---
title: "Commentary on Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai"
author: "John Calvin"
translator: "John Owen"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 52 of 59
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-habakkuk-zephaniah-and-haggai/52/
cite: "John Calvin, tr. John Owen, Commentary on Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai, section 52. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-habakkuk-zephaniah-and-haggai/52/"
---

# Commentary on Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai

*John Calvin, tr. John Owen*

Calvin on Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai.

## 52. Chapter 1

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-habakkuk-zephaniah-and-haggai/52/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-habakkuk-zephaniah-and-haggai/52/#p-N

[¶0] 1 the burden which Habakkuk the Prophet saw:

[¶1] 2 How long, Jehovah, shall I cry, And thou wilt not hear? And cry aloud to thee of violence, And thou wilt not save?

[¶2] 3 Why showest thou me iniquity, And makest me to see trouble? And why are violence and plunder in my sight, And he who excites strife and contention? (19)

[¶3] 4 Therefore dissolved is the law, And judgment does not continually go forth; For the wicked surrounds the just, Therefore go forth does perverted judgment. (21)

[¶4] 5 Look ye among the Gentiles and see, And be astonished, be astonished; For a work will I work in your days, Which ye will not believe, though it be told you:

[¶5] 6 For behold, I will rouse the Chaldeans—A nation bitter and hasty, Which shall march through the breadths of the earth, To possess habitations not its own:

[¶6] 7 Terrible and fearful shall it be, From itself shall its judgment and its dignity proceed:

[¶7] 8 And swifter than leopards shall be its horses, And fiercer than the evening wolves; And numerous shall be its horsemen; And its horsemen from far shall come, They shall fly as an eagle hastening to devour: (30)

[¶8] 9 The whole of it for booty shall come; The aspect of their faces will be like the east-wind; And he will gather captives like the sand:

[¶9] 10 And at kings he will laugh, And princes shall be a scorn to him: Every fortress he will scorn, He will gather dust and take it:

[¶10] 11 Then will he change his spirit, And pass through and act impiously, Ascribing this his power to his god. (37)

[¶11] 12 Art not thou, Jehovah, from the beginning, my God? My holy One! we shall not die: Thou, Jehovah, for judgment hast set him; And thou strong One, for correction hast established him.

[¶12] 13 Pure art thou of eyes, so as not to behold evil, And on trouble thou canst not look:—Why lookest thou on transgressors, And takest no notice, when the ungodly devours One more righteous than himself?

[¶13] 14 Thou makest man like the fish of the sea, Like the reptile, which is without a leader: (46)

[¶14] 15 The whole by his hook will he draw up, Collect into his drag, and gather into his net; He will therefore rejoice and exult: (48)

[¶15] 16 Hence sacrifice will he to his drag, And incense will he offer to his net; For through them fat will be his portion, And his meat will be rich.—

[¶16] 17 Shall he therefore extend his drag, And continue to slay the nations, so as not to spare them?