Habakkuk 2:9 - John Trapp Complete Commentary

Bible Comments

Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

Ver. 9. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness] For there is a good covetousness (which few are guilty of), 1 Corinthians 12:31, "Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a more excellent way." Covet earnestly the best graces, such as are faith, hope, and charity, these are better than gifts. A shop full of barrels enrich not unless they be full of commodities. Gifts (as to heaven) are but the lumber of a Christian; it is grace makes him rich toward God, and of that he cannot be too covetous. But the covetousness of the Chaldeans here threatened and thundered against was of another nature. It is called an evil covetousness and hath its name in the original of piercing or wounding, as Joel 2:8, and fitly, both in respect of a man's self, 1 Timothy 6:10, and others, Pro 1:19 Amos 9:1, and here. Woe to such, and destruction too, as Hosea 7:13. The Lord, to show his just indignation against covetous persons, smiteth his fists at them, as Balak did at Balaam, Numbers 24:10. See Ezekiel 22:13, "Behold, I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee." Now, lest people should object or conceive that those were but great words, and that the Lord would not do so as he said, or that they should deal well enough with him, therefore it followeth Habakkuk 2:14, "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken, and will do it."

To his house] i.e. To his family and posterity, which he intends to advance, but indeed undoes them, by leaving them a cursed hoard of ill-gotten goods, wherein they do them a greater displeasure than Joab and Gehazi did in leaving their children the leprosy for a legacy. Job speaketh, Job 15:34, as though the wicked, when they set up their houses by pilling and polling, by getting riches without right, did but make a stack of wood, and then comes a spark of God's wrath, and makes an end of all. As in another place, "Brimstone," saith he, "shall be scattered upon his habitation," Job 18:15, so that if the fire of God's displeasure do but light upon it, &c. Thus Dioclesian, that cruel persecutor, had his house wholly consumed with lightning and a flame of fire that fell from heaven upon it, as Eusebius tells us (De Vita Constant. lib. 5). Add hereunto that many times there comes a son that is as good with a fork as his father was with a rake; as great a spend-all as his father was a get-all.

That he may set his nest on high] And there feather it at his pleasure, Oba 1:4 and secure his children like as the eagle builds on high, to save her young from the serpent that seeks to destroy them.

That he may be delivered from the power of evil] Which he hath cause to fear from others, to whom he hath been so injurious and oppressive. But how will he be hid or freed from the terrors of his own guilty conscience; well he may build cities with Cain, and set up high towers with Phocas, but what said the oracle to him? Though thou set up thy strongholds as high as heaven, yet sin at the foundation thereof will soon overturn all, and lay it level with the ground.

Habakkuk 2:9

9 Woe to him that covetethd an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!