(Hab 2:15-17) Woe to the drunk. Who adds his bottle, and also strong drink, "Double unto her double!" Fourth Woe: Promoting debauchery and other shameful acts.This breaks the seventh commandment, as it refers primarily to sexual sins.This horrible practice of intoxicating another to perform lewd and abominable acts on another is still taking place in our society, not only using alcohol, but various "date rape" drugs. Hence some give this explanation—that the king of Babylon brought forth his flagons, that he might force to intoxication, by excessive drinking, those who could not and dared not to resist his will. The Chaldeans would get what was coming to them. The change of persons, it is true, is very common in the Prophets, but not in such a way as we find here, the third person being adopted both in the preceding and in the following line. As then he had thus inflamed all the neighboring kings to rush headlong without any consideration and without any shame, like a person suffocated and overcome by excessive drinking; so the Prophet designates this inflaming as quaffing wine to them. Since, then, they put their wine into bottles, these were often taken for their cups, as it is in our language, when one says, Des flacons, des bouteilles. With regard to you, the free cities, see, ye tremble continually; now if you lie under my shadow, it will be the best security for you.” Such quaffing is to be found at this day almost throughout the whole of Europe. How often (saith a grave divine) have I seen vermin sucking the drunkard’s blood, as fast as he that of the grape or malt, yet would he not leave his hold or lose his draught? p. 576). That the Babylonians took advantage of their victims sexually is implied in the illustration, as is their love for wine. But we much prefer to treat the language as figurative. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! Habakkuk 2:15-16 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 15 “Woe to you who make [ a]your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk. Habakkuk 2:15-17 The TEV and NJB have "wealth is treacherous," following the Habakkuk commentary in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1Qp,Hab). The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. 2. Not satisfied with robbing men and nations, and with oppressing and ill-treating them, the Chaldaean committed wickedness upon the cedars and cypresses also, and the wild animals of Lebanon, cutting down the wood either for military purposes or for state buildings, so that the wild animals were unsparingly exterminated. For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you.” (Habakkuk 1:5, emphasis added) 5 You are filled with shame instead of glory. Habakkuk 2:15 Drunk and naked shame “Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts the bottle to him and makes him drunk also, that you may look on their nakedness.” This verse needs no explanation so I won’t bother to give it any. To get what Habakkuk 2:15 means based on its source text, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity. Others read it, That puttest thy poison to him; and indeed, Ebrietas eat blandus daemon, dulce venenum, suave peccatum. The form יחיתן for יחתּן, from יחת, hiphil of חתת, is anomalous, the syllable with dagesh being resolved into an extended one, like התימך for התמּך in Isaiah 33:1; and the tsere of the final syllable is exchanged for pathach because of the pause, as, for example, in התעלּם in Psalm 55:2 (see Olshausen, Gramm. Therefore as he cursed Canaan (though Scaliger excuse him), and it stuck to his posterity for ever, so doth God here denounce a woe to drunkards, and so sets it on, as no creature shall ever be able to take it off. Habakkuk 2:15-17. Habakkuk 2:15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to [him], and makest [him] drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! (Haydock) --- The Jews relate that Sedecias was intoxicated, and then acted with indecency. We indeed see how shamefully they perjure themselves; nor is it enough for them to utter these perjuries in their courts; but not many years pass away before our great kings make public their abominable perjuries; and it appears immediately afterwards that they thus seek, without any shame, to mock both God and all mankind. Every word in Habakkuk 2:4 is important, and the Lord quotes it three times in the New Testament just to bring out the fullness of the meaning - Romans 1:17 is the commentary on the justified man - "The just shall live by faith" I come now to the next verse—, The verse will admit of a much simpler rendering than what has been commonly offered, such as the following:—. Then the Prophet does not without reason commemorate this vice in the king of Babylon—that he made those associates drunk whom he had bound to himself by perfidious treaties; for as it has been said, there is no intoxication so dangerous as this madness; that is, when any one promises this or that to himself, and imagines what does not exist. And makest him drunk also] Robbest him of himself, and layest a beast in his room. But others render חמה, cheme, wrath, with a preposition understood: and in order that nothing may be understood, some render the participle, מספח, “displaying,” that is, “his fury.” But as חמה, cheme, means to be hot, we may, therefore, properly give this version, “Uniting thy heat;” that is, “It is not enough for thee to inebriate others, except thou implicates them with thyself.” We now perceive the meaning of this phrase. that thou mayest look on their nakedness!