AS THE WATERS COVER THE SEA

This chapter of Habakkuk is composed of five ‘woes’ which are given to the prophet to speak. They are the divine sen­tence upon the Chaldean aggressor indicating the fate that awaits him. The reason for the judgement that will be visited upon this nation is given at the end of the first and fourth ‘woes’: ‘because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein’, vv. 8, 17. The guilt is shared by all.

The first woe, vv. 5-8, speaks of the nation. There are a num­ber of parallels with yesterday’s reading as here again is a nation intent on material advancement by oppression and bloodshed.

The second woe, vv. 9-11, speaks of the house. The outcome of their material advancement is the notion that they can become impregnable, a fortress against all others - like the eagle, setting ‘his nest on high’, v. 9.

The third woe, the subject of our verses today, speaks to the city, or capital of the empire. ‘The cities of the Babylonian Empire were built by the blood and sweat of enslaved peoples. Murder, bloodshed, oppression, and tyranny were the tools employed in this building project’, E. E. Johnson.

There is a certain resonance with the progress of the prophet’s dirge. History records so many nations and national rulers who have moved in a similar way: first, the invasion of surrounding nations; second, the fortification of the homeland against reprisal; third, the enslaving of peoples for the greater glory of the conquering nation.

But in the third woe the prophet breaks off to remind the Chaldean aggressor that, at best, his projects and glory were but transient and secondary. Fire would destroy the edifices of Babylon and all that slave labour had built would be con­sumed. That which they judged to be glorious would be superseded by the manifestation of ‘the resplendent majesty of the Supreme Ruler. There will be no place on earth where the wonder of that glory is not seen’, F. A. Tatford. The ‘knowledge of the glory of the Lord … [will be] as the waters cover the sea’, v. 14.