Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Habakkuk · About this commentary
Let All the Earth Be Silent
Habakkuk 2:18-20
18 “What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? · WEB
The last woe asks what an idol is actually worth, and the chapter that began with a complaint ends by ordering everyone to stop talking.
The fifth woe opens with a question instead of the usual cry. What value does the engraved image have? The answer runs through the making of it: a craftsman shapes it, then trusts what he shaped, and the thing he trusts is called a teacher of lies.
Verse 19 puts words in the worshiper's mouth. Woe to him who says to the wood, awake, or to the mute stone, arise. The absurdity is left to do its own work — the man is issuing commands to his own product — and the verdict is anatomical: overlaid with gold and silver, and no breath at all within it. Chapter 1 had ended with a conqueror sacrificing to his net Habakkuk 1:16; this is the same error with better materials.
Then verse 20, and the whole book turns on it. But Yahweh is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. Against a god that must be told to wake stands one who is already present and needs no rousing. And the answer to two chapters of argument is not another argument. It is silence, which is also the posture chapter 3 will be sung in.
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