—with light, like Ham of old (Ge 9:22). Behemoth lieth in them; which Gulielmus Parisiensis applieth to the devil in drunken hearts; whereas in dry places, sober souls, he walketh about seeking rest but findeth none, Matthew 12:43. 2:15-16. It follows, that their nakedness may be made open; that is, that they may disclose themselves with shame. (16) You will be filled with shame instead of glory. יחיתן is a relative clause, and the subject, shōd, the devastation which terrified the animals. makest him drunken, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Genesis 9:22). That thou mayest look on their nakedness; designing to put the greatest abuse on them, exposing them to view, scorn, and derision, or to beastly or not to be named uncleanness, which vice the Babylonians are charged with by Herodotus and Ctesias. Thus the Mystic Babylon is said to make the nations drink of her cup (Revelation 14:8; 17:2; 18:3); but God will at last compel wicked Babylon itself to drink of the cup of his wrath. (16) You will be filled with shame instead of glory. that puttest thy bottle to him; giving him not only a glass or cup at a time, but a whole bottle to drink off at once, in order to inebriate him. Hence he not only says, that the Babylonian king gave drink to his friends, but also that he joined his bottles; as though he had said that he was very liberal, nay, prodigal, while seeking associates in his intemperance; for if one condition did not suffice, another was added—“Behold, my king is prepared; but if he is not enough another will be joined with him.” They thus then join together their heat. Domitius, the father of Nero, slew Liberius, an honest Roman, because he refused to drink so much as he commanded him. We are still benefiting from the stand that Habakkuk. that thou mayest look on their nakedness! (15, 16) Woe unto him.—It is possible that wanton outrages committed by the debauched Babylonian soldiery in the hour of triumph are here meant. … Make it plain upon tables - Write it … Habakkuk also bears several similarities with Jeremiah, for example his sensitive nature and his grief over the condition of the people of God. The word is by some translated "thy gall", or "thy poison" (k); which fitly enough expresses the poisonous doctrines of the church of Rome, which men insensibly imbibe, infused in her wine of fornication, or drink in through the alluring and ensnaring methods taken. The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. He, too, shall drink “of the cup of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 16:19; see also Psalm 76:8, Jeremiah 25:26, Lamentations 4:21); and then foul shame, as of a man stupefied with drink, shall take the place of glory and dignity. The woe also falls on all, who in any way intoxicate others with flattering words or reigned affection, mixing poison under things pleasant, to bring them to shame. These questions have been answered and … When a king wishes to entice to himself a free city or an inferior prince, he will say—“See, I seek nothing but to be thy friend”. Her name is also given to Mystery Babylon, the Great Whore of Revelation, which is apostate Christianity. Woe to him who makes his neighbor to drink, Their vile courses are here graphically, and in lively colours, described by the Holy Ghost; to set forth the hatefulness thereof, and how woeful will be the issue. So Minos, King of Crete, ordered that his subjects should not drink one to another, εις μεθην, unto drunkenness. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink -, Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink. 0 Newcome renders it “flagon.” By mentioning bottle, abundance of wine was probably intended, and to this abundance was added the strong drink, [ שכר ], intoxicating liquor. Must they needs go to hell in company? Though there is no MS. which has “his” instead of “thy” connected with “bottle,” yet the preceding and the following lines seem to require it; and this is the reading of Symmachus and of the Vulgate. This threat is explained in Habakkuk 2:17, in the statement that the wickedness practised by the Chaldaean on Lebanon and its beasts will cover or fall back upon itself. Woe to the sensual. (Read Habakkuk 2:15-20) A severe woe is pronounced against drunkenness; it is very fearful against all who are guilty of drunkenness at any time, and in any place, from the stately palace to the paltry ale-house. The Lacedaemonians punished it severely; so do the Turks to this day, pouring ladlefuls of boiling lead down their throats sometimes; and at least thrashing of them on the bare feet, till they are disabled for walking in haste again to their societies of good fellowship. Puttest thy bottle to him; forcing them by importunity or threats to drink by greater measures then they can bear. King James Version (KJV) As I have already said the Prophet charges the Babylonian king with having implicated neighboring kings in his own evil desires, and with having in a manner inebriated them. