Chapter XI
Reading edition
TYRANNY IS SUICIDE
HABAKKUK ii. 5–20
In the style of his master Isaiah, Habakkuk follows up his Vision with a series of lyrics on the same subject: chap. ii. 5–20. They are taunt-songs, the most of them beginning with Woe unto, addressed to the heathen oppressor. Perhaps they were all at first of equal length, and it has been suggested that the striking refrain in which two of them close—
For men’s blood, and earth’s waste, Cities and their inhabitants—
was once attached to each of the others as well. But the text has been too much altered, besides suffering several interpolations,[394] to permit of its restoration, and we can only reproduce these taunts as they now run in the Hebrew text. There are several quotations (not necessarily an argument against Habakkuk’s authorship); but, as a whole, the expression is original, and there are some lines of especial force and freshness. Verses 5–6a are properly an introduction, the first Woe commencing with 6b.
The belief which inspires these songs is very simple. Tyranny is intolerable. In the nature of things it cannot endure, but works out its own penalties. By oppressing so many nations, the tyrant is preparing the instruments of his own destruction. As he treats them, so in time shall they treat him. He is like a debtor who increases the number of his creditors. Some day they shall rise up and exact from him the last penny. So that in cutting off others he is but forfeiting his own life. The very violence done to nature, the deforesting of Lebanon for instance, and the vast hunting of wild beasts, shall recoil on him. This line of thought is exceedingly interesting. We have already seen in prophecy, and especially in Isaiah, the beginnings of Hebrew Wisdom—the attempt to uncover the moral processes of life and express a philosophy of history. But hardly anywhere have we found so complete an absence of all reference to the direct interference of God Himself in the punishment of the tyrant; for the cup of Jehovah’s right hand in ver. 16 is simply the survival of an ancient metaphor. These proverbs or taunt-songs, in conformity with the proverbs of the later Wisdom, dwell only upon the inherent tendency to decay of all injustice. Tyranny, they assert, and history ever since has affirmed their truthfulness—tyranny is suicide.
The last of the taunt-songs, which treats of the different subject of idolatry, is probably, as we have seen, not from Habakkuk’s hand, but of a later date.[395]
INTRODUCTION TO THE TAUNT-SONGS (ii. 5–6a).
For ...[396] treacherous, An arrogant fellow, and is not ...[397] Who opens his desire wide as Sheol; He is like death, unsatisfied; And hath swept to himself all the nations, And gathered to him all peoples. Shall not these, all of them, take up a proverb upon him, And a taunt-song against him? and say:—
FIRST TAUNT-SONG (ii. 6b–8).
Woe unto him who multiplies what is not his own, —How long?— And loads him with debts![398] Shall not thy creditors[399] rise up, And thy troublers awake, And thou be for spoil[400] to them? Because thou hast spoiled many nations, All the rest of the peoples shall spoil thee. For men’s blood, and earth’s waste, Cities and all their inhabitants.[401]
SECOND TAUNT-SONG (ii. 9–11).
Woe unto him that gains evil gain for his house,[402] To set high his nest, to save him from the grasp of calamity! Thou hast planned shame for thy house; Thou hast cut off[403] many people, While forfeiting thine own life.[404] For the stone shall cry out from the wall, And the lath[405] from the timber answer it.
THIRD TAUNT-SONG (ii. 12–14).
Woe unto him that builds a city in blood,[406] And stablishes a town in iniquity![407] Lo, is it not from Jehovah of hosts, That the nations shall toil for smoke,[408] And the peoples wear themselves out for nought? But earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah,[409] Like the waters that cover the sea.
FOURTH TAUNT-SONG (ii. 15–17).
Woe unto him that gives his neighbour to drink, From the cup of his wrath[410] till he be drunken, That he may gloat on his[411] nakedness! Thou art sated with shame—not with glory; Drink also thou, and stagger.[412] Comes round to thee the cup of Jehovah’s right hand, And foul shame[413] on thy glory. For the violence to Lebānon shall cover thee, The destruction of the beasts shall affray thee.[414] For men’s blood, and earth’s waste, Cities and all their inhabitants.[415]
FIFTH TAUNT-SONG (ii. 18–20).
What boots an image, when its artist has graven it, A cast-image and lie-oracle, that its moulder has trusted upon it, Making dumb idols? Woe to him that saith to a block, Awake! To a dumb stone, Arise! Can it teach? Lo, it ...[416] with gold and silver; There is no breath at all in the heart of it. But Jehovah is in His Holy Temple: Silence before Him, all the earth!