in the first place.

v. 6 “Will not all of these lift up a taunt-song against him, Even satire and riddles against him

The question is rhetorical. Of course they will. The oppressed will have their day. The victims will get the last laugh. God is setting up a great reversal, and the soundtrack will be the mocking songs of those whom Babylon crushed. The word for taunt-song is mashal, which can mean a proverb or a parable. The satire and riddles suggest a biting, intelligent mockery. They have seen through the emperor's new clothes. They see the proud man for what he is: a fool on a collision course with reality. This is divine irony. The one who sought to be the subject of all epics will become the butt of all jokes.

v. 6b And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his, For how long, And makes himself rich with loans?’

Here begins the first woe. The charge is twofold. First, he "increases what is not his." This is theft on an international scale, plunder masquerading as foreign policy. The parenthetical question, "For how long," is pregnant with meaning. From the perspective of the oppressed, it is a cry of anguish. From the perspective of God, it is a ticking clock. The time is short. The second charge is that he "makes himself rich with loans." The Hebrew here is literally "lading himself with pledges." He is a predatory lender, but more than that, he is building his entire empire on leveraged debt. All his wealth is stolen goods, held in pledge. He thinks he is a creditor, but he is actually the ultimate debtor, and his great creditor is God Himself.

v. 7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, And those who make you tremble awaken? Indeed, you will become spoil for them.

The bubble always bursts. The creditors always come calling. The reversal will not be gradual; it will be sudden. The ones who were made to tremble will awaken and become the source of terror. The language is that of a surprise attack, an ambush. Babylon felt secure, fat, and happy. But their security was an illusion. The very people they held in debt will rise up and foreclose. The one who made a living taking spoil will become spoil himself. The hunter becomes the hunted. This is the fixed law of God's universe: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).

v. 8 Because you have taken many nations as spoil, All that is left of the peoples will take you as spoil,

This verse makes the principle of the previous one explicit. It is the lex talionis, the law of retaliation. The punishment fits the crime with a severe and poetic justice. Because you spoiled, you will be spoiled. The remnant, the very ones you thought you had wiped out or permanently subjugated, will be the instruments of your downfall. God loves to work with remnants. He loves to use the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). This is the gospel pattern in its judicial form.

v. 8b Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.

The reason for this judgment is now stated plainly. It is not just about economics or territory. At the root of it all is bloodshed and violence. The Chaldeans were guilty of crimes against humanity and crimes against creation. They shed innocent blood. They did violence to the land, to the city (likely referring to Jerusalem, but also to cities in general), and to all their inhabitants. God is the avenger of blood (Num. 35:19). He takes violence against His image-bearers and His world personally. The earth itself cries out against such wickedness (Gen. 4:10). Babylon's bill has come due, and the payment is their own blood.

Application

The principles laid out in this passage are not confined to the ancient Near East. The spirit of Babylon is with us still. Any nation, any institution, any individual who is betrayed by the wine of pride, who cannot stay at home, whose appetite for more is as insatiable as the grave, is on the same trajectory as the Chaldeans.

We must see that covetousness is not a small sin. It is the engine of empire and the root of bloodshed. Whether it is the corporate raider who destroys a company for personal gain, the state that expands its power by indebting its citizens and plundering its neighbors, or the individual who is eaten up with envy and restless ambition, the diagnosis is the same. It is a soul that is not upright, a soul that is not living by faith.

The application for the believer is to reject this entire way of being. We are called to live by faith, which means we are called to be content. We are called to stay at home, to mind our own business, to work with our hands, and to trust God for our provision (1 Thess. 4:11). The world says "increase what is not yours." The gospel says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). The world builds on debt and stolen goods. The Christian builds on the free grace of God in Christ.

And finally, we take comfort in the fact that God sees the violence and bloodshed in the world. He is not indifferent. The taunt-song will be sung against all the proud and arrogant of this world. The creditors will rise up suddenly. Justice will be done. And because Christ took the ultimate woe for us on the cross, we who live by faith will be on the right side of that final judgment, not as the spoiled, but as co-heirs with the Son.