Habakkuk 2:4

Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him,.... This and the following clause describe two sorts of persons differently affected to the Messiah, and the promise of his coming.

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Behold, his soul which is lifted up - the Chaldean's soul (Maurer). The unbelieving Jew's soul (Henderson).

Behold; note it: there are two sorts of persons who concern themselves in this puzzling question of the Divine providence; some object. and quarrel contest with God, proudly, discontentedly, and impatiently; others inquire humbly, submitting themselves to God, and waiting for him. His soul, the heart and mind of every such one, which is lifted up; that proudly contests with the justice and wisdom of the Divine Providence, that slights promises of deliverance at so great a distance, and provides for his own safety by his own wit; is not upright; is very corrupt and wicked, full of (not only distrusts, but) positive conclusions against God’ s future punishing the wicked: such a one is so wicked that he thinks God will not punish the violent and bloody, the superstitious and idolatrous Babylonian. The just; the humble, upright, and comparatively righteous one, who adores the depth of Divine providence, and is persuaded of the truth of Divine promises, and doth approve the season God chooseth. Shall live; supports himself, and quiets his own heart, whilst he foreseeth the approaching deliverance of Zion. By his faith; his well-grounded dependence on a persuasion of the truth of God’ s promises touching the relief of the faithful servants of God, whose deliverance he believes to be certain, and so waits for the performance of promises made to him and them.

Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.Ver. 4. Behold, his soul which is lifted up] Ebulat, protuberat, which swelleth like a bubble, and reaketh through its own weakness; he that by unbelief or carnal security withdraweth from God, and confideth in the creature; seeking to shift and save himself some other way, as he is a proud and presumptuous person, so let him know that, His soul is not upright in him] That is, it is very corrupt and crooked, stark naught; and God’ s soul can take no pleasure in him; but he will punish him as a runaway, as one that hath fled from his colours, forsaken his captain, revolted to the enemy, Hebrews 10:37-38. Transfugas ubicunque inventi fuerint, quasi hostes interficere licet, was the old law of arms. What God will do to such, see Psalms 125:5. But the just shall live by his faith] This is an answer to those that would ask what shall we do till the vision speak? how shall we hold out till it come? till the seventy years of captivity be expired? "The just shall live by faith," saith he, and shall make a good living of it too; he shall live and be safe by the same faith whereby he is just. He shall feed upon faith, as some read that Psalms 37:3. And whereas we find in those Apocryphal additions to Daniel, that Habakkuk brought a mess of pottage to that prophet in the lions’ den; as it seems to be but a Jewish fable, so the Jew that invented it, grounding his conceit upon this text, would express thus much, that as pottage (that succus benignus, as Keckerman calleth it) preserveth this natural life from perishing, so doth faith’ s acting upon the promises, and extracting nourishment from the same, maintain life spiritual; and thereby it was that Daniel stopped the mouths of the lions, Hebrews 11:33. How Habakkuk taketh out his own lesson of living by faith, and not by sense. Although the flg tree shall not blossom. See here the life of faith, in the fail of outward comforts, so true is that of Solomon, Proverbs 2:7, "The Lord layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous": when he is in greatest straits, then he hath such quietness, soundness, and presence of mind, as bears him up above all troubles; like as blown bladders do the body aloft all waters. Faith furnisheth him with strongest and most satisfying joys; such as the flames cannot dry up, nor rivers of blood drown; faith, actuated upon the promises, maketh the believer walk above the middle region of the air (as it were) in a continual serenity, as Enoch did; and sealeth him a double charter of privative and positive privileges. See it set down 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.

(4) Behold his soul. . . .—Better, Behold his soul within him is puffed up, it is not upright. The soul of the Chaldæan invader is inflated with pride, self-dependence ousting from his mind all thoughts of God. It is therefore unsound and distorted. Habakkuk leaves the inference “and therefore it shall die” to be imagined, and hastens to the antithesis, “But the righteous man shall live by his faith.” The word live is emphatic. The reward promised to patient waitings on God is life—deliverance from destruction. How far the promise extends, and whether it includes that aspiration after future life which is plainly expressed by many Hebrew poets and prophets, we cannot determine. The student must be cautioned against such renderings as “he that is righteous-by-faith shall live,” or, “he that is justified-by-faith shall live,” which have been suggested by the Pauline quotations Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11. If the adjective could be taken in this close collocation with the substantive, “he that is consistent in-his-confidence shall live” would be the only possible rendering. Thus whatever force we assign to St. Paul’s citation, here, at least, the words have no doctrinal significance. Their ethical importance is, however, undeniable. (See Introduction 4)

Verse 4. Behold, his soul which is lifted up] Hee that presumes on his safety without any special warrant from God, is a proud man; and whatever he may profess, or think of himself, his mind is not upright in him. But he that is just by faith shall live - he that believes what God hath said relative to the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem, shall make his escape from the place, and consequently shall save his life. The words in the New Testament are accommodated to the salvation which believers in Christ shall possess. Indeed, the just - the true Christians, who believed in Jesus Christ's words relative to the destruction of Jerusalem, when they found the Romans coming against it, left the city, and escaped to Pella in Coelesyria, and did live - their lives were saved: while the unbelieving Jews, to a man, either perished or were made slaves. One good sense is, He that believes the promises of God, and has found life through believing, shall live by his faith.

4. Habakkuk 2:4 gives the contents of the vision. The present text reads: Behold his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness. The term “puffed up” is perhaps properly said of ground, and means to be uneven, to have swelling heights, and when applied to the mind to swell, be puffed up or arrogant. The opposite idea is “upright,” properly even, without ruggedness or heights (Isaiah 40:3-4). Cf. Proverbs 30:32; Psalms 131:2. Instead of “is puffed up” the parallelism of the verse would naturally require a noun as subject, opposed to “the righteous” of next clause: Behold the …, his soul is not upright in him, but the righteous &c. No acceptable suggestion has been made. The Sept. took the clause as a conditional, if he draw back; reading also my soul for his soul. The term “faithfulness” is used in the sense of physical steadiness or firmness, as Exodus 17:12 of the hands of Moses (cf. Isaiah 33:6); then in the sense of trueness, e.g. as opposed to falsehood or lies in speech, Jeremiah 5:3; Jeremiah 7:28; and as equivalent to trustworthiness, honesty in conduct, 2 Kings 12:15-16. The word is often coupled with “righteousness,” as 1 Samuel 26:23; Isaiah 59:4; Jeremiah 5:1. In Isaiah 11:5 it is said of the Messiah: “righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” So far as the expression is used of men it appears to mean integrity of character and conduct, and differs little from righteousness. Such a character has in it the principle of permanence, while the Chaldean, whose soul is not upright in him, shall perish. Comp. Proverbs 10:25, “when the whirlwind passeth the wicked is no more, but the righteous is an everlasting foundation” (Proverbs 10:2). Sept. rendered “faith,” and read in this way the passage became the text for St Paul’s doctrine of faith. The Heb. language has no word for “faith” as an active principle, though the term “believe” is derived from the same root as the present word. The situation here is similar to that described in Isaiah 8:17, “Bind up the testimony … and I will wait for Jehovah, who hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him”; cf. here Habakkuk 2:3 “though it tarry wait for it.”

Behold, his soul which is lifted up - literally, swollen Is not upright in him - The construction is probably that of a condition expressed absolutely. Lo, swollen is it, not upright is his soul in him.

Habakkuk 2:4 contains the oracle that the prophet is to write down. It is brief and enigmatic, but not unintelligible.