Habakkuk 1:13 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

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, Psalms 10:14; 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, Numbers 16:30 Psalms 124:3. 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?