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink] The Babylonians (among other their flagitious practices afore mentioned) were much addicted to drunkenness, as is recorded by Herodotus, Ctesias, and others. Ver. In Habakkuk, the words mean, `The righteous survives if he is faithful.'" I shall presently explain more fully what all this means; but now we only expound the words. Another public and crying sin of this Chaldean kingdom was excessive drinking, and making one another drunk, and for this God will severely punish. This was great Alexander’s sin and ruin; so it was Mark Antony’s (who wrote a book of his abilities to drink down others, De sua bibacitate librum conseripsit, seu potius evomuit), and before them both Darius’s, as Athenaeus hath left recorded. Habakkuk 2:12-14. Hence they say, that Nebuchadnezzar was given to excess, and led all whom he could into a participation of the same vice. Of them the English, much commended for their sobriety, learned, in the Netherland wars, to drown themselves by immoderate drinking; and by drinking to others’ healths, to impair their own; so that in our days came forth the first restraint thereof by severity of laws, saith Camden; who yet, being so great an antiquity, could not but know that in the year 959 Edgar, king of this land, made an ordinance for putting pins in cups, that none should quaff whole ones. ; which fitly enough expresses the poisonous doctrines of the church of Rome, which men insensibly imbibe, infused in her wine of fornication, or drink in through the alluring and ensnaring methods taken. He tells Habakkuk to record the vision for the benefit of others – God’s answer was not for Habakkuk alone, but for all people for all time. Habakkuk 2:15. He was jealous for the nation of Israel who had strayed far away from the Lord their God. ), and it only weakens the idea of the talio. The Targum is, "that pours it with heat, that he may drink, and be inebriated. The use of the drink metaphor here is quite significant, for it is continued throughout the word of God, even to the very end of it. (St. Jerome) --- But these accounts deserve little credit. Habakkuk 2:15 "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to [him], and makest [him] drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!" It is commonly rendered as though it were a verb in Hiphil; but it is not so. God is saying woe to those who provide alcohol (venom) to others for the purpose of getting them drunk! Habakkuk was part of the remnant of Israel who remained faithful to the Lord. Habakkuk 2:15, NLT: "'What sorrow awaits you who make your neighbors drunk! Such immorality, the desire to see someone naked! It was “golden” to signify an outward appearance that was plausible, and alluring. Habakkuk 2:15, NASB: "'Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness!" Habakkuk is a man waiting for an answer from God. "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, to thee that addest thy venom, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness. He does so with his prophecy by hugging or embracing his people. And when any city fears a neighboring prince, it will seek to fortify itself by a new protection; so a treaty, when offered, becomes like a snare to it. Ver. As a person who gives himself up to drinking wishes to leave associates, so Habakkuk lays the same thing to the charge of the king of Babylon; for being himself addicted to insatiable avarice, he procured associates to be as it were his guests, and quaffed wine to them, that is, elicited their cupidity, that they might join him in his wars; for each hoped for a part of the spoil after victory. Morat Bassa commanded a pipe to be thrust through the nose of a Turk which was found taking tobacco; and so in derision to be led about Constantinople. Woe, he says, to him who gives his friend drink; then he adds, מספח חמתך, mesephech chemetak, "who joinest and bottle.” חמה, cheme, is taken in Hebrew for a bottle; and we know, and it is sufficiently evident from Scripture, that the Jews used bottles of skin, as there are casks and larger vessels with us. If we take חמה, cheme, for a bottle, then to join together their bottles would mean, that they accumulated promises until they inebriated those whom they sought to deceive. It was not indeed an object to the king of Babylon to disclose the reproach of all those whom he had induced to take part in his wars; but we know that great kings are wont to neglect their friends, to whom at first they promise every thing. Habakkuk 2:15-17 Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. if he pledge thee not whole ones, and drink not all the outs, as they call them. And to whom is this to be imputed but to the principal author? But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. There is no necessity to alter it into יחיתך (Ewald and Olshausen after the lxx, Syr., and Vulg. that thou mayest look on their nakedness! It shall teach!" The righteous do not live by their power, knowledge, wealth, wine, or arrogance. Habakkuk 2:16 Disgrace and shame “You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. To look on them with delight is by some held a sin against nature; the ground of their opinion is Genesis 3:7. We now then apprehend what the Prophet meant—that the Babylonian king not only burnt with his own avarice, but kindled also, as it were, a flame in others, like drunken men who excite one another. '', "woe to him that gives his neighbour to drink the dregs of fury.''. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. ', "woe to him that gives his neighbour to drink the dregs of fury.'. Contextually it is uncertain if Hab. It should be remembered in all this that Babylon is a type of all mankind organized against God, as man appears throughout history. 