The Chaldeans as Ministers of Divine Justice. In His answer Yahweh directly addresses the evil-doers, warning them that He is about to work a work in their days they would never have believed: He is raising against them the fierce and dreaded power of the Chaldeans, who are already carrying destruction to the ends of the earth, swooping from afar like eagles on the prey, gathering captives like the sand, scoffing at kings and princes, carrying fortresses with a rush, and making their strength a god.
Habakkuk 1:5. For baggoyim, among the nations, read bog dim, ye evil-doers (LXX). I work (ptcp.): i.e. I am just about to work.
Habakkuk 1:6. bitter and hasty: rather, fierce and impetuous (vehement).
Habakkuk 1:7. Omitting mishpaṭ? o (their judgment) as explanatory gloss, and reading she-' th, destruction, for s e etho, his dignity, translate out of him (them) goeth destruction.
Habakkuk 1:8. evening wolves: with their hunger whetted to its keenest edge.
Habakkuk 1:8 b. Render perhaps, Onward their horsemen bound; they come from afar (cf. Jeremiah 50:11).
Habakkuk 1:9. The middle clause is untranslateable, and its sense wholly uncertain.
Habakkuk 1:10. heapeth up dust: for a siege-mound.
Habakkuk 1:11. With a slight change in the verb read, Then he sweepeth along like the wind, and maketh his strength a god. The prophet here seems to combine features drawn from current report of the Chaldeans with others suggested by the Scythian invaders of Josiah's reign (cf. Jeremiah's Scythian songs).