Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Habakkuk · About this commentary
As the Waters Cover the Sea
Habakkuk 2:12-14
12 Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity! · WEB
At the center of five woes stands a promise that has nothing to do with Babylon at all.
Woe to him who builds a town with blood and establishes a city by iniquity. The third woe is the shortest, and it moves quickly from the builder to the futility of the building: the peoples labor only for fire, and the nations weary themselves for nothing.
The judgment on imperial construction is that it is a waste of effort. Everything the labor produces is fuel, and the exhaustion buys emptiness.
Then verse 14, which belongs to a different order of speech entirely. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh's glory, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah says almost exactly this, though of the knowledge of Yahweh rather than of his glory Isaiah 11:9 — the addition here matters, since glory is what Babylon was building for. The verse sits at the middle of the woes and answers all five at once: the empire covering the earth with its own name will be replaced by an earth covered with someone else's, and the covering will be as complete as water.
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