Habacuque 2

ARC · Chapter 2/3

1Sobre a minha guarda estarei, e sobre a fortaleza me apresentarei e vigiarei, para vêr o que fallaria em mim, e o que eu responderei, quando eu fôr arguido.

2Então o Senhor me respondeu, e disse: Escreve a visão, e declara-a em taboas, para que n'ellas leia o que correndo passa.

3Porque a visão ainda está para o tempo determinado, pois até ao fim fallará, e não mentirá: se tardar, espera-o, porque certamente virá, nem tardará.

4Eis que de preguiça se retira, não é recta n'elle; mas o justo pela sua fé viverá.

5Quanto mais se é dado ao vinho mais desleal se é; aquelle homem soberbo, que alarga como o sepulchro a sua alma, não permanecerá e é como a morte que não se farta, e ajunta a si todas as nações, e congrega a si todos os povos.

6Não levantariam pois todos estes contra elle uma parabola e dito agudo com enigmas para elle? e se dirá: Ai d'aquelle que multiplica o que não é seu! (até quando!) e d'aquelle que carrega sobre si divida!

7Porventura não se levantarão de repente os que te morderão? e não despertarão os que te abalarão? e não lhes servirás tu de despojo

8Porquanto despojaste a muitas nações, todos os mais povos te despojarão a ti, por causa do sangue dos homens, e da violencia ácerca da terra da cidade, e de todos os que habitam n'ella.

9Ai d'aquelle que ajunta bens para a sua casa, por uma avareza criminosa, para que ponha o seu ninho no alto, a fim de se livrar da mão do mal!

10Vergonha maquinaste para a tua casa; destruindo tu a muitos povos, peccaste contra a tua alma.

11Porque a pedra clamará da parede, e a trave lhe responderá do madeiramento.

12Ai d'aquelle que edifica a cidade com sangue, e que funda a cidade com iniquidade!

13Eis que porventura não vem do Senhor dos Exercitos que os povos trabalham pelo fogo e os homens se cançam em vão?

14Porque a terra sera cheia do conhecimento da gloria do Senhor, como as aguas cobrem o mar.

15Ai d'aquelle que dá de beber ao seu companheiro! tu, que lhe chegas o teu odre, e o embebedas, para vêr a sua nudez!

16Tambem tu serás farto de ignominia em logar de honra: bebe tu tambem, e descobre o prepucio: o calix da mão direita do Senhor voltará a ti, e vomito ignominioso cairá sobre a tua gloria.

17Porque a violencia commettida contra o Libano te cobrirá, e a destruição das bestas os assombrará, por causa do sangue dos homens, e da violencia feita á terra, á cidade, e a todos os moradores.

18Que aproveitará a imagem de esculptura, depois de que a esculpiu o seu artifice? ou a imagem de fundição, que ensina a mentira, para que o artifice confie na obra, fazendo idolos mudos?

19Ai d'aquelle que diz ao pau: Acorda; e á pedra muda: Desperta: porventura ensinará? eis que está coberto de oiro e de prata, mas no meio d'elle não ha espirito algum.

20Porém o Senhor está no seu sancto templo: cale-se diante d'elle toda a terra.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Habakkuk waits for God's answer and receives instructions to write the vision clearly, along with five 'woes' of judgment against the arrogance, greed, and violence of the Babylonians; the just, however, will live by faith.

Explanation

Habakkuk's posture of 'standing watch' while waiting for an answer is a model of active patience in the face of uncertainty. God's response includes one of the most influential statements in the entire Bible: 'the just shall live by his faith,' affirming that continual faithfulness and trust in God — not immediate success or full understanding of circumstances — is what sustains the life of the faithful. The series of five 'woes' (pronouncements of judgment) against Babylonian arrogance — accumulating unjust wealth, building cities with blood, making one's neighbor drunk, worshiping mute idols — shows that power gained through violence and exploitation is on borrowed time. The application today: even without fully understanding God's plans, it is possible to live with integrity and confidence based on divine faithfulness, not on visible circumstances.

Fun facts

  • Habakkuk 2:4 ('the just shall live by his faith') is quoted three times in the New Testament (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38), making it one of the most theologically influential verses in the entire Old Testament, central to the doctrine of justification by faith.
  • The final phrase of the chapter, 'the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him' (v. 20), is still used today in Christian liturgies as a call to reverent silence before prayer or worship.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Habacuque 2:1Habakkuk compares himself to a watchman standing on a tower, waiting for God's answer — the image of someone who waits attentively, not of someone who gives up on the question.
  2. Habacuque 2:2Telling him to write the vision “upon tables” in a way that “he may run” who reads it suggests a public notice, made to be read quickly, perhaps on a sign at the streets or gates of the city.
  3. Habacuque 2:3God assures him that the answer, even if delayed, will happen at the right time — an invitation to wait patiently instead of giving up on faith.
  4. Habacuque 2:4“The just shall live by his faith” is the book's most famous verse — quoted three times in the New Testament (Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews) as the basis for explaining that our relationship with God depends on trust, not on our own merit.
  5. Habacuque 2:5The description of the proud, insatiable man, who gathers nations the way someone gathers drink, sets up the list of “woes” that comes next against this kind of limitless ambition.
  6. Habacuque 2:6This is the first of five “woes” (warnings of disaster) the chapter launches against the oppressor — here against those who grow rich by taking what isn't theirs, a direct accusation against Babylon's practice of conquest.
  7. Habacuque 2:7The question is rhetorical: whoever oppresses so many people will one day face those who rise up against him — the very peoples he plundered will turn the tables.
  8. Habacuque 2:8The law of reciprocity appears clearly: whoever has plundered many nations will also be plundered, paid back in the same coin of the violence he spread.
  9. Habacuque 2:9This is the second “woe”: against those who enrich their own house with dirty money, thinking that building high will save them from danger.
  10. Habacuque 2:10Planning destruction against so many peoples brings no security at all to the one who does it — in fact it's a sin that turns back against his own life.
  11. Habacuque 2:11Even the stones and beams of a building raised with blood will “cry out” as witnesses against whoever built it — nothing stays hidden.
  12. Habacuque 2:12Third “woe”: against those who build cities using blood and injustice as their basic building material, a common practice among the conquering empires of the time.
  13. Habacuque 2:13God reveals that all this effort of war and violent building will come to nothing: peoples wear themselves out working only to feed the fire that will destroy them.
  14. Habacuque 2:14In the middle of the “woes” comes a huge promise: one day the knowledge of God's glory will cover the whole earth, the way water covers the depths of the sea.
  15. Habacuque 2:15Fourth “woe”: against those who get their neighbor drunk just to expose his shame — an image of humiliation used as a weapon between neighboring nations.
  16. Habacuque 2:16The same humiliation Babylon inflicted on others will come back on her: she will drink from the cup of God's judgment and go through the same shame she caused.
  17. Habacuque 2:17The violence against Lebanon — its forests and animals, used without mercy for building and war — will also demand its price from whoever committed it.
  18. Habacuque 2:18Before the last “woe,” the prophet mocks idols: why trust a statue that its own maker carved, one that says nothing true at all?
  19. Habacuque 2:19Fifth and final “woe”: against those who ask a piece of wood or stone to “awake,” as if an idol covered in gold could have any spirit of life inside it.
  20. Habacuque 2:20“But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him” closes the chapter with a contrast: the mute idols mentioned before answer nothing, but the living God deserves silence and reverence from the whole earth.

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