2:6-20 16 “You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. It properly signifies "heat" or "wrath". It properly signifies "heat" or "wrath". go with Hab. All this may refer to the king of Egypt, who deceived Joakim, Sedecias, &c. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "O, he who giveth drink to his neighbour, a cruel overthrow, and who maketh," &c. --- Nakedness. Habakkuk therefore was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Among the old Germans, diem noctemque continuare potando, nulli probrum, saith Tacitus, It was no disgrace to drink night and day together. That thou mayest look on their nakedness; Woe to him that giveth his neighbour drink, mixing therewith. I therefore doubt not but that this whole discourse, in which the Babylonian king is condemned for making drunk his associates or friends, is metaphorical or allegorical. "Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness! But if for further abuse of their bodies to uncleanness (as Attalus, the Macedonian, dealt by Pausanias, a young courtier, who afterwards slew King Philip, because he would not punish Attalus for so doing), that is worst of all; and hath a woe, woe, woe, hanging at the heels of it, Pausaniam solutum mero Attalus non suae tantum verum et convivarum libidini, velut scortum vile subiecit, ludibriumque omnium inter aequales reddidit. as Ham did on his father's nakedness when in such circumstances: all the above methods are taken in order to intoxicate them, deprive them of the use of their reason, as is the case of a drunken man; and so bring them to believe, with an implicit faith, as the church believes; to believe things contrary to reason; to give into the spiritual whoredom and idolatry of that church, as men when drunk are easily drawn into uncleanness; to cast off their profession of the true religion, as a garment is cast off, as men when drunk are apt to do; and particularly to reject the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of Christ, which is the only robe to cover the nakedness of men, and receive the doctrine of merit and justification by works; in short, to apostatize wholly from the religion they have professed, and join in communion with the whore of Rome, that so they may look upon their apostasy, which is their nakedness, with the utmost pleasure and delight. Definitions for Habakkuk 2:15 Woe - An expression of grief or indignation. (2:19) How remarkably modern these "woes" seem even though they were written to describe the ancient Babylonian culture at the time of Habakkuk. See Oxford Gesenius, p. 705, under saphak. Puttest thy bottle.—It is possible to render, pourest out thy wrath, and this makes the metaphor less obscure. In the same manner also are inferior princes deprived of their power. This particularly was the case of the king of Egypt, of whom Calmet more immediately understands it. Or cry … Their land was sick of drink, and would therefore spue them out: themselves were men of wine, Habakkuk 2:5 (see the note), and should therefore drink deep of the wine of God’s fierce wrath. How much better his successor, Ahasuerus, who made a law at his great feast that every man should drink according to his pleasure, Esther 1:8. Septuagint, "caverns;" deluding him, so that his places of retreat become useless. Woe to him who builds a city based on violence and bloodshed. Apart, for example, from the fact that such a thought as this, "the wickedness committed upon the holy land will cover thee, because of the wickedness committed upon the earth," not only appears lame, but would be very difficult to sustain on biblical grounds, inasmuch as the wickedness committed upon the earth and its inhabitants would be declared to be a greater crime than that committed upon the land and people of the Lord; this view does not answer to the train of thought in the whole of the ode, since the previous strophes do not contain any special allusion to the devastation of the holy land, or the subjugation and ill-treatment of the holy people, but simply to the plundering of many nations, and the gain forced out of their sweat and blood, as being the great crime of the Chaldaean (cf. For when any one, for the sake of ambition or avarice, leads others to inconvenience or to damage, he may justly and correctly be said to disclose their nakedness. Now it is your turn! 16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory. There are those who read the words thus, That puttest thine anger to him, thy fervour, and thy fury, viz. In … This he did not out of any goodwill to them, but because he knew if they were ever damned, he should be double damned. [12] "In Habakkuk, the words mean, `The righteous survives if he is faithful.'" Obviously, we can derive symbolic spiritual meaning regarding ourselves and modern-day … The figure in this verse actually has reference to the promises, alliances, benefits, honors, etc. [13] We might add that that is exactly what being justified by faith means throughout the N.T. See also Psalms 75:8. And then when any inferior prince wishes to enlarge his borders, or to revenge himself, he willingly puts on arms, nay, anxiously, that he may be able, by the help of a greater, to effect his purpose, which he could not otherwise accomplish. This passage, in which the Prophet condemns the king of Babylon for his usual practice of rendering drunk his friends, is frigidly interpreted by most expounders.