Chapter 1

Argument

¹ There are some who are exceedingly troubled when they behold those who do wrong prospering; and some of them doubt whether God provides for all things, while others believe indeed that there is a Providence, yet are perplexed as to why the affairs of men are governed in this fashion. The person of these latter the prophet Habakkuk takes up, and he raises a perplexity, as though desiring to learn the cause of the things that happen so; but he supplies the resolution which the grace of the Spirit furnished. For it was not, as some have supposed, that he himself underwent this experience; rather he brings forward the things that are surmised or said by others, and adds the teaching concerning the matters in question. This very same thing the divine David also did; for he too brings on stage a person troubled at the prosperity of wicked men, and says: But as for me, my feet were almost moved; my goings had well-nigh slipped, because I was jealous at the lawless, beholding the peace of sinners.[1] And having set forth many such things, he showed the resolution of the matters in question. For this, he says, is a labor before me, until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand their latter end. And having learned this from the grace of the Spirit, he added: But because of their craftiness you have appointed evils for them, and what follows; then, teaching us not to busy ourselves over the divine dispensations, but to follow them simply, I became, he says, as a beast before you; yet I am continually with you. For just as the beast, he says, follows the one who leads it, not busying itself over where it walks, so must we follow the words; for doing this, I shall always be with you. And that he has set down such inquiries not as one himself doubting concerning Providence, but as bringing in the reasonings of others, the preamble of the psalm makes plain: How good, he says, is God to Israel, to the upright in heart! And he who has confessed God to be good plainly confesses together with this that he is also a giver of good things. Such things we find both in other psalms and in other prophets. To these the prophecy of the divine Habakkuk is like. For he seems to be perplexed why the bold and self-willed prosper above the more moderate, and why punishment does not follow hard upon the heels of the lawless; in order that, having raised the perplexity, and then having brought on the resolution, he might heal those who are sick with such thoughts and who murmur against Providence. But some have understood the prophet to have shaped these words according to a different method. For since, when the prophets foretold dreadful things, the Israelites were troubled, as ever hearing of afflictions and tribulations, the prophet skillfully shows them that they are worthy to suffer such things as the prophets foretell, because they sin in this and that. Therefore he brings himself on stage as troubled toward God at so great an outpouring of wickedness, and seeking vengeance; that he might show that their works are so wicked, even if they themselves do not perceive it, that God too is blasphemed by them because he does not bring on punishment swiftly for these things. And indeed, after he has been sufficiently troubled, he prophesies that the despisers shall not escape the divine judgment. And in order to console these Israelites, he foretells also the overthrow of the Babylonians, and the freedom and return of the Israelites through Cyrus. And he hints as well at the universal redemption of human nature, which we have enjoyed through our Lord Jesus Christ; which this blessed prophet, laying it bare toward the end of the prophecy, makes into an ode, in which a Selah too is found, as, God willing, we shall show when we come to the place.