Let All the Earth Be Silent

After his second complaint, Habakkuk takes the posture of a watchman. He says, I will stand at my watch and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me. Yahweh answers with instructions: write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. The vision is for the appointed time; though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come.

Verse 4 is the heart of God's answer. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. The proud trust themselves, but the righteous live by trusting God. In the New Testament, Paul builds on this verse in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38 quotes it to encourage believers to endure.

The rest of the chapter is a taunt song of five woes against the proud oppressor: woe to him who increases what is not his, who gets evil gain, who builds a town with blood, who shames his neighbor, and who says to wood, Awake! Each woe shows that evil eventually turns back on itself. Two verses rise above the woes: the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh's glory, as the waters cover the sea, and Yahweh is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. Idols are mute, but the living God reigns.