Habakkuk 2:6-20 | The Way of Scripture

Habakkuk 2:6-20

How do the five woes answer the conqueror’s apparent success?

Berean Standard Bible

6 Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’ 7 Will not your creditors suddenly arise and those who disturb you awaken? Then you will become their prey. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, the remnant of the people will plunder you— because of your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers. 9 Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster! 10 You have plotted shame for your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting your life. 11 For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork. 12 Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity! 13 Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain? 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 15 Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! 16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory. You too must drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory. 17 For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of animals will terrify you, because of your bloodshed against men and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers. 18 What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it— or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. 19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.” 20 But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.

What is the context?

Those gathered as possessions now taunt the one who amassed what was not his. Plunder will be answered by plunder, and a high nest cannot secure a house built by unjust gain.

Stones and rafters are pictured testifying against the building. A city founded on bloodshed exhausts people for what will burn, while the knowledge of the Lord’s glory has a wider promised future.

The forced drink and exposure image condemns the humiliation of neighbors. The cup turning back on the aggressor is judgment language, not permission to make someone drunk or expose their body.

The violence against land, animals, cities, and inhabitants broadens the reckoning. The final woe exposes silent manufactured gods unable to teach or save.

The Lord in His holy temple is the final contrast. Silence before Him is reverent acknowledgment, not a contradiction of the honest questions already received in the book.

How is this passage commonly understood?

Wesley reads the speaking building as testimony against violent gain and the cup as a reversal of the ruler’s indulgence. His older thick-clay wording differs from the BSB’s many loans in the first woe. The oppressor’s enrichment remains central in both forms.

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.

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