Habakkuk 1:13

[Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity,.... The Lord with his eyes of omniscience beholds all things good and evil, and all men good and bad, with all their

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

Thou, O Lord, who hast raised and increased the Chaldean kingdom. Art of purer; of infinite purity and holiness. Eyes, ascribed unto God to express his knowledge; so his eves run to and fro, and his eye is upon the righteous. Than to behold: his omniscience doth behold all things, and so David expresseth it, Thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it, ; but he doth not, will not, cannot, see with delight, with approbation, evil, of sin and violence. And canst not look on iniquity; the same thing repeated to confirm us. All this the prophet doth lay down as most undoubtedly true, and on which he stays himself (though he be amazed with the darkness of providences); and by this he will repress all undue murmurings, when he debates with God about his providences: most just and holy; but why thus or thus? Wherefore lookest; seest all the violence done, and bearest with them that do it; why doth not thy hand remove and avenge what thine eye is offended at, and thy heart abhorreth? Them that deal treacherously; the Chaldeans, who were a perfidious nation, and ruined many by their treacheries; fraud and force were both alike to them. And it is likely they dealt very falsely with the Jews. Holdest thy tongue; seemest unconcerned in such a degree as to be silent and say nothing. When, or whilst; it might seem a fit season to speak, when the violent are about their violence, when the prey is between the teeth and not swallowed. The wicked; the Chaldean, an oppressor, bloody and treacherous against men, an atheist or idolater against God. Devoureth; swalloweth down whole, as the word imports, . The man; the Jew, or almost every one of us, as the phrase imports. More righteous than he: though the Jews were a very corrupt nation, yet, compared with the Chaldeans, they were the better, and of the two the Jew was the less evil. Now this riddle he desired might be unfolded, Why is the juster oppressed by the unjuster?

Habakkuk 1:13 [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [and] holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth [the man that is] more righteous than he?Ver. 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil] sc. With patience, and without punishing it. This I am right sure of; and therefore cannot but conclude that thou wilt take an order with our oppressors, thou wilt one day pay them home, for the new and the old, though for a time they ruffle and revel in our ruins. God, as he is ολοφθαλμος, All-eye, neither can we be at any time from under his view; so εχειθεοςεκδικονομμα, he hath a holy eye that cannot behold evil and bear with it. Hence that of Joshua to the people, Joshua 24:19, "Ye cannot serve the Lord," sc. unless ye first throw all your lusts out of service: "for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your trangressions nor your sins." Now, therefore, if Cave, spectat Cato, was such a forcible watchword among the Romans, and a retentive from evil; Take heed, Cato sees you, and will punish you; how much more should this prevail with Christians, Cave, videt Dominus, Take heed, the Lord beholdeth! “ Ne pecces, Deus ipse videt, bonus Angelus astat. ” Surely, as they were wont to say at Rome concerning cowards, that they had nothing Roman in them; so may it be said of such as stand not in awe of God’ s pure eyes and dreadful presence, that they have nothing Christian in them, whatever they pretend; since it is every godly man’ s care and comfort to be in the fear of the Lord all the day, to walk evermore in the sense of his presence and light of his countenance. And canst not look on iniquity] Heb. And to look on iniquity thou canst not do it. Lo, this is one of those things that God cannot do; as he cannot lie, he cannot die, he cannot deny himself; so here, he cannot look on iniquity, sc. with approbation or delight. He cannot but hate it; and (as the next thing to hatred is revenge) he cannot but punish it, such is the holiness of his nature, Psalms 5:4-6. He hateth sin naturally, as we hate poison for itself; and therefore let it be in a toad or in a prince’ s cabin, we hate it still. Nevertheless, it must be remembered for our comfort, that, like as we hate poison in a toad, but pity it in a man, because in the one it is their nature, in the other their disease; so sin maketh wicked men the object of God’ s hatred, but the saints of his pity; and accordingly, he chastiseth the one, but plagueth the other.

(13) The prophet’s confidence is tempered, however, with anxious fear. Why does not God show plainly that He authorises this visitation? The triumph of this godless invader appears to impugn God’s majesty.

Verse 13. Thou art of purer eyes] Seeing thou art so pure, and canst not look on iniquity-it is so abominable-how canst thou bear with them who "deal treacherously, and hold thy tongue when the wicked devour the righteous?" All such questions are easily solved by a consideration of God's ineffable mercy, which leads him to suffer long and be kind. He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner.

13. thou art of purer eyes] lit. O thou of pure eyes so as not (to be able) to see evil, and who canst not look upon wrongdoing. Psalms 5:4-5 “evil cannot dwell with thee.” treacherously] Or, ruthlessly, tyrannically. holdest thy tongue … devoureth] holdest thy peace … swalloweth up. Isaiah 42:14, “I have long time holden my peace, I have been still and refrained myself; now &c.” Psalms 50:21. more righteous than he] The “wicked” is the Chaldean conqueror; the “righteous” is generalized to include the other nations, victims of the Chaldean barbarities, though Israel may be specially in the prophet’s mind. But in Habakkuk 1:12-17 the prophet speaks out of the heart of mankind (cf. Nahum, Introd. § 4). The anomaly is that the righteous God, whose nature cannot endure wrong, looks on and is silent over this wrong which is as large as the human race.

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil - The prophet repeats his complaint (as troubling thoughts are accustomed to come back, after they have been repelled,), in order to answer it more strongly.