What is the context?
Habakkuk appeals to the Lord’s eternal holiness and recognizes a purpose of correction. He nevertheless asks why the faithless can swallow people more righteous than themselves.
The reference to eyes too pure for evil is an appeal to moral character, not a claim that the Lord literally lacks knowledge of wrongdoing.
People become fish without a protecting ruler, and the conqueror’s net gathers and consumes them. Worship of the net pictures celebrating the very power that enables exploitation.
The closing question asks whether this can continue without mercy. The chapter ends with the difficulty voiced, not with a justification of every act the invader performs.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley distinguishes the Lord’s permitting the conquerors’ already-present cruelty from putting cruelty into them. He reads sacrifice to the net through credit given to their own power and contrivance. That is his account of the passage’s moral tension, not a complete site position on providence.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.