Habakkuk 2:6-20--Woe to the Chaldeans

Habakkuk 2:6-20
English Standard Version

Woe to the Chaldeans
6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own--
    for how long?--
    and loads himself with pledges!”
7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
    and those awake who will make you tremble?
    Then you will be spoil for them.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
    all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who dwell in them.

9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
    to set his nest on high,
    to be safe from the reach of harm!
10 You have devised shame for your house
    by cutting off many peoples;
    you have forfeited your life.
11 For the stone will cry out from the wall,
    and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood
    and founds a city on iniquity!
13 Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts
    that peoples labor merely for fire,
    and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled
    with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
    as the waters cover the sea.

15 “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink--
    you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
    in order to gaze at their nakedness!
16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
    Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the LORD's right hand
    will come around to you,
    and utter shame will come upon your glory!
17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
    as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who dwell in them.

18 “What profit is an idol
    when its maker has shaped it,
    a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
    when he makes speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
    to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
    and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth keep silence before him.”

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Habakkuk has been upset by the fact that the LORD is using the wicked Chaldeans to punish the people of Judah.  The question lurking for Habakkuk and probably for us too is "Will the LORD let the Chaldeans go unpunished?"  The LORD answers that question in today's passage where He lays out what is going to happen to them because of the atrocities that have committed and are going to commit.  Just because they are supposed to take the people of Judah captive and into exile does not mean that they needed to abuse and mistreat them.

They stole possessions that did not belong to them, even taking the holy items from the LORD's sanctuary, but this will not keep them safe as those who owe them money will rise up together because they will covert the treasures that the Chaldeans have acquired from far-away lands and will try to take them by force, even though they have no right to them.  The plunderers will be plundered.

The Chaldeans think they are safe and secure like a bird that makes its nest on top of a rocky spire that no animal can climb.  However, the LORD can still reach them and will bring destruction to their entire households.  Their cities are stained with the shedding of innocent blood and all kinds of iniquity, so the LORD will destroy them.

They forced their neighbors to become intoxicated so they could have nonconsensual sex with them.  This is a form of rape that still exists today and it was just as detestable then as it is now.  Those who take advantage of the innocent for perverse sexual pleasure are condemned by the LORD and will face His wrath.  They will feel the same kind of wrath and fury that they poured out on others, but this will come from the hand of the LORD.

Last, but not least, they will be destroyed because they worship and put their trust in idols.  In a sense, this is their way of worshiping themselves as they fashioned the idol so that makes them superior.  The LORD says all those who worship idols of metal, wood, and stone will come to realize their idols are dead, but He is the Living God and He is in His Holy Temple (in heaven, just because they destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem did not destroy the LORD) and all people will keep silent before Him as He sits in judgment over them.