Albert Barnes Commentary Habakkuk 1:4

"Therefore the law is slacked, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore justice goeth forth perverted." — Habakkuk 1:4 (ASV)

Therefore - that is, because God seemed not to awaken to avenge His own cause, people convinced themselves they could continue sinning without punishment. Sin produces sin, and wrong produces wrong; it spreads like an infectious disease, propagating itself, and each to whom it reaches adds to its poison. At last, it reached even those who should be in God’s place to restrain it. The divine law itself is silenced by the power of the wicked, by the sin of the judge, by the hopelessness of all. When all around is evil, even those not yet lost are tempted to think: “Why should I be different from them? What evil befalls them? Why stand alone?”

Even a Psalmist (Psalms 73:15, Psalms 73:12–13) speaks as if tempted to “speak even as they,” saying, These are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they increase in riches; verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. And Solomon (Ecclesiastes 8:11) says, Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

The law is slacked - literally “is chilled” (as we say, “is paralyzed”), through lack of the fire of love. This is what our Lord says (Matthew 24:12): Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

The divine law, the source of all right, being chilled in people’s hearts, “judgment,” that is, the sentence of human justice, as conformed to divine justice, doth never go forth. Human sense of right is powerless when there is not the love of God’s law.

It seems always ready to act, but always falls short, like an arrow from an unstrung bow. A person seems always about to do right; they judge, see, correctly—all but do it—yet, in the end, they always fail. It goes not forth. The children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth (Isaiah 37:3).

For the wicked doth compass about the righteous, laying snares for him, as the Jews did for our Lord; evil is too strong for a weak will to do right, and overpowers it. Pilate sought in many ways to deliver Jesus, yet he finally delivered Christ into their hands.

Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth - literally, “judgment proceedeth wrested.” He had said, doth never go forth; never, that is, in its true character; for, when it does go forth, it is distorted.

Dionysius says: “For gifts or favor or fear or hate the guiltless are condemned and the guilty acquitted, as the Psalmist says (Psalms 82:2), How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the ungodly?”

Theophylact says: “‘Judgment goes forth perverted’ in the seat of human judgment (the soul). This occurs when, bribed by the pleasures of sense, the soul leans to the side of things seen, and the ungodly one—the rebel angel—besets and overpowers the one who has the sense of right. For it is right that things seen should give way to things unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18); for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Why then all this? And how long? Why does God bring it before him—He who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, behold grievance, which His holy eyes could not endure?

Neither the unseen presence of God nor the mission of the prophet serves as a check. If the prophet rebukes, no one listened; if he intercedes for sinners, or against sin, God acted as if He would not hear.

God answers that, though to human impatience the time seems long, judgment will come, and that, suddenly and speedily. While the righteous is inquiring, “How long?” and the wicked is saying (Matthew 24:48), My Lord delayeth His coming, He has come, and is seen in their midst.