3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but it hasteth to the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come, it will not delay.
Wait for Jehovah; be strong and let thy heart take courage: yea, wait for Jehovah.
And I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people at the end of the days: for the vision is yet for [many] days.
And now ye know that which restrains, that he should be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only [there is] he who restrains now until he be gone, and then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming;
For I [am] Jehovah; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall be performed, it shall be no more deferred. For in your days, O rebellious house, will I speak the word and will perform it, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him. It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.
For ye have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay.
I wait for Jehovah; my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul [waiteth] for the Lord more than the watchers [wait] for the morning, [more than] the watchers for the morning.
And shall not God at all avenge his elect, who cry to him day and night, and he bears long as to them? I say unto you that he will avenge them speedily. But when the Son of man comes, shall he indeed find faith on the earth?
And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be at the end of the indignation: for at the set time the end shall be.
And through covetousness, with well-turned words, will they make merchandise of you: for whom judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction slumbers not.
Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord. Behold, the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, having patience for it until it receive [the] early and [the] latter rain. *Ye* also have patience: stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh.
And [some] of the wise shall fall, to try them, and to purge and to make them white, to the time of the end: for it shall yet be for the time appointed.
And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. And [the king] said, Behold, this evil is of Jehovah: why should I wait for Jehovah any longer?
but he is under guardians and stewards until the period fixed by the father.
And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and pious, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and [the] Holy Spirit was upon him.
And he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was afraid, and fell on my face; and he said unto me, Understand, son of man; for the vision is for the time of the end.
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, [that] I will visit on the king of Babylon and on that nation, saith Jehovah, their iniquity, and on the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also; and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Habakkuk 2
Commentary on Habakkuk 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
In this chapter we have an answer expected by the prophet (v. 1), and returned by the Spirit of God, to the complaints which the prophet made of the violences and victories of the Chaldeans in the close of the foregoing chapter. The answer is,
Hab 2:1-4
Here,
Hab 2:5-14
The prophet having had orders to write the vision, and the people to wait for the accomplishment of it, the vision itself follows; and it is, as divers other prophecies we have met with, the burden of Babylon and Babylon's king, the same that was said to pass over and offend, ch. 1:11. It reads the doom, some think, of Nebuchadnezzar, who was principally active in the destruction of Jerusalem, or of that monarchy, or of the whole kingdom of the Chaldeans, or of all such proud and oppressive powers as bear hard upon any people, especially upon God's people. Observe,
Hab 2:15-20
The three foregoing articles, upon which the woes here are grounded, are very near akin to each other. The criminals charged by them are oppressors and extortioners, that raise estates by rapine and injustice; and it is mentioned here again (v. 17), the very same that was said v. 8, for that is the crime upon which the greatest stress is laid; it is because of men's blood, innocent blood, barbarously and unjustly shed, which is a provoking crying thing; it is for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein, which God will certainly reckon for, sooner or later, as the asserter of right and the avenger of wrong.
But here are two articles more, of a different nature, which carry a woe to all those in general to whom they belong, and particularly to the Babylonian monarchs, by whom the people of God were taken and held captives.